Old-fashioned and David Austin Roses

A gardener-friendly guide to growing roses.

Old-fashioned roses are cherished by gardeners for their timeless beauty, strong fragrance and fascinating history. Growing these roses -- along with their hybrids -- offers gardeners an opportunity to bring history to life. It is enormously gratifying to know that the roses blooming in one's garden were first cultivated by the Empress Josephine or were originally used to cover Cleopatra's bed.

Old-fashioned and David Austin Roses communicates the pure romance of old fashioned roses while demystifying the process of growing them. Contents include:

• History
• Once-flowering old roses
• Repeat-flowering old roses
• David Austin roses
• Cultivation
• Landscaping with old roses
• Diversions: making rose oil, syrup and more

Each section of the book is organized by species and near hybrids. A concise history introduces the cultivars along with a short description that includes date of origin, growing requirements and interesting historical facts. Straightforward advice for planning and growing includes practical tips for feeding, watering, mulching, deadheading, cutting, pruning and minimizing the effects of pests, diseases and cold weather.

There are landscaping instructions for borders and beds, containers, groundcover, rose shrubs, hedges, the woodland garden and climbers. Finally, a rose cookbook includes recipes for creating such ancient concoctions as rose oil/perfume, rose and rhubarb syrup and rose brandy.

Old-fashioned and David Austin Roses is an accessible and essential reference for novice and experienced gardeners.

Barbara Lea Taylor is a freelance writer whose articles regularly appear in a national gardening magazine. This is her third book on old-fashioned roses.

Juliet Nicholas is a photographer and keen gardener. She specializes in garden, landscape, architectural and documentary photography.