‘Fascinating...I’ll never look at a rose in quite the same way again.’ Adrian Tinniswood The rose is bursting with meaning. Over the centuries it has come to represent love and sensuality, deceit, death and the mystical unknown. Today the rose enjoys unrivalled popularity across the globe, ever present at life’s seminal moments. Grown in the Middle East two thousand years ago for its pleasing scent and medicinal properties, it has become one of the most adored flowers across cultures, no longer selected by nature, but by us. The rose is well-versed at enchanting human hearts. From Shakespeare’s sonnets to Bulgaria’s Rose Valley to the thriving rose trade in Africa and the Far East, via museums, high fashion, Victorian England and Belle Epoque France, we meet an astonishing array of species and hybrids of remarkably different provenance. This is the story of a hardy, thorny flower and how, by beauty and charm, it came to seduce the world.

“A fascinating and informative book for anyone who loves roses but wants to avoid spraying them with toxic chemicals” (The American Gardener). A winner of the World Federation of Roses Literary Award, this work brings together experts from around the world to inform gardeners about developments in the new, irresistible—yet long overdue—trend toward creating environmentally friendly and enduring rose gardens, with “sustainability” as the key. The queen of flowers, the rose—by presidential declaration, America’s National Floral Emblem—was initially left behind as “green consciousness” and the concept of sustainability took hold among the gardening public. But the rose is now making up for lost time. From the workshops of breeders—both in the United States. and abroad—a new generation of disease-resistant and low-maintenance rose varieties has emerged in the last decade to fill popular demand. In this book, you will learn how to make your own sustainable rose garden. With thirty-eight lavishly illustrated articles and descriptions of the best new—as well as old—rose varieties designed for the sustainable rose garden, this is a must-have book for today’s new generation of avid but environmentally conscious gardeners. “Finally, we have a book that addresses the notion of growing roses in an environmentally friendly manner . . . Nothing about sustainable rose culture has been presented as well as it has been in this book.” —Pacific Horticulture Society