I've been having fun reading The Rockwells' Complete Book of Roses, published in 1958. It's fun
to look at gardening fundamentals from my parents' perspective again. It's really well written, if
a little naive sounding. One thing that has changed over the years: "Current prices range from $1.50
to $2.50 each. Brand new varieties may occasionally be somewhat more..."
Some things have changed. David

David, I'm already tasting the flavour of your fun reading... . For an outsider like me what would that price range be like nowadays? Would it be even wider? What other amuzing things you spotted?. Humour is very uplifting in these difficult times and I greatly appreciate your willingness to post it....
Arturo
PS I haven't even tried to see if I could borrow a copy here of that book written so long ago. The language barrier in many ways was effective those decades ago. Not so nowadays with Google translator...

Arturo, that book had many printings for many years so maybe you could find one. It's a charming book with excellent information although some it is naturally out of date, especially regarding chemical usage and general garden dress. However, the main info on rooting, hybridizing and growing roses has helped me immensely even as regards what I may be able to grow as it is not only focused on Hybrid Teas, but includes much information on OGRs. I find many of these older books much more detailed and leave me with something to learn each time I read them.

Sunset Magazine (a long time west coast home/garden publication) used to publish a lot of books about gardening and landscaping.
There were several devoted to specific types of plants, roses being one of them. I have a copy (somewhere...) of one such book of theirs dedicated to growing roses which was published in the late '50's or early '60's. It's a very generalized book and just covers basic rose growing w/o getting too technical.
One chapter deals with pests on roses. It includes a brief discussion on (now banned) pesticides that were widely used at the time. There was one sentence that went (something to the effect of) "..............should you encounter these troublesome insects on your roses, a simply application of DDT will usually solve the problem............".

DDT of all things !!!
I remember when you could buy that stuff and people used it on everything...including edibles.
My how times have changed !

I agree with you, Vaporvac, that the explanations and discussion of plant management are very helpful in this 1958 book. It's very descriptive and love the way then discuss the handling of roots and the hands on approach in general.

And Calsurf, the pesticides discussion is, as I said, naive and somewhat hair raising. Two more examples: The authors suggest for aphids "the old standard exterminator is nicotine sulphate or Black Leaf 40. Malathion is a specific...if used regularly, usually keep aphids under control." also For earwigs, a "5% dusting" of Chlordane or heptachlor seems to be just what the doctor ordered. However, the book was written in 1958 and the EPA banned Chlordane in 1988!

I'm still enjoying the book. It's as if I'm back in the garden with my dad...stomping out his cigarettes for him! Great memories. David