Whenever I read a children’s picture book that has botanically incongruous pictures, such as hollyhocks and daffodils blooming together, I am peeved. Children are ignorant enough of the botanical world without reinforcing that ignorance. I am similarly put out to read a novel set in New England where the dahlias are blooming in spring. It lets me know that, not only is the author not a gardener, but he/she failed to do enough research to enable me to suspend my disbelief. I fall out of the fictional world with a thud.
A Gardening Geek for a Heroine
Author Margaret Dilloway has done her homework. Not only is Galilee Garner, the main character, a convincing gardener, she’s an entirely convincing gardening geek. Gal breeds roses for a hobby, and not just any roses, but Hulthemia roses (which I had to look up). Gal knows rose pedigrees by heart, has her own particular schedule for pruning and feeding and watering, and remembers from past experience that when she must use a pesticide in the greenhouse, it needs to be less than full strength, or bad things will happen. Gal doesn’t even realize how much she knows about roses until she tried to teach her niece how to help her. As a gardener, Gal rang true to me. That, in itself, was very satisfying.
It’s A Great Story
I just didn’t want to put it down
Giveaway
I am very happy to share this wonderful novel with five of my readers. That’s right, I have five copies to give away! As I mentioned above, you don’t have to be a gardener to enjoy The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns. It would be a great gift for anyone who loves to read, but gardeners will have the added pleasure of identifying with one of our own. To earn a chance for a free copy, submit a comment below and tell us your favorite garden read. If you tweet this post, put that in another comment for an additional chance. If you share this on Facebook, put that in its own comment. (By the way, have you liked Cold Climate Gardening on Facebook? And are we friends?) The giveaway will end on Sunday, August 26, 2012 at midnight. Winners will be chosen by random and will be announced on Monday August 27, 2012. This giveaway is limited to readers age 18 and older who have mailing addresses in the U.S.
The Winners
The winners were chosen at random using the sequence generator at Random.org. The winners are:
Kylee from Our Little Acre
patsposies
barbara
Lynn
Julie
They have been notified by email. Thank you to everyone for participating!
My favorite gardening inspired authors is Rosamunde Pilcher. She wrote many books based in Great Britain occuring in many different eras. They are all my favorites with their descriptions of English gardens and of meals; two of my favorite things. “The Shell Seekers” is one of her better known novels. I am looking for an English tour of the regions she wrote of and of sample gardens she has described. Call that one for my bucket list!
Hmm, I guess I really should add a book that I like that is related in some way, to the topic. My all time favorite is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Trees have a lot to do with gardening, would you agree? It was such a good novel! By the way, I also tweeted this…so that’s 3 entries now. Thanks!
Sorry, I got so excited that I forgot to sollow the rules. I like Reap a Wicked Harvest: A Gardening Mystery by Janis Harrison So is local, and writes cozy myteries.
Well, if KP couldn’t put this book down, that is high praise. I want to read this book.
Stanley Kunitz’s The Wild Braid is in my top 3 gardening books. So soulful!
I love that one, too.
I shared it on my Facebook wall, Kathy. “Kathy is giving away 5 copies of the book ‘The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns’. More than a gardening book, it’s about friendship. Visit her blog and leave a comment for your chance to win.”
Sounds like a good read–count me in the contest! I read more fiction than gardening books, and one of the best novels I’ve read this summer is “The Language of Flowers” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. It’s not a gardening book at all, but the heroine relates better to flowers than to people. Very thought-provoking.
I’ve requested that from my library.
I would love to get back into The Naming of Names by Anna Pavord and have a new garden book to add to my stack of books in progress. Thanks for the recommendation 🙂
I don’t have a favorite gardening read. I guess it’s any one that I’ve got at the moment. It’s nice to know about this book. If I win I would share it with my mom, who is equally a garden-geek and more of a reader than me.
I am always looking for books related to gardening. Currently reading ORGANIC GARDENING not just IN THE NORTHEAST.
The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns looks like a good read would love to have a copy.
Have a wonderful day,
John
Count me in the contest.
I shared this on my Our Little Acre Facebook page, too. Thanks for the great review and the opportunity to win a copy!
Giveaway tweeted! 🙂
P.S. I shared this on FB, I was so happy to see a good gardening novel 🙂 Now I get an additional entry? Woo hoo!
Kathy, The last novel I read was a John Grisham — delighted to have your recommendation on this one! I would enjoy sharing this with my rosarian mother, too.
This sounds great (well maybe except for the kidney disease part). My all time favorite book is “The Secret Garden”>
Sounds like a fun read. I know what you mean about incongruity in novels when it comes to plants. I once read a novel by a Louisiana author that was set in South Texas. He talked about the timber industry there, ha! You would be hard pressed to find a tree taller than a 2-story house down there. Same thing happens in movies. Anyway, I’m not sure if I have a favorite garden novel, though there are some enjoyable memoirs by gardeners such as Page Dickey.
Kathy, This sounds like a good book, I’m always looking for something interesting to read, and the fact that the protagonist is a gardener makes it sound ideal! We met briefly at the Seattle Fling.
I’m always on the lookout for a good novel to read, and when it involves gardening, that’s just bonus right there! That’s why I loved “The Language of Flowers” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh so much. I have a feeling I’d enjoy this one, too.
Well, I definitely want to read this!!!
