Gardening with Old Roses [Paperback]

The rose is one of the most popular and celebrated of flowers and the beautiful, old-fashioned varieties featured in this book never lose their charm. Gardening with Old Roses is an essential companion for all those gardeners who love old-fashioned roses, but who need guidance on how best to use and care for them.

John Scarman helps you recreate the style and joys of rose gardens such as those planted by Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville West. He gives ideas for planting roses as they used to be, with other herbaceous plants, and shows how to prune them and keep them healthy.

Featuring:

Directory of Old Roses – a beautifully illustrated catalogue describing 130 of the finest old roses and their planting uses
• Designing with Old Roses – covers all the elements of design involved in planning a rose garden and in using roses in beds, border, arches, pergolas and arbours
• Companion Planting – creative ideas for stunning plant associations with old roses, including climbers, spire-flowered plants and dramatic foliage plants to offset roses
• Caring for Old Roses – all the information you need on pruning, spraying, planting and transplanting, and soils and fertilisers

Both practical and inspirational, this book is the most comprehensive available on the subject.

The rose is one of the most popular and celebrated of flowers and recent years have seen a revival of interest in cottage garden-varieties, with their scent and full-petalled flowers. ' Gardening with Old Roses' is an essential companion for all those who recognise the charms of these old fashioned varieties but need guidance on how best to use and care for them.

In this book, illustrated with over 200 glorious colour photographs, John Scarman helps you to re-create the style and the joys of earlier gardens, such as those planted by influential gardeners like Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville West. He gives ideas for planting roses as they used to be, with other herbaceous plants and herbs, and shows how to prune them and keep them healthy.

• ' Directory of Old Roses' This beautifully illustrated catalogue describes 130 of the finest old roses and their planting uses. It covers old shrub roses – including Gallicas, Albas, Damasks, Mosses, Centifolias, Bourbons, Chinas and Polyanthas – climbers and ramblers, as well as some modern shrub and species roses.
• 'Designing with Old Roses' covers all the elements of design involved in planning a rose garden and in simply using roses in beds and borders. it includes rose hedges as well as roses on walls, arches, pergolas and arbours. Detailed planting plans and full-colour illustrations show four different rose gardens designed by John Scarman.
• 'Companion Planting' gives creative ideas for stunning plant associations with old roses: for complementary climbers; perennial partners to create drifts of colour; spire-flowered plants and dramatic foliage plants to offset roses.
• 'Caring for Old Roses' has all the information you will ever need on pruning, on spraying against pests and diseases, on soils and fertilisers and on planting and transplanting. Illustrated by step-by-step photographs of pruning, this chapter includes the creation of a rose arch and the maintenance of a rose hedge.

At the same time practical and inspirational,' Gardening with Old Roses' is the most comprehensive book on the subject of old-fashioned roses. With its evocative photographs and illustrations, it will appeal to rose lovers everywhere as well as to owners of cottage gardens and indeed all gardening enthusiasts.