Smith & Hawken: 100 English Roses for the American Garden (Smith & Hawken)

WIFE OF BATH, THE REEVE, GERTRUDE JEKYLL, and the beloved CONSTANCE SPRY

Growing more popular every year, English Roses (often called David Austin Roses, after the hybridizer who created them) combine the charming, open-flowering habit and deep fragrance of Old Garden Roses with the continuous bloom and color range of Modern Hybrids.

Here, in a book focused exclusively on the needs of North American gardeners, is a complete guide to selecting, planting, feeding, pruning, and caring for 100 English Roses. It includes full-color photographs throughout, plus a source guide, a list of public gardens displaying English Roses, and an index of cultivars by color.

The rose has always been a popular flower; ancient Romans, Egyptians, Greeks, and Chinese cultivated rose gardens and used the blooms in festivals and funerals. Yet the roses we grow today have generally been in existence for less than a century, and English roses--in spite of the traditional-sounding name--have all been developed since the 1950s by rosarian David Austin in an effort to combine the fragrance and beauty of old roses and the frequent blooming habit of modern hybrids. 100 English Roses for the American Garden presents those English roses best suited to the diverse North American climate. As the curator of rose collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, author Clair G. Martin knows his roses. With a large section devoted to general rose care (mulching, composting, container growing, and cutting) and individual pages (each, of course, depicting a single perfect rose) detailing the availability, stature and habit, usage, and disease susceptibility of each variety in various climates, this is an enjoyable and useful introduction to a fragrant subject.