I would love to read this- my roses have had a hard summer. So I’ve missed their perfume. This book could just make a fall weekend perfect.
A plant novel – my dreams are coming true. Put my name in the hat!!
A great fiction book that also has gardening in it…oh yes my kind of book…seems like I will be adding it to the must read pile whether I win or not…thx Kathy!
Always interested in a good read. Even better when it is rose related. Will have to check this one out. Thanks.
I’m in the Gardening for Dummies category as I still have a lot to learn. I love to read though.
Donalyn sent me here — I think it sounds like a great book. This has been a dismal year for my garden — would love to at least enjoy a good garden read.
My roses are a bit neglected this year… They could use this book… I’ll read it to them.
Was watering my roses tonight…. one of the thornier bushes grabbed my leg… I swear it wants that book! I think I may have a garden revolt on my hands!
Should be an interesting read. Thanks for the review.
How true – it seems the more we know and learn, the more we can identify when other gardening pictures or random books have incorrect pictures. My BIG pet peeve is having actually seen gardening design books and/or catalogs that show an arrangement of colored plant combinations that don’t bloom the same time! I’m sure that just makes the learning process longer for new gardeners. Would LOVE to read this book!
I just started reading The Language of Flowers, hopefully it will live up to its description!
I like Gardening All-in-One For Dummies! Right up my alley!
Beverly Nichols wrote witty, whimsical books that were not quite fiction, but not quite non-fiction.
I will admit that I don’t have a favorite fiction garden read. We need more!!! But I have spent many an hour picking through Barbara Damrosch’s _Garden Primer_. In fact, I have two copies–one waterlogged and muddied that lives with my garden equipment and the other on my proper garden book shelf. Someone will have a difficult time writing a book that provides sound advice with such a voice of personal experience and common sense.
For fiction, Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles series. The books are great fun — mysteries, with recipes! I always pick up some bit of herbal lore, too. I’m eager to try some of these other suggestions — I’m with you that too many novels get the gardening just plain wrong.
Ditto, movies. My boredom index is in direct correlation with the number of garden/plant anomalies I find in a movie. Hostas in medieval England, that sort of thing. 🙂
My new fav gardening book is:
The Good Food Revolution by Will Allen
I also shared the giveaway on Facebook. Thank you!
I don’t have a fave book but love my OK Gardener magazine.
Sounds like a good read and I like a good read. I haven’t looked at children’s books with a gardener’s eye, will have to go back through some of them and see if the ones I have on the shelf are as incongruous as the ones you saw.
I used to read a lot and have gotten back into fiction again. I like the escape for a few hours.
I just read The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. It’s about a young woman, Victoria, who spent her life in the CA foster care system. She communicates & grows through flowers & their meanings. Heartbreaking but well written, with mostly good character development. It’s got all the flower & garden stuff: parks, florists, wholesale markets, vineyards, flower farm, greenhouses, art. I would highly recommend it for a quick end of summer read!
You have made a most convincing case for needing this book, Kathy! If I don’t win it, I will buy it or see if my library can get it. Radical Prunings is right up there for me, too, but Beverley Nichol’s Merry Hall is also one of my favorites.
I too am irked by botanical errors in novels. My pet peeve is the mention of exotic plants that hadn’t yet been imported to England and Europe in a historical novel, or American plants described as British wildflowers.
My taste is the same as Cindy’s. I loved Radical Prunings.
Kathy, it sounds delightful. Like you, I am peeved when I read a book or see a movie where the garden is so unrealistic. I am now reminded of several that irritated me. 🙂 I’m excited that the protagonist is a garden geek like us too.~~Dee
I can pick a favorite gardening book about as well as I can pick a favorite plant…it changes. Right now, I am enjoying Home Ground by Allen Lacy. A very entertaining collection of miscellany.
I saw this book somewhere and thought it might be interesting. My favorite garden read is probably RADICAL PRUNINGS by Bonnie Thomas Abbott. It’s just so danged funny!
I need a new book and this one sounds good…I won’t purchase yet, I might have a chance to win this drawing!
One of my favorite garden books is the Time Garden by Edward Eager. It’s a children’s book that I read many many years ago but was the first book that made me want to find out about a plant and grow it. The plant was thyme and I still have an affinity for it!
I’ve recently enjoyed The Founding Gardeners but agree with Deborah B that the Henry Mitchell books are always an inspiring read.
Stop by http://www.thedirtdiaries.com for a free North Carolina mountain holiday!
I just read about this book elsewhere and thought how much I would love it! I, too, am always appalled when gardens aren’t realistically portrayed in either literature or film…it makes me look for other discrepancies in the work instead of just enjoying the entertainment. I enjoyed Garden Spells, which I read a few years ago. Very entertaining. Happy gardening!
My favorite garden read is any of the Henry Mitchell books. I re-read them every two or three years. Still the best!
I’m privileged enough to be able to indulge my inner gardening geek in the garden by my holiday home, and my inner book geek in the city apartment where an entire room has been set aside as “The Library” – a chair, a small occasional table and lots and lots of bookcases form the only furniture, so I love it when the two melt together.
I don’t live in the US, so count me out of the give-away, but you’ve definitely made me want to read this novel anyway. (And I do have some book vouchers sitting around, just BEGGING to be used for some winter-time reading…)
Sorry you didn’t qualify for the giveaway. I hope you do get a chance to read it. Thanks for commenting.