This book was a lucky find by myself at a used-book store when my interest in roses was just beginning--and it was this book that first introduced me to English Roses and helped me to realize what exactly I loved about roses. Mr. Martin covers each rose from his own experience--which I found to be very informative, and I have relied somewhat on his descriptions of each cultivar--especially the different growth patterns and disease-susceptibility when selecting the English Roses I would first like to try in my garden--as many of the English roses will grow to 2x the size here. It is very helpful when he provides descriptions of how each cultivar blooms as well, whether from the ground up, or tending to bloom only on the ends of the canes. He provides a very innovative suggestion for growing the taller varieties which tend to bloom only on the ends--he calls it "self-pegging"--bending the long canes over to tie to canes in front of them, rather than to the ground as in traditional pegging. He claims many varieties which would otherwise get too large can be contained in a much smaller space, and then blooms will break all along the canes. I am anxious to try this technique for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and have found myself referring to it again and again. My only complaint is his choice to include 1 rose from Harkness, and I wish he had chosen another English rose instead, perhaps "Queen Nefertiti", which appears in the forward section on growing roses, but is neglected in the discussion of the individual varieties. The first section of the book is also a great introduction to the growing and caring of roses, and using roses in the landscape. One of my favorite Rose books.