Title: Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers, Easy Plants for More Beautiful Gardens
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Buy on Amazon: Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers (Home Grown Gardening)
Publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has introduced a new series of quick-read, colorful books for gardeners who are just starting out or intermediate gardeners who might be looking for new planting ideas for their garden.
Also in the Home Grown Gardening series are Best Perennials For Sun and Shade, and Attracting Birds and Butterflies.
Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers begins with the basics of rose care and the different types of roses: species roses; shrub roses; old garden roses; floribundas, grandifloras, and hybrid teas; and climbers and ramblers. It also quickly covers the basics of planting roses, mulching, fertilizing, pruning, disease control, and protecting roses from cold weather. It even includes a recipe for Rose Hip Jam (Rose Hips are an edible and nutritious fruit that grows on many but not all species of roses).
The book covers growing and care for 50+ varieties of roses such as Flower Carpet Scarlet, Honey Perfume, Beach Rose, Touch Of Class, Carefree Wonder, Julia Child, Mister Lincoln, New Dawn, the ever-popular Knockout Rose, and many more. I can’t imagine you won’t find one here whose blossom you’ll fall in love with.
The second part of the book covers herbs and edible flowers. This section explores gathering roots, making your plants bushier (to produce more flowers), propagation by layering and cuttings, and more. The rest includes descriptions and images of edible flowers and herbs, with 2 pages dedicated to each plant. One page has a beautiful full-color photo of the herb or flower and the facing page contains info on how to grow the plant and how to use the flower, roots, bulbs or foliage. Many edible plants are included such as Lemon Verbena, Parsley, Valerian, Hollyhock, Purple Coneflower, Chamomille, Dill, Fennel, Hyssop, and even Day Lily, which until this moment I didn’t know was edible. It also includes a Glossary to explain terms which may be unfamiliar and a Hardiness Zone map so you don’t choose plants which may die over the winter in your area.
Home Grown Gardening: Best Roses, Herbs, and Edible Flowers is a nice overview for new gardeners to introduce them to the basics of Rose care and growing herbs and edible flowers. Speaking from personal experience, Roses are one of the trickiest plants to care for, and I only learned about them by killing 3 before I got a handle on their care. Perhaps if I’d had more knowledge like this before I started, I would still be enjoying those first roses.