Patty, things change so quickly that a book published TODAY, covering the newest introductions will be hopelessly dated within 5 or 6 years.
Some of the roses covered will already have disappeared from the market.
(Deservedly so, in some cases -- regrettably so, in others.)

If you want information about new introductions, you might try for every rose catalog you can get your hands on.

Jeri

The big problem with rose catalogs is that the majority tend to be high on hype, low on reality and silent on (ie, totally ignorant of) geographical variation.

I'm of the opinion that gardeners (rose gardeners & all others) should never attempt to remain au courant. The rage of the moment just might turn out to be a turkey of phenomenal magnitude. Anyone remember how hoards of us were falling all over ourselves trying to land an early bareroot of 'Barbra Streisand'? What a dog she turned out to be for almost everyone who doesn't live in coastal CA (& I hear that some say she's not all that great even there).

Gardening is all about patience isn't it?

HaHa ... I DO live in Coastal Southern California. And we DID get two bare root Babs, fairly early on.
WHAT DOGS!
And don't even talk to me about all of the David Austin releases that we were the first in the area to grow
-- or ask how many are left.
Really, unless you are a dedicated exhibitor, there's no reason to be the "first on the block" with a new release.
Let someone else buy the dogs.
You can wait a little bit, and save your $$$ for the "sifted few."

Jeri

So, what are the books to read? What are the magazines that come out monthy or quarterly, that would aid me as a flower gardener? I get "Better Homes & Gardens" with very little on gardens and too much on ads.

Al

I'm really trying but failed to explain myself I guess. My garden consists largely of ogrs, Austins,Bucks and other shrub roses. Thankyou, Veelakin how well I understand patience but it is good of you to remind me. I'm trying to ignore the feeling that I was just made fun of and it hurts. Oh, well life goes on. Just thought maybe someone had read a rose book written of more recent times That they found entertaining, enjoyable or interesting. All books of roses that I've read to date have dealt with older roses or their origins and so on. Does this make since.

Oh, no one was poking fun! Maybe we're just not catching what you really are looking for.

Given the time it takes to get a book out to print, you'll never have the sort of immediacy with a book that you do with a periodical -- and therein lies an answer to Al's question.

If you are most interested in Old roses and Shrubs, you might consider memberships in the Heritage Rose Foundation and the Heritage Roses Groups.
HRG publishes quarterly, and HRF 3 x annually.

If you wish to spread your net more broadly, there is the American Rose Society. It's getting to be pricey -- but it is making an effort to cover a broader spectrum than it used to. It publishes every other month.

These may lead you to other avenues.
Does that help at all?

Jeri

Here is a link that might be useful: Heritage Roses Groups

I would suggest going to Amazon.com. I found these books with recent copyrights, for example:

The Ultimate Rose Book: New Expanded Edition by Stirling Macoboy and Tommy Cairns (Hardcover - Oct 1, 2007)
Otherwise Normal People: Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening by Aurelia Scott (Hardcover - May 18, 2007)
Passion for Roses: Peter Beales' Comprehensive Guide to Landscaping with Roses by Peter Beales (Hardcover - Nov 13, 2007)

I had better luck going with the menus (Books  Home & Garden  Gardening & Horticulture  By Plant  Roses) than I did with the search function, where I got some really STRANGE books.

Good luck!

Kay

Patty, do you want only books that are listings of roses or do you like design books for gardens with roses?

Do you like books on the histories of rose breeds and the breeders? Or practical knowledge books on growing roses?

What is your favorite type of rose book?

Right now I like to look at garden design books and enjoy Tony Lord's book Designing with Roses and R is for Rose is a fun read also.

Gean

The best rose dictionary I know is 'Botanica's Roses', though by now it's been around for several years: I bought my copy in 2001, I think. There are two more recent dictionaries, neither as comprehensive: Phillips and Rix's 'The Ultimate Guide to Roses' and the RHS 'Encyclopedia of Roses', both of which I bought in 2006. For recent introductions you just need to ask around (catalogs, rose forum) and, if you want to grow recently introduced roses that have no track record, you must accept the higher risk of a poor rose, as others here say. I don't subscribe to magazines myself, so can't help you there, and I grow almost all old and older roses and am definitely not au courant with the new introductions.

