Today, I get to share a gorgeous book with you, The English Roses by David Austin. If you love roses, you have certainly heard of David Austin, the creator of English Roses and owner of one of the world’s leading rose nurseries, David Austin Roses. Whether you know of him or not, you’re in for a treat.
This is a sumptuous book, full of gorgeous photographs as well as essential information. It’s divided into three sections: Part One – The Origins and Nature of an English Rose; Part Two – A Gallery of English Roses; Part Three – English Roses in the Future and Rose Cultivation.
You’ll read about the rose and its ancestors, the qualities of an English Rose, the first English Roses, along with a host of helpful information.
Yes, I’d like a garden exactly like this one, please.
Part of the Gallery of English Roses.
This is in hardcover, 319 pages of beautiful photos and essential information. It is large – perfect for your coffee table.
I love roses, though I do battle with them every year! This book is a gem and I’m so enjoying what it has to offer, not the least of which is its sheer beauty.
One of you lucky readers will win a copy of this book. Just leave your name on this post and I’ll pick a winner on Tuesday night. Good luck!
Thank you again to Firefly Books for so generously sending me these gardening books and, in equally generous fashion, sending a copy to one of my readers. Beautifully done.
One of my readers mentioned that she received a questionable email from me. I’m assuming it’s from an earlier hack. If you get one, let me know what email it originated from. And don’t open it, of course.
Happy Saturday.
It looks like a beautiful book and I’m excited to get a copy.
I have 14 rose bushes in my back yard.
This book would be wonderful to have. I love Roses so much!
Hugs!
It’s a beautiful morning here…I’ve only had gardening thoughts so far. I used to have lots of roses…the deer ate them. Can you even believe! They would eat the flowers..,leave the thorns. But, a girl can dream! Thanks as always for the chance! Enjoy your day! ;)
The book looks gorgeous, Claudia, but omit my name from the drawing. I’m trying to de-clutter and someone else can enjoy the book. I have one rose in a pot in the backyard and it’s doing so well. I just prunes it down and there’s already new growth. I want to add more to my collection!
I love roses. In my hot climate with either too much or too little rainfall, I have the most success with Earthkind roses. I have one David Austin though and drool over pictures of English rose gardens.
Wow! What a gorgeous book. Thank you for the opportunity to win.
Hi Claudia. I love my David Austin Roses. Thankyou so much for hosting this lovely giveaway. Xxx julie
Looks like a lovely book. Hope you have a good weekend.
The weather should be getting warmer. Happy spring.
What a gorgeous book! Love roses, but do not have them growing where I currently live. Years ago, I purchased a pitiful looking bare root specimen destined for the garbage bin. It thanked me by producing the most beautiful huge pink blossoms I have ever seen. It also had some of the most vicious thorns I had ever seen!I read a quote once about some people being sad roses have thorns, while others are thankful thorns have roses :-) I had several people stop to admire the roses and I always shared a bloom with them. That property had been maintained by the town’s doctor back in the early 1900’s. A local history buff shared with me that the doctor was known for always having a fresh rosebud on his lapel every day. Unfortunately, throughout the years the many rose bushes said to have grown on the property were not around when we moved in. One afternoon, a car with out of state tags pulled into my drive and a gentleman introduced himself as the doctor’s grandson. He just happened to drive by to have a look at his grandparents old place. He was also sad to see none of his grandfather’s rose bushes had survived, but we both agreed perhaps his grandfather’s spirit was giving assistance to the beautiful pink bush I had rescued and planted.
I will also have one of those gorgeous English cottage gardens, if you please! My planting style has always been “unique”—what I like to call hickety pickety–no straight rows for me. I have a friend who studied and earned his degree in landscape architecture. He was always commenting on how I could put flowers together in a way he never thought about. Truth be told, I never gave it a thought either! I just plop a pot on the ground and that is where I reckon it belongs-ha How sweet of you to host this book give away~ Hope your Saturday is full of PEACE
I am always striving for that English cottage garden look in my own little plot. I have six David Austin roses and they do very well for me. I just came in from looking at my garden, and it is emerging quickly! I love this time of year. Got an order of perennials yesterday so I will be out digging and working Monday. Rain is forecast for Monday afternoon and we definitely need it, but I hope I can get my little plants in the ground before it starts. Have a great day, Claudia!
How nice of you to do a giveaway again, Claudia! It’s a bountiful, beautiful book and of course I would love to ‘win’ it because I am totally enamored with roses; I’m going to be picking out a new rosebush today, in fact!
I hope your Saturday afternoon is going well…
Claudia, that is a really beautiful book! Thanks for the review and chance to own a source of so much information and inspiration.
Sherry in Little Rock
I have a few David Austin roses; Pat Austin is my favorite. Would love to have an Cottage garden,
I’ve tried, but the climate here is too dry.
