BOOK REVIEW: THE QUEST FOR THE ROSE
One of my favorite horticultural subjects is roses and I have lots of books on them. In Search of Lost Roses, Thomas Christopher’s 2002 book on “rose rustling” and the discovery of old rose varieties in out-of-the-way places, is one of the best. Another is A Rose by Any Name, written by Douglas Brenner and Steven Scanniello and published in 2009. The book is a great resource and a good read, full of stories about all kinds of roses and the people, places and things for whom they were named.
No rose library would be complete without some of the works of Graham Stuart Thomas, the great British rosarian. The volume I have, The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book, is a 1994 compendium of three older books on old and new shrub and climbing roses. It is illustrated with Thomas’ own botanical watercolors, which are glorious all by themselves.
But the best rose book by far is The Quest for the Rose by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix. Published in 1993 and still widely available in libraries and through used booksellers connected to the major book retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, it is a classic that every rose lover should own.
Phillips and Rix have collaborated on many books, each of which has been distinguished by gorgeous photography and first-rate scholarship and information. Phillips, who was originally trained as an artist, is the principal photographer. Earlier in his career—which now spans decades—he made a major contribution to the field of horticultural photography by photographing plants and plant parts against a neutral background, arranged much as they were in old florilegia. This technique is used throughout the book and is part of what makes it so beautiful.
Martyn Rix is a botanist and longtime author, who is has been affiliated with the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley, as well as serving as editor of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, a classic illustrated gardening periodical that has been published continuously for well over a century.
Rix and Phillips logged thousands of miles of travel for The Quest for the Rose, hunting down the origins of rose culture in China, galumphing around the western United States in search of old “cemetery roses” and making stops in Australia and New Zealand to track the spread of rose culture in those countries.
The book would be worth owning for the photographs alone, but there is so much more. The authors start out with history, from earliest fossil evidence of rose culture through modern times, with detours to wonderful places, like the French Empress Josephine’s celebrated garden at Malmaison.
From history the authors proceed to travelogue, as they track down the species roses that are the ancestors of all ancient and modern cultivars. The sections on China, a cradle of rose diversity, whose history of rose culture is critical to understanding the development of modern roses, are fascinating.
Interspersed throughout the book are stories of prominent rose breeders, past and present. I find it interesting to track connections among rose breeders. For example, long ago, I interviewed the widow and daughter of Professor Griffith Buck, a mid-twentieth century rose breeder and faculty member at Iowa State University. Buck, who bred scores of tough, beautiful roses in his career, started on that path as a teenager after reading about Spanish rose breeder Pedro Dot (1885-1976), who is profiled by Phillips and Rix.
Contemporary rose lovers are not forgotten, as the authors spotlight hundreds of cultivars from around the world. These are sometimes photographed in Phillips’ “florilegium” style, but more often pictured on the bush in garden situations. In most instances, information about various varieties’ parentage is also given. Because of the book’s publication date, you will not find varieties introduced during the last twenty years, but many traditional favorites like ‘Double Delight’, ‘Sterling Silver’ and ‘Peace’ are there in all their glory.
Don’t let the lack of new cultivar information stop you from buying The Quest for the Rose. The Internet can supply all the information you need on newer varieties. For help on that score, go to http://www.helpmefind.com/roses.
The Quest for the Rose is, in short, a rose lover’s dream, combining excellent scholarship, gorgeous illustrations, an accessible format and a wealth of description and information. I think even confirmed rose haters might soften their attitudes after reading it. Those of us in the opposite camp will thumb the pages and fall in love with roses all over again.