Thank you for the info. I checked my library's website and they have it! I quickly placed a hold on it, and was surprised to see that it already has 2 holds.

Welp...I left a comment several hours ago, but it's not here. Oh, well.

I intend to order a copy. Sounds very interesting. Orwell isn't my favorite author (not re-reading 1984 anytime soon!), but he's one of my most admired, lol.

The man was a prescient genius. I just didn't know he was a gardener!

Sweet, I requested a hold on it from the library.

I have not, but that is very interesting. I have read 1984 in the past, and it's terrifying but we really are seeing these things unfolding today.

Steven

Not only did they force Winston to agree that 2+2= 5 but that he had to love Big Brother who forced him to lay his mind to waste. Reminds me a bit of the New World Order people who say we will have nothing and we will be happy and eat bugs. We have to like them as well as eat them! If you have nothing, no doubt you ( or your grandchildren) will have no garden either!

I imagine Orwell's roses helped offset his fears for the future and kept him grounded.

I'm going to go back and reread Orwell's Burma book (Burmese Days). To go from having roses to being in a real tropical environment may be beyond being interested in the people. Some from Burma/Myanmar now call it their favorite book about their country.

I started reading Orwell for some of the people he knew in the Spanish Civil War. Which I was lead to by some of the changes in basic outlook on life by some now famous people who got to know each other and be very disappointed in them. (Jon Dos Pasos).

And for a sense of Orwell, " keep the Aspidistra Flying" ...I wonder where its timeline intersects his rose garden time?

That’s a book I certainly want to read. Never knew he was a gardener either, but isn’t it nice to think that deep thinking and great gardening really do go hand in hand? I always did like to think so.

I have it on my bedside table and am excited to dig into it! Rebecca Solnit is a favorite of mine, so her essays, plus George Orwell, plus roses... what's not to love?

P.S. I miss this forum but I find it frustrating to visit these days because I can't figure out how to search old posts effectively. I hope you all are well and that your gardens are thriving!

Not exactly off topic: Fig did you beat me to the Knox Library copy?

I read Burmese Days only a few months ago and loved it. When I first saw this post, I thought, Can’t be that Orwell. Shows how much I know.

I’m off to check out both Roses and Aspidistra, hopefully in Kindle editions.

just ordered orwell's roses on kindle for $4.99! Thanks!

@K S 8b Seattle, (I tried to link to you, but it wouldn't work). You should read the forum on the web. No need to rely on notifications of old messages, etc. Clean, easy, and all new posts show up immediately.

Ann, I tried to reserve their copy, but someone beat us both to it. lol. I'll just have to order a copy. If I get it read before the library's copy comes back, you're welcome to mine.

(By the way, if you still want a start of Prairie Peace, let me know)

I found the hardback version on Amazon, for the same price as the paperback. And the "look inside" preview is many pages long. I'm going to love this, methinks.

Orwell's Roses- hardback on Amazon

So interesting! I will definitely be ordering this. Thank you for bringing this up @stillanntn6b

From what I gather from the reviews, the book opens with: "In the spring of 1936, a writer planted roses."

And of course now I am dying to find out which roses it was that he grew. I hope that's mentioned in the book at some point!

So, I find that I know what an Aspidistra is, and I have known that plant for more than 30 years. I just never called it , er them, by that name. I grew it in Houston around my mailbox. It was even strong enough to withstand the territory marking of the neighborhood dogs as they were walked. There, we called it an "Iron Plant" and it had the most hideous blooms down at soil level at the base of the leaves.

Then I moved to New Orleans, and the house next door (all of ten feet away) had Iron plant under the edge of the house (Algiers Point, it was one of the raised Victorians). It also grew like a weed there and maybe preferred being out of the rain, but getting enough water through osmosis.

I just find it amusing that without google I would never have put this trivia together. And now to see what insight Orwell got from the aspidistra of England.

Ann, I grow two different varieties of aspidistra, commonly "cast iron plant", one plain, one striped. They are considered barely hardy here, but they're planted between the concrete porch pad and the sidewalk, in mostly shade. Verrrrrry slow growing. It has taken most of 30 years to make two clumps 3' across, lol. Most winters they make it just fine, with just the oldest leaves browning a bit and looking tattered by Spring (that 4F in December did a number on them, though). So I guess I would consider them "hardy" here, since they have survived 30 years without protection, other than their siting.

Like you, I can't wait to get my copy of the book, so I can see how aspidistra grew in Orwell's garden...and did it inspire him? They don't call it "cast iron" for nuttin'.