Hi Claudia,
I love English roses and David Austin varieties. I live at 7,000 ft in the Rocky mountains and I do grow many roses. We have extreme weather here from very cold and snowy winters to hot and dry summers and always a breeze to high winds. I was told when we moved her 25 years ago that I could not grow roses due to these weather conditions. But I did! I have a “Secret Garden” that I designed to be seen from inside a tower room that has a roundish shape with four very large picture windows. When you are in the room, you have the feeling the garden is surrounding you. The design is English country garden, my favorite. This Secret Garden has an undulating river rock wall on the exterior perimeter with a circulating water fountain of three levels which go into a bird bath which is also built into the wall. I am a birder and am happy this fountain really attracts the song birds. The plants in garden as well as the trees surrounding the wall provide cover and food for the birds and wind protection for the roses and creates a beautiful, fun and colorful viewing area for flora and fauna.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful book about my favorite subject.
Hugs, Patricia
Looks like a great book. Fingers crossed.
Hello Claudia, what a beautiful book! I would love a chance to be the lucky winner. Thanks for the opportunity. 💟
Would love to receive this book. I am especially interested in the lovely pictures of English gardens. Roses are my favorite flower. I spied some foxgloves in one picture! Another favorite.
The photos you shared from the book are gorgeous! Thank you for providing us with a chance to own this book.
Hope you are getting the peeks of sunshine that we are getting here in the Delaware Valley this afternoon. Wishing you a peaceful weekend.
What a lovely book. I love all roses,but tea roses are my favorite. I remember when I was in elementary school most of the students would bring roses into the teacher at the end of the term. Mine came from our backyard in Brooklyn as I am sure all the children brought them from their gardens.. Thank you for the opportunity to win this gorgeous book.
Marilyn
I am happy you had a few relaxing minutes with the book. I hope it brightened your day.
What a lovely book. We are waiting for spring thunderstorms that could turn severe. I am so ready to get out in the garden and play with flowers that made it through the one freeze we had on Dec 22. it was so cold that most of my plants in the cold frame didn’t make it.
If if you didn’t grow roses who wouldn’t love this beautiful book to read?
HI, Claudia–trying my hand at wildflowers from seed this year, and a gorgeous bougainvillea we bought last Saturday seems to be happy in the sunny spot my husband picked out for it. Roses are next–perhaps a tea rose! I need to research what will be OK here in Orlando…
What a book oh! what a book, Claudia.
Thank you for sharing that garden picture with us.. I want that. ha! There is a house in Raleigh where some turn of the early to mid century homes are and they owners have turned the front yard into a garden similar to the one you have shown us….I have just stood their beyond the gate and enjoyed.
By the way dear, I think I am watching a Rachel rerun for the third time..she is talking to the former FBI guy..truthful, honest and saying what others skim by. I forget his name but I love him.
I just showed Gary the name of the book you are reviewing, and the photo of a rose named after Darwin. He is a scientist (loves Darwin) and he has Darwin birthday parties every yr (nerdy man) and of course I am there with Gary. I bet he tries to find it and starts growing (or trying to grow C Darwin roses)
You delight me, and I suppose many of us with you photos!
Beautiful
What a beautiful book!
Is looks like a lovely and informative book.
Thank you, book looks beautiful.
My roses are beginning to bloom, and it’s such a gift, after several years of drought and water restrictions. We have had such wonderful rains this year that my roses are happy once again, and so am I. The David Austin book looks like one I need to add to my gardening book collection. I’ll look for it, if I don’t win this copy. Thanks for talking about it, and showing some of the beautiful photos.
I love cabbage roses. I dislike the fact that some don’t smell like a rose anymore.
What a lovely book!
What a lovely book. I could get lost for hours in it…
Hi Claudia,
The only way I will have a rose garden in this hot climate of central Florida is vicariously through the Rose book. Roses, with scent, have always been my favorite flower. I am one of those people who has to stick their schnozz in every flower she encounters.
Love reading your blog. I am a quilter too.
Marguerite
Oh gorgeous! I am crossing my fingers.
Hi Claudia!! What a wonderful book! There is a rose garden where I am that is filled with the most beautiful and aromatic roses! I hope you are doing well. Thanks for posting the give away. All the best, Heather
What a beautiful treasure this book would be. Thanks.
Wow – those photos! I’m definitely aware of who the author is. Both my grandma and my mother had gorgeous rose gardens and I remember my mom talking about him all the time. Now Mom lives in a townhouse and doesn’t have any rose bushes. :-( I only have one rose bush in my back yard and I never know quite what to do with it, so I simply let it be – and cover it in the winter. I would be thrilled to win this book and hopefully learn something! Thanks for the chance.
Beautiful book and gorgeous photography. I love roses but unfortunately something attacked them a few years ago and they never came back to their original beauty so will have to start all over this year.
Reading this book could be the next best thing to smelling an actual rose. Quite lovely!