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Dr. Leda's Rose Journal Archive |
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From Pouty Lips to Picket Fences:
Dr. Leda's Favorite Rose Books
By Dr. Leda Horticulture, O. R.
November 2003
Are you looking for the perfect gift for that rose maniac on your list? Or trying to find an amusing way to wile away the winter while your roses are sleeping? Dr. Leda reviews three of her all-time favorite rose books...
Free Desktop Roses!
| Beginning this month, all subscribers to Dr. Leda's Rose Journal get free roses for their (virtual) desktop. This month, we have a beautiful picture of Brass Band, a Floribunda in a alluring apricot gold. The picture is available in various sizes to fit your desktop. |  |
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| How to Pronounce French Rose Names, by Diana Bellucci (Luminosa Publishing, 2002) |
How to Pronounce French Rose Names, by Diana Bellucci (Luminosa Publishing, 2002)
Ghislaine de Féligonde, Jeanne LaJoie, Boule
de Neige, Sombreuil.
Have you ever felt nervous about saying these rose names
in public?
I used to suffer from a traumatic recurring nightmare. I'd be standing at a podium in front of ten thousand members of Le Paris Association de Rose Snobs, mangling French rose names like a yahoo on Yoo-hoo. "SOM-broil!" I would shout idiotically into the microphone. "JEE-knee La JOY! Bowel dee NYE-gee!" Needless to say, the stony-faced and possibly armed French rose snobs would not be amused.
But since Diana Bellucci's compact field guide to correct pronunciation has landed in my hot little hands, my nightmares have ceased and my confidence has soared. She not only makes saying French names easy, she makes it fun.
Let's try one, shall we? How about Thérèse Bugnet. (You already know it's not Ter-EE-see BUG-net, right? Right.)
Ok, be careful now, that French "U" sound is going to be tricky, kind of a cross between the "ew" in chew and the "oo" in mood. You'll need to purse your lips in that adorable pouty manner that French women have elevated to a high art. And the "R" is made at the back of the throat, like a stifled gargle. There are no stressed or accentuated syllables; just follow the simple rule that a slight emphasis always goes on the last syllable of a word or group of words.
Ready? Repeat after me: tay-rehz bew-neeyeh. Very good! Purse those lips a little more on the "bew," don't be shy! Gargle! Pout! Oui, oui!
And as if this wasn't enough fun for one afternoon, the book goes above and beyond its title to include German rose names as well. We learn not to fear the Umlaut, and how to make that startling "hkh" sound in the backs of our throats. We are no longer intimidated by such monikers as Dornröschenschloss Sababurg or Freisinger Morgenröte.
The clever Diana Bellucci has also published a companion volume titled How To Pronounce French, German, and Italian Wine Names. Wouldn't this pair make a thoughtful stocking stuffer for any insecure bons vivants you may know!
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| Foolproof Guide to Growing Roses, by Field Roebuck (Creative Homeowner, 2001) |
Foolproof Guide to Growing Roses, by Field Roebuck (Creative Homeowner, 2001)
Don't you just love that name, "Field Roebuck"? Someday I'm going to write a romance novel, and my bodice-ripping hero will be named Field Roebuck. I keep this beautiful book out on my coffee table, and without fail, female visitors pick it up and immediately flip to the back, searching for a photograph of the seductively named author. Alas, there is none, so we fair damsels are left to wallow in our own fantasies.
But I honestly can't think of anything else that's missing from this excellent, informative book.
The real Field Roebuck, who lives in Dallas, is a geological engineer, an accomplished horticulturist, a professional writer and photographer, and a hopelessly obsessed rose maniac. I've only had the pleasure of meeting this Renaissance Man virtually, in online gardening forums where he generously shares his impressive expertise.
I quickly learned two things about Field: one, he's astonishingly, spectacularly intelligent; and two, he's a fastidious stickler for accuracy and truth. He has no patience whatsoever for gardening myths, superstitions, or anecdotal claims that aren't backed by solid, reputable scientific research.
So when I first heard Field had a rose book coming out, I had no doubt it would be thorough and sound. But frankly I was concerned that it might be just the teeniest bit dry and academic, and that I might find myself enrolling in expensive correspondence courses at MIT as I struggled to interpret pages of dense, complicated engineerese.
My worries were completely unfounded.
The prose is clear, concise, and easy to read: in short, foolproof. The tone is sensible and straightforward, yet enthusiastic and peppered with wit. And the photography is truly a joy to behold. This isn't meant to be a comprehensive rose encyclopedia, but it has tempting (and of course accurate) color photos galore.
There are substantial, helpfully illustrated sections on pruning techniques, soil amendment, companion plants, rose types, pests and diseases, and propagation. Since this book isn't published by a major pesticide company, Field has free rein to disclose his recipe for mixing the famous Cornell Formula, an effective, environmentally-friendly spray comprising safe inexpensive ingredients. And of course he cites the Cornell University research backing its efficacy.
I always recommend the Foolproof Guide to absolute bare-bones rose beginners because it's one of the best cover-all-bases starter books I've seen, but salty old pros will find it invaluable as well. And if all you want to do is drool over the pictures on cold winter nights, it's still a satisfying tome. This one is definitely a must-have for every respectable rose reference library.
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| Landscape With Roses: Gardens, Walkways, Arbors, Containers; by Jeff Cox (The Taunton Press, 2002). |
Landscape With Roses: Gardens, Walkways, Arbors, Containers; by Jeff Cox (The Taunton Press, 2002).
You have a choice: You can go into any bookstore and spend over a thousand dollars on over-sized coffee-table rose books that show you how to landscape Sissinghurst, or Giverny, or Blenheim Palace. Or, you can buy this useful book for $19.78 and spend the other $980 on roses, using Jeff Cox's creative suggestions to beautify your own yard.
I love this book, and not just because it's a pure pleasure hit for an unrepentant color junkie. I love it because it's all about using ordinary roses to landscape the typical, humble, suburban-sized yard. This is important to me, as I seem to have descended from an entirely wrong line of Churchills. I don't have turrets to cover, or a 500-acre folly-studded park to fill. I just need fresh ideas for the picket fence and that little island bed around my mailbox.
In addition to hundreds of glorious photos of roses used creatively in the landscape, Cox has included the world's clearest, most detailed instructions for training roses to climb on any imaginable surface or structure. These alone would be worth the price of the book.
Unless you're the Duke of Marlborough, I'd say the choice is a no-brainer. Grab a copy of Landscape With Roses, and design yourself the garden of your dreams!
Dr. Leda Horticulture, O. R. (Obsessive Roseologist) aka Elizabeth Churchill, is a rosarian who worked for eight years at nurseries in the San Francisco Bay Area. She recently retired and moved to a beautiful old Victorian in southern Louisiana. If she told you how much room she has for new roses, you would hate her.
Copyright © 2003 Regan Nursery All Rights Reserved
