How to Grow Roses

The thirteenth edition, 1920, by the president of the American Rose Society — including his month-by-month calendar of everything a rose wants done to it.

Curious Facts

Everything below is in the book — each one links straight to the page it comes from.

  1. The calendar orders you to pick flowers on the Fourth of July. "July 4. — Gather all the flowers you can; it is not best for the plants to have them die on the bushes." Patriotism and pruning, aligned. Read it in the book →
  2. Beauty is called the Creator's love-letter. Quoting G. A. Parker of Elizabeth Park: "I have come to think of beauty as the love-letter of the Creator" — the loftiest sentence in any gardening manual of 1920. Read it in the book →
  3. The sweetbriar survives inside a barberry. One expert winters the tender Sweetbriar by growing it up through tall barberries: "The barberry shades the Briar canes" — one shrub as another's overcoat. Read it in the book →
  4. Portland's pride is a rose garden. "One of the sights of that city of wonderful promise is the municipal rose-garden. It is larger, perhaps, than that of Hartford" — civic rivalry, measured in roses. Read it in the book →
  5. The book bows to a garden south of Paris. The Roseraie de L'Hay is "that most beautiful rose-garden south of Paris… Many chapters might be written of this litt[le]" place — the world capital of the rose, acknowledged. Read it in the book →
  6. Hermosa has served seventy-five years. The dwarf rose "has graced our gardens for seventy-five years. It is reliable and hardy" — a variety already antique in 1920, still sold today. Read it in the book →
  7. Roses get renamed for marketing. The book records "Synonymous Roses" — "Dutch Beauty in place of Veluwezoom" — names improved for the American ear. Read it in the book →
  8. Tree roses can build an English avenue. A double row of Standard roses four to ten feet apart produces "the avenue effect… They remind one of the beautiful rosegardens in England." Read it in the book →
  9. The reading list reviews like a friend. Of S. Reynolds Hole's 1883 A Book About Roses: "Highly entertaining work on roses, and most inspiring" — the rosarian's canon, annotated. Read it in the book →
Rights & ReuseThe complete text of How to Grow Roses (1920) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.