Product Description

A new edition of this A-Z guide to the world’s favourite flower, from the experts at the RHS From the Barkarole to the Moonbeam, discover everything you need to know about roses with this definitive A-Z guide to over 2,000 species. Every one is thoroughly catalogued with detailed descriptions; from the size of their flowers and their scent, to growing habits, cultivation, breeding and name origins. Keep your roses blooming following practical advice on care, cultivation and the latest growing techniques. Plus an introduction on rose history, anatomy, special gardens and the breeding of new varieties makes this the ultimate reference for every rose enthusiast.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127266 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 448 pages

Customer Reviews

Definitely a bed of roses
This book is for you if you own a battered copy of Peter Beales' Classic Roses and, dare I say it, is actually better. Thorough, convincing and with excellent photographs, it also has very useful information on such details as the size of flowers, type of scent, and width as well as height of the plant. Habit (gangly, compact, etc.), disease resistance and preferred growing conditions are given in almost all--but not all!--cases. The text is very well laid out with varieties and species listed in alphabetical order and occasional historical digressions. Nowhere else will you find so many photographs of old roses, so it's also a sumptuous feast for any reader with some interest in roses; very good value for money. My only quibble is that not all known varieties are described.

A disappointed RHS fan
This was such a disappointing book and well below my expectations. I had previously bought the RHS A - Z encyclopedia of Garden Plants whcih is a first class reference book, beautifully produced and presented.

The RHS encyclopedia of roses falls well short of those standards in terms of its overall production, presentation and content. Quite extra ordinarily, bearing in mind this is an RHS book, the descriptions of the roses fail to even indicate those roses that have an RHS Award for Garden Merit!

All rather disappointing.

RHS Encyclopedia of Roses
RHS Encyclopedia of Roses

This book contains wonderful photos and descriptions of hundreds of roses in an A-Z format with great technical information and the authors' years of experience clearly shows through. For the experienced gardener this is an invaluable source book for selecting and caring for even the rarest of roses.

However, I was disappointed that, unlike other RHS Encyclopedias & guidebooks, there wasn't more in the way of planting guides and suggestions rather than just A-Z name format, which would have made it much more accessible to a wider audience. This book would be a lot more helpful for the non rose-expert if it also contained planting guides for different planting situations (North/East/South/West, full-shade, soil types, problem places, etc.) and also a type and colour reference guide. Also some of the rose names are now out of date and/or synonyms are missing.

That said, this may not be the best choice for a novice, but for the more experienced gardener it is a great reference and source book.