Customer Reviews

A Year of Roses

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A year of Roses is an excellent reference book for rose gardeners of all varieties. The author conveniently breaks the book down in chapters by month. This allows one to quickly reference what should be done at a certain time of year. I read this book one chapter a month over the course of the year and my roses were the beneficiary. It is certain that I will refer back to this book frequently for years to come. I give this book my highest recommendation.

Stephen Scanniello's love for the rose comes across in the way he cares for his roses. His book is neither a coffee table book or a "dry" instructional tome. This is a book you take out in the garden with you. You and Stephen pratice together what is going to make your rose garden look like you always wanted it to be.

Jack M. Bilson Jr. Consulting Rosarian

Well written guide to caring for roses - how to prune; graft; fertilize; steal cuttings. Written by the Brooklyn Botanical garden director. He has published some excellent guides to roses (maybe other plants too, don't remember).
Worth having - I borrowed from library about 4 times before I bought my own well used copy.

I am half way through this book. It is a delightful, helpful read about the planting and maintenance of roses throughout the year. The book has many helpful tips and fresh information that gives me confidence in having roses. In addition, each chapter includes, at the end, helpful links and suggested rose-related organizations to join and/or support. My only disappointment is that the author did not include a comprehensive list of recommended roses.

A month by month look at tasks and related information important to growing and enjoying roses. Scanniello, a prolific writer on the subject, includes some esoteric and often charming advice. Recommended reading for anyone wishing to add to their expertise, whatever their current level...

Wonderful,very informative. I could hardly put this book down. I will continue to use Stephen's information each month as a reference for my rose garden. I would highly recommend this book to advanced as well as beginner rose enthusiast.

Thank you for writting a book that makes it easy for the beginner to have beautiful Roses!

I'm not a rose nut, but I've raised or tried raising roses in many locations (New Jersey, New Delhi, Copenhagen, Rhode Island), with several approaches (Bayer's all in one fertilizer/control, rosetone only, miracle grow, horse manure and mulch). Scanniello's book is by far the best book I've read on roses. He organizes it by month, what you need to be doing or thinking about every month of the year if you enjoy growing roses. It is the most logical, least 'cranky' approach I've seen. It also is written by a real writer who just loves everything about roses. Scanniello's love and enthusiasm about every aspect of managing a big rose garden comes across to any one who enjoys these plants, and wants to be a better rose grower.

A lot of rose books are either way too technical and not able to explain why something is important, or they are picture books of impossibly perfect plants being displayed by professional growers. This is a beautiful book written with a life time of experience and lifetime of teaching how to get the best from your roses. It is the only rose book I would recommend, and I would recommend it to beginners or 'experts.' It's like having a wise patient friend right at hand for those days or summers when your roses just drive you nuts.

Oh, Amzon's price was a third of the books cost in Barnes and Noble, I used the free shipping option and no sales tax. This was a great deal and it arrived in four days.

As a mainly vegetable grower I slowly became interested in roses after attending a lecture by Mr Scanniello. As I listened to him and later read his book I learned of the amount of hard work involved in maintenance, the battles with numerous bugs and diseases, the rose growers' obsessions to achieve a decent rose, and I was almost put off.
So for the time being I have decided to renovate the sad looking roses I already have before buying any new ones. I found the book especially useful as the information is categorized by the month. If I am successful it will be due mainly to Mr Scanniello.
The only one annoyance I have with my edition is that it is full of typos. I hope future edition will have removed them, as they are a poor reflection on this remarkable book.

I originally borrowed this book from my public library. It is usually my practice to make a few notes in a garden notebook that I keep from the various books on roses that I come across. When I borrowed this one, I began with the November chapter (since it's the month we're currently in). Within a few pages, I knew there was far too much information to even consider giving the thing back to the library. And they seem to frown at taking a highlighter to their books. Sooo... I bought my own. I have several "beginner" rose books, including "Roses for Dummies", Ortho's rose book, and Jackson and Perkins book on rose gardening, and am a member of the American Rose Society. I've checked out every book on rose gardening that my library has. Though it doesn't have the pretty glossy photographs that other rose books have, "A Year of Roses" has more hard core information per page than any other rose book I've seen. If you're ready to get past the beginner stage, or really just want to start off right, I would reccommend this book as a must have, along with an ARS membership ([...] Their magazine is awesome - part of the membership benefits). My great appreciation to Stephen Scanniello!