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Where the Old Roses Grow

Vita Sackville-West and the Battle for Beauty during Wartime

By: Janelle McCulloch

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Hardcover | 25 February 2025

At a Glance

Hardcover
208 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.29 x 2.3

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Hardcover

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From the beginning of the twentieth century, pragmatic people were already buying modern roses such as Hybrid Teas, which lacked the romance of the old roses, but were simpler to grow and flowered repeatedly. Then came the war: many of the country's gardeners were away fighting, and the Government advised those who were left to 'Dig for Victory', growing food rather than flowers.

Meanwhile, lovers of heritage roses, including writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West, horticulturist Graham Stuart Thomas, nurseryman Edward Bunyard, society florist Constance Spry and the beautiful artistic aristocrat and plant collector Maud Messel, were seeking old roses in the corners of the walled gardens of great estates and in neglected areas of nurseries, to save these beautiful and often rare roses from dying out.

This is a biography of roses and gardens in wartime, of fortitude and tenacity in the face of great loss and pain. The story unfolds like the petals of a rose, revealing enthralling tales about the race to save beautiful and treasured flowers during a turbulent period in history.

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