The Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Book - Tapa dura

It was Graham Stuart Thomas who in "Old Shrub Roses" first brought to public attention the favourite roses of the early nineteenth century - the intensely scented damasks, the rich and sombre Gallicas, the elegant Albas. In "Shrub Roses of Today" he performed the same task for the species and hybrids from Japan and North America, from English and Scottish hedgerows and the mountains of China. He also brought back to popularity the roses of the late Victorian and Edwardian era, Chinas and Hybrid Musks redolent of house parties before the Great War. "Climbing Roses Old and New" considered ramblers of greater subtlety than today's garish and formless floribundas, and also described the author's exciting rediscovery of the old Autumn-flowering Musk Rose. Since those books were published they have between them gone though 22 editions and have become the standard by which all books on old and shrub roses are measured. But as Christopher Lloyd wrote, 'you must have all three and they must not be scattered in different parts of the house'. This book now, at last, brings the classic trilogy together in a substantially revised and updated edition, fully illustrated, in colour and black-and-white, with new photographs and paintings from such master hands as Redoute and Graham Thomas himself.