Random House Book of Roses

When I first got this book I wasn't impressed with its layout. However, after using it and other reference books for 9 months I find it has the BEST photography for clarity when identifying a rose and it has roses listed that are not in other reference books. I've been able to identify some "mystery roses" because of the excellent and very natural appearance of the roses photographed. It's been an excellent reference source and I highly recommend it.

Learning about roses from what's available in your local garden centers or through the major rose suppliers' catalogues doesn't even HINT at the incredible diversity of types of roses. This is a book to fire the imagination and open the eyes to extraordinary possibilities. The 1400 rose photographs are wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The book uses a seldom seen and tremendously useful technique, in some cases, to show you roses of a certain category all laid out in a single perfect photograph. If you want, for example, a yellow rose, then its so useful to see them all together to compare and contrast their blooms. If appearance is a strong criteria in your rose selection and you'd like something besides the frequently average roses the commercial rose people are pushing, take a look at this book!

If you are looking for a book which will allow you to see many different kinds of roses, this is it. This book is packed with pictures of roses. An added bonus is that these pictures are not "perfect" pictures of roses - the roses are pictured as they would appear in your garden. Many are shown in all stages of bloom, from bud to full blown rose. There is a very interesting section on the history of roses, and many wild roses are shown growing in their countries of origin. The only thing I didn't care for about this book is that the roses are not arranged alphabetically within their divisions. However, use of the index makes it easy to look up any rose you might have in mind. This is a great book to dream over during the winter!