In Search of Lost Roses

In Search of Lost Roses By Thomas Christopher (1989)

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I’m back in my Winter Gardener mode – time to read garden books.

This little book introduced me to the Rose Rustlers - a posse of Texas old rose enthusiasts that gather in November to scour the countryside in search of lost roses. (The term “old rose enthusiasts” does not refer the age of the rustler.)

They start out with buckets and shovels to find roses of Texas’s past. They search through cemeteries, abandoned towns, fields and private yards. Their sense of adventure and quest for discovery encompasses a passion that rivals Columbus. Texas hot, dry climate makes roses that have survived for decades truly a treasure. I would like to read more of their personal adventures.

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(Climbing Rose Blaze - 1932)

Lost Roses chronicles rose history from the wild roses of Greece and Rome through Napoleon’s Josephine’s 10,000 seedlings. Roses that crisscrossed continents with opium traders and settlers. China’s natural order to modern hybridization and genetic engineering. Damask, bourbon, gallca, cyrene, moss and many others are carefully indexed.

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(‘Madame Isaac Pereire’ - Bourbon 1881)

As I read I sometimes googled the rose mentioned to get an idea of what it looked like. With only a thimble of old rose understanding, I found tracing roses from France, Italy, Greece, England, China and America complicated. But, I came away with an appreciation of the depth of knowledge necessary to identify the old roses. The book illustrates the obsessive passion of old rose collectors.

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The Winter Gardener

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The Fragrant Year by Helen Van Pelt Wilson and Leonie Bell

Some books give you that warm, fuzzy feeling. This is one of them.

Published in 1967 as collaboration between internationally known writer, lecturer and gardener Helen Van Pelt Wilson and expert plant illustrator Leonie Bell, The Fragrant Year is full of information for a scented garden.

The romantic style created a pause from holiday stress for me. Wilson writes with a love of plants evident in her poetic pen.

Chapter 15, “Autumn Aromas”, begins –

“Summer slips so gently into autumn, and the warm lush scents of plants in full leaf change so imperceptibly to the crisp dry smell of those soon to fall, that until the one low branch on the great sugar maple above the rock ledge turns significantly to gold we are hardly aware of the slow passing of another year.”

After reading through the somewhat long list of plant fragrance classifications, I suspect my unsophisticated nose would not be able to make the distinctions. I’ll have to take the authors’ word on the nuances of fragrance.

The information is precise. The authors lived and gardened in zone 6. Varieties of plants sorted by season and listed by botanical name fill the book.

The longest chapter “Just Roses” contains rose history as well as a discussion of varieties, their growth habits and scent.

In the section “The Bourbons":

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“By the end of the nineteenth century, ’Mme. Isaac Pereire’ had become a favorite. Considered one of the most fragrant of all roses it provided pounds of petals for the potpourris then so popular. . . . Bushes grow to 6 feet and some canes reach higher; bending them down discourages bloom.”

(Photo: In my garden - Bourbon Rose, Madame Isaac Pereire, 1881)

The book provides transportation to an earlier time. Whether read from beginning to end, taken in small doses or browsed by areas of interest, it is a lovely guide to building a scented garden.
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Christmas Cactus

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The orange tinted cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) is actually a Thanksgiving cactus. A gift from a friend two years ago, this orange/red flowered plant is the second to bloom each year.

My 3-cactus collection spends the summer on our deck out of direct sun. I bring them in at the end of summer. They spend most of the year in a cool, unused (no artificial light) room in a sunny, south-facing window.
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Since they are out of sight I sometimes forget to water, but they don’t seem to mind - as long as I get there before they totally expire. I fertilize every other week in the summer. They may get a weak fish emulsion fertilizer a few times in the winter. Did I mention that I sometimes forget about them?


The white cactus (Zygocactus) bloomed in early November.

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The red Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) has set buds and will be in full bloom by Christmas.

I bring each plant into the dining room as they start to bloom. The three plants provide 2 or 3 months of flowers during the winter.

Of all the house plants, the Christmas Cactus must be the easiest flowering house plant to grow.

More information from Clemson University Extension.

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The Winter Gardener

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If you ever have a cranky, out-of-sorts day this is the book to browse.

Perennials for Pennsylvania, by Ilene Sternberg and Alison Beck is loaded with plant pictures for gardeners to dream on.

The introduction includes information on the selection, care, and propagation of perennials. While the short section is not an in-depth study, it is a good basic primer on perennial gardening. I found the lists in this section helpful.

For instance the, “Perennials to Pinch Early” list includes:

“Artemesia, Aster, Boltonia, Black-eyed Susan, Catmint, Chrysanthemum, Hibiscus, Purple Cone Flower, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Shasta Daisy.”

In the heart of the book, an alphabetical list of plants is beautifully illustrated. Flower close-ups as well as pictures of entire plants gave me a good idea what the mature plant will look like.

Each plant description includes growth habit, color, bloom time, tips, problems and pests. It’s a helpful quick reference for an answer to, “what’s going on with my hibiscus” or other plant questions.

I started putting markers in pages where I may want to add the plant to my garden. So, beware, this book can increase your plant lust.

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Waiting for the Leaves to Fall …

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… is like waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The garden is almost all cleaned up for this year. The hostas are frost bit and will soon turn into mush. Being a lazy gardener, I wait for the mush stage and then rake them out of the garden.

The maple and locust trees are still very green. The dogwood leaves have a pretty reddish tint. The sweet shrub is turning yellow. None of them seem to be willing to let go of their leaves. It will be another month until all the leaves are raked, shredded and composted.

The slow-down will help me slip into my Winter-Gardener mode.

The Winter Gardener lives in my mind. The Winter Gardener plans gardens, reads gardening books and catalogues, researches plants and gardening, annoys house plants, visits public gardens and flower shows, studies plants and insects, learns about plant disease, organizes plant files. I’ll have a lot to do this winter.

I hope it doesn’t include shoveling snow.

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