“Lois Hole’s Rose Favorites”
January 2015
Lois Hole’s Rose Favorites – 148 Roses for Scent and Splendor
by Lois Hole with Jill Fallis; photography by Akemi Matsubuchi. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, AB. 256pp.
Copyright 1997.
For northern prairie gardeners, there are several items that need attention for success – selection of northern-bred roses is one of these, and finding a book that actually refers to these types of roses is another. Until this resource by Lois Hole, which is a huge help for northern gardeners and rose collectors everywhere, there simply weren’t the resources at hand to learn about hardy roses bred locally.
The first rose bush I planted was in fact a species rose, which I still have growing in my yard. It is the beautiful Rosa glauca. formerly titled Rosa rubrifolia, which goes by the common name of Red-leaf rose. Following a few seasons of success with this rose, I started planting winter hardy Canadian-bred shrub roses, picking up the lovely Winnipeg Parks hardy shrub rose in the Parkland series, introduced in 1993. This is in fact my favourite (or favorite, in US dictionaries and on the cover of Lois Hole’s book) of the roses in my collection. This was followed by plantings of Morden Blush, Morden Fireglow, and Morden Centennial. I also acquired several climbing roses in the Explorer Series – John Cabot, Martin Frobisher, William Baffin, and Captain Samuel Holland.
In browsing through books in the stores during the 1990s, it was difficult to find books that included the Morden, Explorer, and Parkland series. Gradually, these varieties became better known and more widely publicized, and when Lois Hole turned her attention in her gardening publications to roses, we at last had great information at hand. The names of the hardy shrubs and climbers bred in Canada were showing up in the nurseries, and weekend and casual gardeners could begin to enjoy the beauty of roses in their gardens without having to be specially schooled in the care and maintenance of roses that couldn’t survive our tough winters.
Browsing through the pages of Lois Hole’s book on roses or looking through other books in the Lois Hole gardening collection gives the spare time gardener the confidence to go out to the nursery and purchase some of the many lovely species and variety roses available in the market today. While this book’s publishing date is 1997, it is possibly still carried by local nurseries that have their own gift shops and general garden interest areas. The book is probably easily accessible through your local or regional library as well.
