Cool! Please let me know what you think of the book... Thanks!

Below is a link of the top 115 roses for the year 2010 at the
Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden...

Here is a link that might be useful: Top 115 roses for 2010

Does the author imply that the 150 varieties he identifies as being disease free are, in fact, disease free in EVERY garden regardless of location?

jaxondel, that statement would be impossible to make by anyone as not even the Knockout rose is disease resistant everywhere...

So I doubt the author would make a claim like that... Seeing a claim like that would really turn me off to the book...

I'll try to remember to review it here.

As for the question about claims in the book, I can't answer that because it hasn't even been released yet.

But the publisher, Timber Press, has the page linked below about the book and I saw there: "...tells which perform best in each region of the country...."

And also gives a much better bio of the author than mine even though theirs is also brief.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roses Without Chemicals Book Details

jim -- that's precisely the point. why write/market a book about disease-free roses unless one identifies precisely where those roses are disease free?

seeing a claim like that would really turn you off? well, the author is making some such claim, is he not?

and yes, i am really turned off -- as should be anyone who's not growing roses in the author's immediate neighborhood.

jim1961,

Thanks for posting that 2010 NYBG link. I've posted it in these forums before so you know that I'm aware of the list.

The thing about that list is that I don't know whether it is a report judging the performance ONLY that year OR the performance as long as they had been in the garden up to and including that year. The implication is that it is just for that year. And we know that one year doesn't tell us about long term performance.

I'm hoping that the book's list is based on longer term observations. And although I always remind myself and others that making an assumption isn't a good thing, I will say that if I were the author that I wouldn't risk my reputation using short term observations.

As for the question about claims in the book, I can't answer that because it hasn't even been released yet.

But the publisher, Timber Press, has the page linked below about the book and I saw there: "...tells which perform best in each region of the country...."

Here is a link that might be useful: Roses Without Chemicals Book Details

Yes a review of the book would be great sandandsun!

Sandandsun, I would really appreciate you reviewing the book for us as well. If its worth it, I would buy it. Here in S.C. many "disease resistent" roses still get blackspot for me. If I were to start all over again, I would have planted less Austins, too late now. After all the work digging my heavy clay soil and amending planting roses is an all day affair and after all that work I'm not shovel pruning them! I would like to know how he researched by region though, as I'd be more inclined to buy a book from a southern author than one from New York.