Roses: A Growing Guide for Easy, Colorful Gardens (Burpee Basics)

Burpee is a widely known and trusted name in the gardening world, and the Burpee Basics series of colorful growing guides to specific plant types is a great reference for novice gardeners. In Roses, Mary C. Weaver clearly presents the necessary information for beginning rose growers: how to select the right roses for your garden, prepare the soil, plant, fertilize, water, and prune. Rose growers have a distinct vocabulary, and the large section on rose varieties contains a helpful glossary to terms used throughout the book. This is also the section most eager readers will turn to first: it's packed with information on the different categories within the four basic classes (old roses, modern roses, shrub roses, and climbers and ramblers) and presents excellent descriptions of 100 rose varieties, with photographs of most. As if anxious not to leave any good candidates out, Weaver also gives lists of additional varieties in each category. A generous resource list in the appendix recommends additional reading and offers North American sources for roses and garden supplies, rose societies, Web sites, and newsletters. Concise, reasonably complete, and easy to use, this is a good first rose book for any rose-loving gardener.