Rose Basics: A Step-By-Step Guide to Growing, Training & General Care

Provides instructions on choosing and buying roses; planting; propagating and pruning; coping with pests; and designing gardens, and describes the characteristics of popular varieties

Here is everything a gardener needs to know when starting a rose garden. Beales begins with an explanation of family groups, dividing the genus into shrub roses, modern bedding roses, climbers and ramblers, and standard roses. There are chapters on garden design; choosing, buying, and planting; pruning and training; and soils and feeding. Beales also offers advice on pest and disease control and propagation. In the final chapter, the author suggests roses for particular situations, such as shade, poor soil, or space limitations. This handy guide contains color photographs on almost every page. George Cohen

Long neglected, antique roses with their extravagantly blowzy flowers, quite unlike the tight-petaled blooms of their modern cousins, hybrid teas, are deservedly enjoying renewed popularity. These two titles by British rosarians are evidence of this trend. Scarman, owner of an English nursery that specializes in old-fashioned varieties, presents a beautifully illustrated directory of 150 roses as well as chapters on plant design, companion planting (with examples of innovative combinations), and basic care. Although Beales, a commercial rose grower and daughter of renowned old-rose specialist Peter Beales, intended her Rose Basics as a general guide to growing all types of roses, she features many heirloom roses worthy of cultivation. Particularly useful is the chapter on roses for difficult conditions, such as shade and poor soil; such information is often neglected in basic rose culture guides. Because both of these titles were written for a British audience, they lack specific critical advice for American gardeners, i.e., appropriate rose selection and care for the highly diverse climatic regions of the United States. For such information, readers should turn to Rayford Reddell's A Year in the Life of a Rose: A Guide to Growing Roses from Coast to Coast (LJ 11/15/96) or Judith McKeon's Encyclopedia of Roses: An Organic Guide to Growing America's Favorite Flower (LJ 9/1/95). Nevertheless, these new titles should be included in general gardening collections.ABrian Lym, City Coll. Lib. of San Francisco
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