I don't think anyone was making fun of you and I'm sorry you felt bad. I've certainly passed many happy hours with various good rose books.

Melissa

Thankyou for the suggestions. I shall look them up. For all my years of gardening there's allways something new to learn or think about. Sometimes it's just about good ole rose porn to gaze at. Ashdown Roses has a spot in their news letter for readers to sent in their garden tips ect. I like it. My most recent gardening change from folks on the garden web is in feeding the soil. Mushroom and horse manure,leaf mold, veggie leftovers, coffee grounds [now who would have thought]. I'll stop my happy rambling now. Thanks again for ideas on a good winter read or mouth watering rose porn book. Patty

I hesitate to suggest this, since it isn't really what you are looking for, but Modern Roses 12 is worth considering. It is a compilation of about 32,000 rose varieties, with information on bloom and growth habit, parentage, additional sales names, when introduced, etc. And it has 64 pages of full color pictures of roses, including some you probably have never heard of.

Even better, it gives you online access to the Modern Roses database. This database contains all the information that is in the book, plus more. As new roses are introduced they are added to the database, so it isn't a static record. The same is true for additional information on existing roses. Further, it is searchable so you can, for instance, find out all the roses that have Peace as a parent simply by using a simple search command. If you want to find all the yellow floribundas, you can search for that. Finally, it currently has roughly 2,500 pictures of roses, with more to come. Our goal is to have a picture included with the vast majority of roses in the database.

It's not really the kind of book you can snuggle by the fireplace and enjoy, but it does have an enormous amount of information and more rose pictures in the database than you will find in any other publication. It is only carried by the American Rose Society, so you have to go to their website to get it. I think you will be surprised by what all is included.

The latest David Austin book, "The English Roses" which is about 2 years old, has the most jaw-dropping gorgeous pictures, the most beautiful I've ever seen. I imagine it has text as well, although the pictures are so distracting I've never noticed.

I too use Botanica's Roses' along with the ARS Encyclopedia of Roses, I like the 'Botanica's the best, picked it up for $6.99 with my Borders Books discount. I also heard that "R is for Roses", as well as "The Poetry of Roses", are great reads as mentioned above. I ordered "R is for Roses" from Amazon for real cheap, shipping cost more than the book!
Another idea, go online to your local library, you can register with your card number and search for some of these books, reserve them, select what branch you want to pick them up at and they email you when it's available. That's how I got 'Inside the Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening' by Aurelia Scott which I am reading now, very interesting and I also checked out 'In Search of Lost Roses' by Thomas Christopher as it sounded interesting. If you run out of time reading by the due date, go back online and extend it. I love the library!

...Yes Austins latest 2-3 year old book is worth reading BUT in the latest Austin Rose Cataloque it was announced that a new wonderful book about Austin roses are coming in the spring. I look forward to that one...

Thankyou everyone it will be a long cold winter. Miss my roses already. If not for winter thou when would I paint?I'm getting Modern Roses 12 and waiting for Austins new book. I forgot about In Search of Lost Roses meant to read it last year. Have a nice day or evening. Pat

I would put rose porn and good reading into two or three distinct categories.

For rose porn I too have Botanica (hardcover), The Ultimate Rose book (thank you, Jeri).
Peter Beales Vision of Roses, Graham Stuart Thomas and David AustinÂs books combine rose porn, good read as well as garden design ideas just as well as Tony LordÂs Designing with roses. These books are not new but still worth reading them and have them on the shelf.

For good reading with not many photos or not particularly good photos I enjoyed Thomas ChristopherÂs In search of lost roses; and I enjoyed tremendously Jack Harkness Roses with all the gossips, harsh judgment and wit he delivers on some roses or some breeders.