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Where the Old Roses Grow

Vita Sackville-West and the Battle for Beauty during Wartime

Janelle McCulloch

There was no electricity at Sissinghurst. No water. There was not a single decent, ready-to-move-in room. The only habitable dwelling was the nearby Castle Farmhouse. But Vita did not want the farmhouse. She wanted the ruined castle.

Vita looked up at the tower, which rose above it all. She imagined it as a writer’s retreat, surrounded by rose gardens. She surveyed the long, misty views over the gentle Kent landscape, and then walked through the run-down kitchen garden, the orchard of old apple trees, and the remnants of a nuttery. She could see how it could all be transformed from ruin to botanic reverie. How, in summer, the warmth would reflect off the ancient bricks,the climbing roses would clothe and embroider the buildings and gather on the tops of windows and doors to meet in scented narrative, and the flower beds would be filled with nodding perennials.

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Format
Hardback
ISBN
978-1-91490-218-5
Publication Date
19-Sep-2024
Category
Lifestyle

There was no electricity at Sissinghurst. No water. There was not a single decent, ready-to-move-in room. The only habitable dwelling was the nearby Castle Farmhouse. But Vita did not want the farmhouse. She wanted the ruined castle.

Vita looked up at the tower, which rose above it all. She imagined it as a writer’s retreat, surrounded by rose gardens. She surveyed the long, misty views over the gentle Kent landscape, and then walked through the run-down kitchen garden, the orchard of old apple trees, and the remnants of a nuttery. She could see how it could all be transformed from ruin to botanic reverie. How, in summer, the warmth would reflect off the ancient bricks,
the climbing roses would clothe and embroider the buildings and gather on the tops of windows and doors to meet in scented narrative, and the flower beds would be filled with nodding perennials.

Most of all, she could see that Sissinghurst would be perfect for growing her favourite flower: the old-fashioned rose.

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During the Second World War and in the decades after it, a group of rose lovers, including the writer and gardener Vita Sackville-West, the florist Constance Spry, and the horticulturist Graham Stuart Thomas, realised that heritage roses were becoming endangered.

Fearing for their future, these rosarians began collecting rare, old roses to save them from dying out while England’s gardeners were away fighting on the front. Where the Old Roses Grow tells the extraordinary story of how they did this, while the German bombers were scorching the skies, Hitler was advancing on their lives, and hope was being extinguished, month by month.

This is a tale of gardens and roses in wartime, and of fortitude and tenacity in the face of great loss and pain, but it is also a story of hope. It celebrates the achievements of an inspired group of rose lovers, who saved Britain’s favourite flower, so it could survive and bloom for future generations.

The Author

Janelle McCulloch is a journalist, biographer, and published author of more than 20 books. Her biography of Joan Lindsay, the author of Picnic at Hanging Rock, was short-listed for the Best Illustrated Non-Fiction Book in Australia in 2018. Several of Janelle's books on gardens, design, travel and Paris have reached number one on Amazon in the USA.