Where can I find photographs of rose bushes/trees that are more than just individual or even multiple flowers. I want to know the form and shape of the bush, how tall it is, whether the stems are strong enough to hold the flowers without drooping/nodding.
Even better it would be nice to find photographs of roses as entire bushes/trees and also in their environment of other flowers and trees, etc., to show in what sort of situations they look most beautiful.
There are a few such photographs in two books I have, âThe Quest for the Roseâ, by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, and âThe Graham Stuart Thomas Rose Bookâ.
Online mostly all you get is close ups of the flowers.
I know that in HMF, when you upload a photo, you are prompted with multiple choices for the photoâs subject matter. âHabit/Whole Plantâ is one of those categories.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to determine how to use that category as a search feature. Perhaps Kim might explain, because Iâve been curious myself.
It really is frustrating, especially when youâre starting out, to look up a rose and not see any pictures except for the bloom. Especially since so many hybrid teas have exceptional flowers with terrible foliage and form. I feel like there are a lot of small and esoteric details that add up to a weird barrier to entry for new potential rosarians. I have thoroughly enjoyed spending so much time researching all of the different categories and species of roses but thatâs not most peopleâs cup of tea.
But to actually answer your question Iâve dound HMF to be the best source, but if itâs a somewhat popular rose you can often find whole plant photos uploaded to Facebook if you donât mind having to do a bit of searching.
In such cases, I use two sources in addition to Hmf. Unfortunately, the Hybrid Teas are not so well represented. Sometimes, however, you are lucky and the variety you are looking for is available with helpful details.
Below are the two links:
here with the example of the rose âLa Franceâ remark: is recently somewhat affected by advertising. Donât let that
bother you. Just scroll to the end. There are often some interesting pictures
too.
remark: the text part is unfortunately not written in English
I am not aware of any better ones. Maybe it will help you one or the other time anyway.
You can alter the photos shown on HMF on the rose pages (perhaps requires a Premium membership, I donât know, but try) by going to the particular rose page and click on the photos tab. You should see this. Notice the checked boxes on the left side? If you donât get this, it may require a Premium membership.
Then, click on âRegenerate Photo Listâ so it sorts for only those photos which have been marked as whole plant. The âfailingâ will be if there are photos which show the entire bush but the uploader failed to mark them as âwhoe plantâ. Otherwise, the photos marked âwhole plantâ will be sorted for. Once youâve finished with that, be sure to recheck all of the boxes and regenerate the photo list to show all the photos or the next time you go to look for photos, youâll only see the whole bush. Or, I do, as I remain signed in to the site and open the tabs in my browser when I restart the computer daily. I donât know if it will return to the default if you sign out of HMF or not. Feel free to explore that to determine whether it does or not. Where I usually hit a problem is I will search for my photos, looking for a specific photo I wish to find and forget to resort for everyoneâs photos, so I have to stop and resort to go back to ânormalâ. I hope that helps.
I have, for years, encouraged people on every rose forum I frequent to PLEASE show whole plant photos as they are rare everywhere. Hopefully, itâs helped to raise awareness of the benefit of a photo of the entire plant. Of course, the down side is the plant size will vary greatly from one extreme set of conditions to the opposite.
Definitely agree HMF and the rose-biblio site are both very useful.
For hybrid teas/floribundas/shrubs, I also find the website Rosebook often has good whole plant pictures submitted by users. Itâs in Russian but I just use my browserâs built in translation tool and can navigate the site without any problems.
Thanks Kim. I didnât try it within a rose selection. I was thinking there might be a way to filter for whole plant photos of all roses, but that isnât one of the selection criteria there.
Youâre welcome, Lee. Iâm not sure what benefit being able to search all roses for full bush shots may be, compared to specific varieties. Iâll pass the suggestion on up the line to see what they think. Thanks!
The Help Desk has added the request for adding a whole plant selection to the New Recent search. It may be a couple of weeks before itâs seen as there are other updates in the works and they need completing prior to adding anything new. Thanks!
Thatâs cool! Hopefully it might be helpful to the OP. Personally, there are a few spots in my garden where form is more important than the flowers, and being able to filter down to those views would be nice.
Most of the photos you refer to are features of catalogues. The objective here is to advertise and SELL.
Many of the nurserymen, growers etc also write books on roses. This is where so much more detail can be gleaned. Many of the larger growers also have also made a going concern of, setting out their establishments as rose gardens and the like, encouraging personal visits where a much more overall appreciation of the rose can be enjoyed. Hope this helps.
Please list for everyone these catalogues that feature pictures of the ENTIRE PLANT, and not just glamour shots of its flowers. Iâm sure weâd all be amazed to realize weâve missed this fabulous resource.
Welcome to the forum, Mike.
If you are not familiar with e.g. Helpmefind, it is entirely self supported, independent of any nurseries or commercial support. You donât find many such sites.
Images shared are supposed to be the contributorâs own.
HMFâs entire raison dâetre is to provide objective gardener-driven reviews.
It has its flaws to be sure, but is an incomparable resource.
