Montgomery County Master Gardener Margaret McManus reviews the book “Pink Ladies and Crimson Gents: Portraits and Legends of 50 Roses by Molly and Don Glentzer.” New York: Clarkson-Potter Publishing, 2009, $22.50.
This lovely book covers a variety of roses under chapter names like “Heroes and Heroines” and “Storied Characters,” but the first rose mentioned is named after a lady from a sleepy little town called Navasota, Texas. Martha Gonzales lived much of her life in a shabby blue bathrobe while tending her roses that eventually became famous for their hardiness. Mike Shoup, the former owner of Antique Rose Emporium, described his Martha Gonzales rose bushes as being submerged in floodwater and run over by trucks, but kept kicking.
“The history of roses is the history of humanity,” states J.H. Nicholas in his book “A Rose Odyssey.” In researching the history of 50 old roses, the author includes a sampling of the many “human” types from fictional characters, artists, aristocrats, heroes and plantsmen. In her book she compares historical events and rose introduction dates to find out how the roses came to be named for each individual.
Although roses have been cultivated for thousands of years, they have only been given human names since the early nineteenth century. Since France was the center of this rose breeding industry, many of the names we are familiar with begin with “Madame” and “Monsieur.”
Some of the roses mentioned in the book are ones we recognize, names such as Don Juan, Archduke Charles and Lady Banks. As I have two Lady Banks roses, I wanted to know the lady behind the rose. And what a lady she was. She and her husband Sir Joseph Banks were friends with King George III and Benjamin Franklin. They established London’s first natural history museum in their home and her husband helped found the Royal Gardens of Kew, where I have visited.
Perhaps most impressive are the photographs of each rose that were taken by the author’s husband. Since I am a lover of apricot roses, one of my favorites is
Rubens,
a deep fleshy colored tea rose with a heady fragrance listed on page 18.
Photographer Don Glentzer has work in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and his wife Molly is the lifestyle editor for the
Houston Chronicle.
Pink Ladies and Crimson Gents: Portraits and Legends of 50 Roses
is a book that will delight most lovers of roses.
