Through the Rose Arbour: Notes from a Gardening Life

AUSTRALIAN FLORA Roses

Rosemary Houseman, one of Australia’s best-known authorities on old roses, is an artist to the core- her garden designs have a relaxed formality, her house overflows with much-loved objects and glorious flower arrangements. In Through the Rose Arbour, she traces the development of her lifelong passion for collecting, for gardening and for cultivating old roses, including the years at her influential nursery the Rose Arbour – once described as ‘an arbiter of garden style and a magnet for rose lovers around Australia’.

This book is both practical and very personal. It is full of gardening wisdom, conveying Rosemary’s extensive knowledge of roses and how to grow, care for and incorporate them – old and new – into garden designs. Her reminiscences and the glowing photographs also take us on an intimate journey through a passionate and productive gardening life.

• vii, 183 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 22 cm. #300824 First Edition
• Houseman, Rosemary
• Rose Arbour
• Rose growers — Australia — Biography
• Roses — Breeding — Australia
• Nurseries (Horticulture) — Australia
• Rosemary Houseman has played a foremost role in educating Australians about the beauty and hardiness of old roses. Through her nursery, the Rose Arbour, established in 1982, and its published catalogues, she has a considerable influence on the present-day resurgence of interest in old roses and the integration of roses into garden design. The Rose Arbour attracted numerous interstate clients and her ‘Roses in Bloom’ exhibitions a highlight of the Melbourne gardening calendar. Rosemary Houseman studied art, has been a florist and potter, and works as a garden design consultant. She has contributed to publications such as The Age and Your Garden