The Rose by Brent Elliott
The Rose by Brent Elliott – RHS. The history of the world’s favourite flower in 40 roses. This is such a gorgeous book. The history of the rose is presented through 40 species and hybrids. It is fascinating to see how different these species are, and, of course, how different their history is.
Another great thing about this book is that Brent Elliott used many primary sources, which make it very intriguing. He also talks about the myths relating to the roses. Overall it is a fabulous book, so worth getting.
Each rose is accompanied by beautiful botanical illustrations, most of them from the 19th century, like these ones. I found the book very relaxing and I read most of it in the evenings, as a way to switch off.
prints
On top of all these lovely stories and descriptions of the roses, the book also contains 40 frameable prints at the end. They are easy to remove, frame and display. I want to use some of them in my home. The only downside is that two illustrations are printed double sided, thus you have to pick which one you want to display. But, at the same time, there are 30 in total, so you can display 15 illustrations, that is more than most people would need to make a beautiful decor in their homes.
The Rose by Brent Elliott
Details about the picture: –
My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Welbeck Publishing
Year it was published: 2020
Format: Hardback
Genre(s): History of flowers
Pages: 208
About the author: Brent Elliott is Historian at the RHS and has worked there for almost 40 years. He was an editor of Garden History. He is also a member of the Victorian Society’s Buildings Committee, and for 25 years was a member of the Historic Parks and Gardens Committee/Panel of English Heritage.
Books by Brent Elliott: Victorian Gardens (1986), Treasures of the Royal Horticultural Society (1994), Flora: an Illustrated History of the Garden Flower (2001), The Royal Horticultural Society: a History 1804-2004 (2004), and RHS Chelsea Flower Show: a Centenary Celebration (2013).
The RHS was founded in 1804, and is the world’s largest gardening charity.
Website & Social Media Links: welbeckpublishing
*I was sent a copy of The Rose by Brent Elliott for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.
I love roses and have a few in my garden but I would love to find out more about them and the illustrations in this book look great!
Oh, my. How fabulous are those illustrations. A lovely coffee table book.
Beautiful book with gorgeous illustrations! A shame about double-sided prints, but as you say, you can still use 15 around the house. I have several different varieties of roses in our garden. I only planted one of them, the rest we inherited with the house when we bought it. Two of them are particularly beautiful – white one which is like a cascade of blooms, and an old-fashioned peach pink rose with the most exquisite scent. I wish I knew their names, but I’m not good at identifying types.
The house had roses when we bought it, but removed all of them, as dog + roses is not a good combination. Now I think I should have planted them on the driveway, in pots or something.
This sounds like a beautiful book. I’ve never grown roses, but when I was a child we had a wrought iron arbor over the steps between our house and my aunt’s next door that was covered in roses. It was always gorgeous when they were in bloom!
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