Roses For Dummies

by Lance Walheim, Editors of the National Garden Association

"Beginners as well as advanced rose growers will find advice that's abundant and extremely helpful." — Bill Marken, West Coast Editor of Garden Escapes and Former Editor-In-Chief of Sunset Magazine "Roses For Dummies is written as a friend, answering all my puzzling questions and providing easy solutions that are budget friendly." — Jan Weverka, Editor of The Rose Garden Newsletter Features 32 Full-Color Pages of Roses — Plus a Free Six-Month Subscription to National Gardening Magazine Do you dream of growing beautiful, fragrant roses in your yard, on your porch, or in a flower box? With Roses For Dummies ® at your fingertips, you can turn your dreams into reality with tips, techniques, and suggestions for growing roses in any space or climate. Filled with handy illustrations and colorful pages of roses, this fun and friendly reference takes you on a visual journey through the vibrant world of roses. Inside, you'll discover how

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference

360 pages, Paperback

First published February 14, 1997

Reviews

[T. Rose]

I absolutely love this book. I knew nothin' about roses. I live in a house that came with huge old beautiful amazingly fragrant rose bushes. I needed to know about their care because these rose bushes tolerate a lot of abuse and bugs. I want to take care of them and nurture them. I believe this is the book that can help me! I checked this book out from Overdrive. I am going to buy a hard copy for the sake of my roses. They bloom their hearts out for me, so, this book belongs in my home. Yay! 🌹

[Terry]

This is a great book for anyone who doesn't know a thing about roses! It was a great help to us when we planted our first rose bush!

[David]

Lots of great info for a struggling beginning rose gardener. Good book to have on the shelf for sound advice.

[Bernie4444]

This book gave me the courage to be ruthless
You can tell from the other reviews that this book has the strengths and weaknesses of the other Dummies Books.
So I will tell you how this helped me. Twice this book has helped me. First I bought a Lady Banks (Rosa banksiae) rose, I did not realize that they grew VIGOROUSLY and could spread over 20 feet. This was a small area. After reading this in the "Roses for Dummies" book I ran outside ad saw Lady Banks reaching for my cat. Needless to say, she (the rose) was moved to a location where she could go wild. My cat has recovered. The more important thing I learned from this book was that you have to be ruthless when it comes to pruning. Before the book, I snipped and trimmed my floribundas, as any sane person would do with their favorite hedge. Well, it got gnarled and mildewed. So back to the book, I went to find in chapter 19 that the proper way to shear this particular type of rose was under the heading of "The sheer pleasure of pruning floribundas and polyanthus" After that, I did not even need to read the mildew section.
The only dummy is the one that does not buy this book.

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS)]

ROSES FOR DUMMIES is just that: a basic A-Z book for those that are new to growing roses. The middle pages are devoted to some colorful pictures of roses that the author and editors of the National Gardening Association want you to consider. Everything else is in black and white. There is enough information here to digest so don't be put off by the cover.

In many cases the information contained in this book was provided by members of the American Rose Society so you can't go wrong. For those of you who have more experience and want colorful pictures and informative descriptions look for the AMERICAN ROSE SOCIETY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ROSES by Charles and Brigid Quest-Ritson. If there is a rose that still exists you should find it here.

[Sarah Roddis]

Basic and helpful for a beginner like me.