- Paperback
- Publisher: Avon Books; Reprint edition (31 Dec 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0380719878
- ISBN-13: 978-0380719877
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,827,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
This title explores the re-appearance of the so-called "old roses" which vanished when the first hybrid rose was cultivated in 1867. This text looks at the story behind their re-appearnce, at the flowers that have persisted for centuries, and at the experts who united to rescue them.
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First Sentence
"IT'S VERY ANNOYING, I find, after all these years for people not to put things right." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
"IT'S VERY ANNOYING, I find, after all these years for people not to put things right." Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Lots of rose books tell you nothing new. But this one, rambling from subject to subject, is different: it is very personal, well-informed and highly readable.
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13 reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
~a life-long collector of garden writing says...~
26 Mar 2002
Format: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
Few gardening books like this one
2 May 2003
Format: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
A delight for rose lovers, and a fun read for anyone
23 Sep 2003
Format: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.
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