A Rose by Any Name

Description

More than fifteen thousand rose species and cultivars are grown worldwide. Every one of these plants has its own distinctive name, given perhaps by the person who first picked it for a sweetheart, a botanist who dissected it long ago or a horticulturist who nurtured it. Douglas Brenner and Stephen Sanniello tackle the thorny task of digging up the history behind rose names. Their stores are filled with enough romance, tragedy, mystery and scandal to satisfy even those who would never dream of actually tending a plant. For instance, did you know the gallica rose's perfume wafted through Pliny's Roman villa and lulled Marie Antoinette on the night before her wedding, or that roses in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were mainly raised for medicinal purposes? With ornate vintage art and photographs, "A Rose by Any Name" unearths the roots or rose lore and reveals how people, communities and cultures across the globe and throughout the ages have identified the living things that matter to them most.

Douglas Brenner writes about gardens, design and collecting for publications such as the New York Times, Martha Stewart Living and Country Living. He inherited his first rosebush, 'Climbing American Beauty', from a previous owner of his house, who planted it there around 1910. Stephen Scanniello is is a recipient of the Great Rosarians of the World (GROW) Award for 1009, president of the Heritage Rose Foundation, a member of the American Rose Society, and a judge for the international rose trials in Europe and the United States. Scanniello has written three books on roses, including A Year of Roses, recipient of the American Horticultural Society's Annual Book Award.