In Search of Lost Roses [Import] [Hardcover]

Thomas Christopher (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury (1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747530092
• ISBN-13: 978-0747530091
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,220,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ~a life-long collector of garden writing says...~, March 26, 2002

By 

_willow_11_ (The Rocky Mountains of Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of Lost Roses (Hardcover)

There are few books in my gardening library so excellent I buy extra copies; miserly dealt out only to The Worthy. One of them is In Search Of Lost Roses.

In Search Of Lost Roses is a romp. A detective story. We are outlaws. We skulk through forgotten cemeteries. We drive old dirt roads. We meet eccentric old folks over garden gates, guardian angels of roses whose scent we will remember all our lives; things foreign to hybridizers in white lab coats.

I defy you to read this book and ~not~ acquire at least one of the old roses lauded within. My first choice was 'Aimee Vibert', a climbing noisette from 1828. England and France have an ancient horticultural feud. French nurseryman J.P. Vibert named his fragrant white masterpiece after his daughter. (As an aside: hunt plants with a woman's name. Only the best plants were named after wives, daughters, and mistresses.) Vibert said of his delicate climber "The English when they see her will go down on their knees." As I did and still do. For the three weeks she blooms on the arbor she is the goddess of the garden. She has a magnetizing effect on garden visitors and I tell them the story and say the punchline in my Inspector Clouseau accent. It is a testament to Mlle. Vibert that 200 years later she is still enchanting, passed down gardener to gardener. I never would have known her without In Search Of Lost Roses.

You will never forget this book. But buy it for the rose rustler's cutting recipe alone, if you will. With it I rooted cuttings from a fragrant and summer-long unknown in an ancient cemetery (I gave her the name of the lady she was planted over) after two years of trying other methods. And buy two. Perhaps someone you know is worthy. 5 Stars for Mr. Christopher.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Few gardening books like this one, May 2, 2003

By 

Tim Warneka "Leadership Expert, Keynote Speak... (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Search of Lost Roses (Paperback)

For me, Gardening is about feeding my soul with beauty. If you are weary from reading the countless "how-to" gardening books that fill the shelves of the bookstore, then I would highly recommend this book.

Did you know that public parks evolved historically from cemeteries? Read this book to find out more.

And, no doubt, as other reviewers have noted, you will go out and find yourself one of these roses after reading their story.

Great book! :-)

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delight for rose lovers, and a fun read for anyone, September 23, 2003

By 

P. Lozar "plozar" (Santa Fe, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Search of Lost Roses (Paperback)

My family has a long-standing love affair with roses: a "Belle of Portugal" that my grandmother planted in the 1920's has been passed down through several generations. So I found this book utterly delightful, full of fascinating anecdotes about old varieties of roses, the characters who developed and distributed them, and the even wilder characters who "rustle" and propagate old roses with passion and gusto today. The chapters are thematic and geographical, rather than historical, but they're immensely fun to read. I learned all sorts of amazing historical trivia -- e.g., why the Grass Valley, CA public library owns a Cornish/English dictionary, and the political aspects of rose nomenclature. And, as someone interested in "heirloom" plants in general (I'm a card-carrying member of Slow Food), I found his discussion of rose genetics and propagation fascinating. Some of his stories are poignant, too -- e.g., the elderly black women in rural Texas who propagated roses over the centuries from sheer love, but were dying out even as he wrote. I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and recommend it even if you're not an old rose buff.