[.uk] Shrub Roses and Climbing Roses (ISBN 185149166X)

Valuable part of a Rose Book Collection:
David Austin's Old Roses and English Roses is a gem; a little rough cut but still shimmering due to Austin's clear love of the subject. This book strikes one as being a little rougher still. Some of these roses he clearly loves. Others get perfunctory treatment. The section on Hybrid Musk roses is very good - with photos of Cornelia and Buff Beauty stealing the show. The section on species roses really manages to make the point that these shrubby roses warrant a place in many naturalistic gardens. And the section on climbing roses is as good a single treatment of climbers as I've seen in one place. The section on Hybrid Tea roses is the weakest owing to the fairly ugly photos of roses. In some cases the photograph is badly composed; a yellow rose against an orange or tan backdrop. In many cases the rose is perfectly good-looking and the photography crisp and clear. And we come away feeling like we had just eaten at a cheap buffet. Yes it's food. And we got as much as we cared to eat. Yet, one thinks there must certainly be more to good food than this. Perhaps Austin is doing this to reinforce his point that, compared to shrubby roses hybrid teas are generally much less beautiful . If so he's made his point. In any case, quite a large portion of the hybrid tea roses he's chosen to discuss are still popular almost twenty years after the publication of this book. Austin is not as lyrical as GS Thomas. And occasionally his narrative wanders a bit. But he has excellent taste and the photographs convey they beauty of the subject. Occasionally, he is even funny: speaking of Rambling Rector: 'Rose names are not expected to amuse, but here we have an exception' In another review I write that Botannica's Roses may be the only rose book you own, owing to its encyclopedic scope. Yet it seems to me that if one is seeking aesthetic guidance this book and its companion Old Roses and English Roses are among the best to be found. And GS Thomas Rose Book. I have considerably less confidence in the aesthetic judgements of rose writers StateSide.