Thanks Henry - this is fabulous!

Jackie

If you go to the google books, you can also search for specific roses in those annuals.
To get to the google search, go to google.com, and then to more, and more, and you'll find the portal to all the books they've scanned, and have been allowed to release.

Another interesting set of links is discussions on the Heritage Rose Foundation website (below) which lists what some of us were finding.

Here is a link that might be useful: HRF books that can be useful for rose studies

At the top of the annual link that I gave is a search box. Putting roses in it yielded 81 hits.

http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/Search.aspx?searchTerm=roses&searchCat=

Here is a link that might be useful: link for 81 hits

I'd like to draw your attention to one in particular. H. B. Ellwanger's "The Rose". This one will give you cultural hints, accurate descriptions (including faults), synonymous roses, etc. for varieties through its 1882 publication date. I think you'll find some of his comments about some which we consider "classics", rather enlightening. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: The Rose

I've been reading Pemberton and Dean Hole. What a different world! * GASP * the working classes growing roses???
I ordered a reprint of Pemberton and what I got for $15 was a poorly scanned mostly incomplete useless book that I sent back to Amazon.
Then I found it free on Googlebooks--perfectly scanned and complete courtesy of the University of Wisconsin's 1929 edition. Googlebooks has lots of books that are out of copyright (and thus *free*)
Any other oldies you'd recommend Kim?
Susan

I love Hole. There's a lot of humor there. Kim, I have Ellwanger, and I love that book. It's one I keep right at hand, and refer to.

ONE of the ARS annuals had a piece by Mrs. Keays on rose identification, which I had, but seem to have lost, darnit. I wish I could find that.

Jeri

You pretty much can't go wrong with any of them, Susan, but if you are interested in reading contemporary descriptions of older rose types, these should provide you with some real meat. We frequently read of an HP or other more modern, OGR and it sounds too wonderful to be lost. Read what those who handled them when they were current, before they had the opportunity to be confused with anything else and before they were deemed synonymous, and you can discover quite a bit. These have some very interesting lists, in the order shown from Henry's original link.

You'll quickly develop the feel that many of them were so very similar because they were often self seedlings, and too often, inferior to the seed parent. You may generate something rather interesting and worthwhile from the first "selfing", but how many generations of that can be tolerated before the results are too inbred?

The "How to Grow Roses" by Robert Pyle are fun looks at rose growing in the first decade of the last century. Captain Thomas has a book there, too and he is always instructive and interesting. Kim

21. The rose amateur's guide : containing ample descriptions of all the fine leading varieties of roses regularly classed in their respective families, their history and mode of culture / by T. Rivers, Jun.
By: Rivers, Thomas,
Edition: 3rd ed., corr. and improved.
Publication info: London :Printed for Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans,1843.
Contributed by: University of California Libraries (archive.org)

22. The rose manual; containing accurate descriptions of all the finest varieties of roses, properly classed in their respective families, their character and mode of culture, with directions for their propagation, and th By Robert Buist.
By: Buist, Robert,
Edition: 3d ed., with additions.
Publication info: Philadelphia,The author [etc.]1851.
Contributed by: UMass Amherst Libraries (archive.org)

37. The rose, historical and descriptive; gathered from various sources.
By: Shaw, Henry,
Publication info: Saint Louis,R. P. Studley & co., printers,1879.
Contributed by: Library of Congress (archive.org)

41. The amateur's guide and flower-garden directory: containing every requisite detail for the successful cultivation of the flower-garden. Embracing the classification of the best varieties of roses, and all plants requisite for the garden with direct
By: Clark, John T. C.
Publication info: Washington, D. C.,Taylor & Maury[1856.]
Contributed by: Cornell University Library

43. The American rose culturist : being a practical treatise on the propagation, cultivation, and management of the rose in all seasons : with a list of choice and approved varieties, adapted to the climate of the United States : to w
Publication info: New York :C.M. Saxton,1852.
Series: Saxton's cottage and farm library
Contributed by: Cornell University Library

47. The book of the rose.
By: Foster-Melliar, Andrew, - Molyneux, Herbert Ernest, - Page-Roberts, F.,
Edition: 4th ed. ... Ed. by Rev. F. Page-Roberts ... and Herbert E. Molyneux ...
Publication info: London, Macmillan and co., limited,1910.
Contributed by: Cornell University Library

51. Cultural directions for the rose : with full descriptions of all the newest and best roses in cultivation, selections adapted to various circumstances and situations and a calender of operations to be performed each month throughout th by John Cranston.
By: Cranston, John.
Edition: 7th ed. rev.
Publication info: London :H.M. Pollett,1888.
Contributed by: Mertz Library, The New York Botanical Garde

Your article is in the 1938 ARS annual, Jeri. Mrs. Keays, "What Old Rose is This?", pages 3 through 19. Check your inbox. Kim

Thanks Kim! That ought to keep me entertained as the garden begins to shut down.
Yes, Jeri there is a lot of humor to Hole. . .I can just see him at the working class rose show. Bless him--roses were the salvation to keep em off the drink and out of the pubs.
Going to find that Mrs. Keays article now.
Susan

Susan, your account isn't set up to receive emails through the system, but mine is. If you'll please send me your email where I can send the scans, I'll be happy to. It's a long article, about twenty pages with illustrations and two black and white photos. I scanned them at a high resolution so you can actually READ them. It's too large a file to post here and it requires being split into four emails for me to send them. If you'd like them, please send me a private message here and I'll be happy to. Kim