THE ROMANCE OF THE ROSE

A rose garden promises beauty, fragrance and bewitching colour so it's no wonder we've fallen for the charms of this ancient flower. And cultivating them is easier than you think

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Memories of my childhood summers are suffused with the blowsy blooms of Rosa ‘Peace’ - all 1970s peach blush chiffon petals. The roses grew exclusively in four beds that my mother spent a lot of time weeding and fussing over, and following the accepted practice of the times, my father sprayed them periodically. It seemed like an awful lot of work to achieve those perfect blooms.

In the intervening years, I've learnt that roses don't have to be so demanding. My favourite is ‘Rambling Rector’, which is perfect for greedily covering up a chain-link fence with very little encouragement or attention. And, quite simply, the name amuses me, which is a whole other reason for choosing a rose for your garden.

With rose season now in full flow and repeat-flowering varieties set to bloom into autumn, new publication The Rose Book (£34.95, Phaidon) is designed to inspire fascination. It showcases the rose as an influencer and cultural icon with impact beyond the garden.

In the introduction, Kristine Paulus, writer and librarian at the New York Botanical Garden, observes: ‘Roses are so adored that they represent love itself – is it any coincidence that the word “Rose” is an anagram of Eros? Steeped in mythology, they are the subject of fairy tales and folklore. There are so many idioms, adages and proverbs referring to roses and their long association with romance and glamour that they border on the cliché, yet poets, painters and philosophers cannot get enough of them. With incredible diversity of form and colour, there is a rose for every person and every purpose.

‘Originating more than 30 million years ago, the genus