Cut-flower Roses may not be a large book, but it's written by someone who definitely knows a thing or two about roses and makes a living harvesting and selling garden roses as cut-flowers to the floral trade. Rayford Reddell profiles 40 varieties that make the best cutting roses and advises how and when to harvest them and offers techniques for keeping blossoms fresher longer in the vase. Each rose is captured in gorgeous color photographs by Saxon Holt.
The primary reason Rayford Reddell grows roses is for their blooms. He writes, "specifically fragrant, large, long-stemmed, and, most of all, long-lasting ones." This has been the guiding principle from his first 20-foot-by-40-foot garden of 140 bushes to his famous Garden Valley Ranch where he grows over 8,000 bushes.
Having grown garden roses commercially for their cut flowers for a number of years now, Reddell says it's not enough knowing which varieties to grow, but it's also important to, as he puts it, "coerce blossoms into extended vase life. It's time to share those tricks of the trade."
