Customer Reviews

Hardy Roses: An Organic Guide to Growing Frost- and Disease-Resistant Varieties

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This book is as useful as a reference as it is lovely to look at. Growing roses at my home in USDA hardiness zone 3 limits choices to a few shrubs found at the local garden center, but 'Hardy Roses' provides well-organized lists of additional choices one can find in catalogs. Want a rose that smells divine? Use the charts that indicate the degree of fragrance. Require disease resistant varieties? The lists tell you which ones are easy to keep healthy. Equally valuable are the lists of catalog suppliers, because chances are, these varieties won't be available at the local outlets. Cultural information is here too, but seems slanted toward shrub rose growers rather than us die-hards determined to grow hybrid teas at any cost in impossible conditions. Along with Ortho's 'All About Roses', 'Hardy Roses' is the most-used of my 20 or so books on roses, and is a very good value. I recommend that after you receive it, keep a dust cover on the paperback version so you can carry it around shopping with you without damaging its pretty cover.

This book inspires cold-climate gardeners to grow roses. The writing is clear and easy to understand and the photos are beautiful. It covers information from where to plant your roses (including a discussion on microclimates) to growing to starting roses from seed and cuttings. It reviews over 100 hardy roses and is written by someone who knows and loves roses. Great for beginners and seasoned rose growers

The author's passion for roses shows on every page. The details on soil, nourishment, planting location, climate are highly valuable. Even creating new roses is covered. The photos and history of every selected plant show lots of devoted research. The listing of Rose nurseries and organizations saves lots of planning time. Love that book.

Although the book features 49 roses (large photos, for the most part, and explicit detail), a list of more than 220 varieties with their attributes and information rounds out an extensive guide to growing roses in places with extreme winter weather.

The photos and large explanatory drawings make this reference stand out from others. The photos are large enough to drool over and the drawings actually serve as a teaching tool, rather than simple decoration. Want a visual reference to siting roses in the most favorable microclimate on your property? A nearly half-page drawing and its caption should do it for you. Would you like a clear and authoritative examination of the various pests who might take interest in roses? They are drawn at many times their size and labeled; the accompanying text will help you learn quickly how (and how hard) to fight back. This is an ORGANIC guide, so the recommendations are effective without being terribly dangerous.

The first section of the book, Flowering of a Dream, addresses landscaping, caring for roses (also known as keeping them alive) over winters, nurturing, the dread diseases and creepy crawlers, and propagation. The detail is sufficient without drowning in verbosity people who would be out in the garden. And the writing, itself, compares favorably with other fine garden writing, which makes the reading enjoyable as well as useful.

The second section, The Varieties: Petals of Light, offers photos and detailed assessment of 49 roses, sorted by type. Here is a reality check for the catalogs we all like to peruse. Lists of hardy varieties and additional lists of nurseries, rose organizations, and other sources complete the section. Finally, there is an entirely adequate table of contents and a very thorough index.

Whether you have relocated, as I did, from a more hospitable horticultural climate or whether you are native to the regions of real winter, you will find a treasure of knowledge in this slender volume. Gift suggestion: if you know a gardener moving to a cold zone, treat her to this lovely book. It's the book I wish I'd had when we first arrived.

This is by far the best book that I have read on growing roses in the cold climates of eastern Canada (Ontario & eastward) and north eastern USA. As I have never grown roses in Canadian prairies or northern midwest USA, I can only give an opinion that I assume most methods in this book would also apply.

There are excellent chapters on wintering, nurturing, insects & diseases, and propagation. These are very complete and apply for the most part to any area of North America where roses would be grown. Viable options are given for combating insects and diseases instead of the usual insecticides and poisons.

There is a very good section on suitable varieties divided into choices for climbers, tall shrubs, semi-vigorous shrubs, low shrubs, and ground covers. If you interested in information on the latest releases, you will find the lists a liitle dated as the book was published in 1991.

The author seems very knowledgeable and the photographer did a great job with the photos.

I would reccommend this book to anyone that is interested in growing roses in northern USA and Canada.

I would like to warn anyone considering purchasing this book, that "Roses for Canadian Gardens' and 'Hardy Roses' are the identical books except for title and publisher.

This book is easy reading and interesting enough to keep you turning the pages to learn more. Work with "Mother Nature" and be pleased with the results.