The Art of Gardening with Roses

Book excerpt: Graham Stuart Thomas stands alone as the world's pre-eminent rose gardener. In this unique presentation he focuses on the uses of a variety of garden plants--flowering and nonflowering--with which to create enduring garden designs that rescue roses from the stiff formality of most ornamental gardens. Here, Mr. Thomas employs the lessons of the magnificent garden at Mottisfont Abbey, first created by him in 1972 and extended in the 1980s, to demonstrate thrilling design choices and methods of lengthening the flowering seasons open to any alert gardener. As Henry Mitchell, the Washington Post's distinguished horticulturist, puts it: "It was Thomas who launched the revival of interest in roses long out of commerce...He found many of the unheard-of nineteenth-century roses at Bobbink and Atkins Nursery in New Jersey and the old Lester and Tillotson Nursery in California. The authority of Graham Stuart Thomas is by no means limited to roses. He writes authoritatively on perennials, garden design, the grouping of plants, on groundcovers and much else...Few gardeners are so catholic or such connoisseurs." The present book is a glorious display--in words and color illustrations--of Mr. Thomas's gardens, providing an education for the reader in the design of his own garden. Photographs show roses close up and in garden settings with complementary plants that extend the flowering season of the gardens into the late fall. The author explores the origins of the roses selected and explains how he has employed their particular qualities in his designs. He includes a checklist to assist gardeners who wish to re-create these sumptuous plant combinations.