Description
This bundle collects 5 books on the most popular of flowers, Rose:
1. The Book of Roses by Catherine Frances Gore
2. The Rose Manual
3. The Rose Garden
4. Old Roses
5. History of the Rose
1. The Book of Roses by Catherine Frances Gore
Catherine Gore's discovery of the wealth of roses that grew in France when she moved there in 1832 led her to write THE BOOK OF ROSES. She wanted to make French roses accessible to every amateur rose-grower in her native England. To do this she recorded more than 1400 descriptions of roses and an index of 1590 items.
With this book, Catherine Gore opened the entire panorama of roses. Because she was a prolific author accustomed to writing for the public, she was able to take the edge off the sterility of technical terms and to make them comprehensible to amateurs while keeping her descriptions botanically accurate.
The book met with little recognition when it was published in 1838. But later it was valued for the brilliant simplicity of the writing and for the fantastic compendium of all the roses of the day. It is a pleasure to bring it back at prices that rose lovers can afford.
Lรฉonie Bell has added a glowing appre- ciation as well as a welcome clarification, giving the most probable current Latin names that she herself has researched.
A glorious and important book for heritage rose lovers.
2. The Rose Manual
Robert Buist, master gardener, floriculturalist and nurseryman, wrote THE ROSE MANUAL for the neighborhood ladies who patronized his seed store in Philadelphia. This daring project-encouraging the growing of roses by ladies-was planned and written with careful detail as a complete handbook and catalogue for the novice.
Buist believed that anyone could grow roses successfully. He left out nothing; taking his "Ladies" from the first planning and soil preparation to every known method of propagation. He included thorough instructions on hybridizing for the amateur, using his own vast experience and knowledge as the basis for all his descriptions.
THE ROSE MANUAL, first published in 1844, has lost none of its value for today's rosegrower. It has been out of print for years, but the information that Buist so lovingly gathered has been passed down fron generation to generation by his "Ladies". Now this fascinating handbook for the amateur is available once again.
Edith C. Schurr has written a delightful foreword to the new edition, placing Buist in historical perspective and bringing him and his wisdom alive for us today.
3. The Rose Garden
THE ROSE GARDEN is one of the half-dozen great books ever written on roses. William Paul, head of the Cheshunt Nur series, made this book a labor of love. The first edition, of which this reprint is a faithful reproduction, was lavishly produced in 1848.
Paul's handling of the vast subject is precise and his language is a joy to read. Division One of the book is a detailed explanation of the methods which produce good rose gardens. It is dedicated to the amateur gardener, written with simplicity and understanding. Division Two is nothing short of magnificent. Paul describes over 2,000 varieties, placing them in clearly defined classes. His rose descriptions are little gems of literature in themselves. Paul provides charts of the rates of growth to be expected in each of his enumerated categories-guides as valuable to today's rose gardener as they were when he devised them.
Fifteen exquisite color plates by eminent illustrators are the crowning glory of this splendid book. They represent the entire spectrum of rose colors and forms known by the middle of the 19th Century.
Richard Thomson has written a detailed and appreciative new Foreword for this edition which will greatly enhance your enjoyment of this fine book.
4. Old Roses
In 1932 an unknown woman, Mrs. Frederick Love Keays, submitted an article to the American Rose Society Annual and broke the silence that had surrounded old roses for two decades. She published OLD ROSES in 1935 and left her own indelible mark on the subject of heritage roses.
Ethelyn Emery Keays led the way for rose lovers in the U.S. to further our knowledge of the history and propagation of old roses. She had such a clear grasp of the species and classes of 19th Century roses that little of what she wrote needs to be amended forty-four years later. Her ability to popularize the history and botany of the Rose is on a par with such eminent horticultural writers as Wilder, Earle and Jekyll. Regrettably, OLD ROSES has only been available on the antiquarian market at prices too high for most of us.
OLD ROSES is a book of great honesty and thorough research. Its special strength lies in the excellent, lengthy chapters on the early Noisettes, the initial Hybrid perpetuals and the very old Teas, most examples of which seem to have disappeared from the Continent. The fine rose books that have come to us from European writers over the last twenty years are uniformly weak on these three groups.
Lรฉonie Bell has written a loving Fore- word to the new edition and has appended a list of Ethelyn Keays' American Rose Annual articles.
5. History of the Rose
Perhaps the most important reference book on the genus Rosa, Roy E. Shepherd's HISTORY OF THE ROSE has been virtually unobtainable for 20 years. Its republication is therefore an event for students and admirers of the old garden roses.
A brief opening chapter is devoted to a rapid and accurate survey of rose history. The eleven subsequent chapters are devoted to one or more of the main botanical divisions of the genus Rosa; each traces the history of that division and cites the earliest known descriptions and names of the species within the subsection. After each species which has contributed garden varieties, a sampling of the varieties is described, and all known synonyms provided.
The index to HISTORY OF THE ROSE is divided into a "general" index and an index of rose names, the latter listing names not mentioned in the text. Shepherd's descriptions of type characteristics are so clear that an unknown variety can be assigned to its group with a minimum of effort.
How frustrating, then, that the book, perhaps because of its title, never reached its intended audience.
Lily Shohan, who first suggested republishing the book to Earl M. Coleman, has written a sparkling new Foreword.
ISBN:0855014121
