You would be forgiven if you think you don’t need another book about roses. But trust us: You do not want to miss Ngoc Minh Ngo’s supremely beautiful book Roses in the Garden. A deeply layered project, Ngo’s book captures rose-centric gardens from around the world over several years. “I wanted to include different cultures, different climates, and different ways in which the roses are featured in these gardens,” she explains. Ngo also wrote the history-laced text and drew the illustrations of roses that grace the cover and beginning of each chapter (color us impressed!).
The book began in a profoundly personal way when Ngo started photographing roses after her father, a rose lover, died. “It was a way of keeping his memory alive, but also there’s this whole world of roses that he didn’t know about,” she says. “I got more and more interested in roses and it all began as a way of showing him—to keep him in my thoughts.” Eventually Ngo decided to focus the book on the different ways roses are used in gardens, highlighting their versatility as a plant. Throughout the text she weaves in the rich history of roses in the garden and in art and literature.
The gardens themselves are atmospheric and gorgeous in a loose and lively way—nothing like the stiff, quintessential “rose garden.” Each one is documented from Ngo’s dreamy perspective. “The way I shoot gardens is all very intuitive,” she says. “It’s just responding to what’s there and what’s special at that moment.” Ngo’s unique point of view (and love of species roses and single-flowered roses) comes through in the pages of the book.
Below, Ngo shares photos from the chapter on Spilsbury Farm, the Wiltshire home of British garden designer, writer, and rose enthusiast Tania Compton and her botanist husband James. “Spilsbury Farm is everything that I wanted to cover in the book because Tania has a real passion for the rose. She uses them in all parts of the garden—in so many different ways,” says Ngo. From the formal beds near to the house, to the meadows, into the orchard, and along the paths–roses are everywhere.
Photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo.
Above: Ngo describes the plantings of the front garden at Spilsbury Farm as, “as free spirited as its owner Tania,” who tells Ngo “benign neglect” is the secret to her garden’s success.
Above: The flower garden at the back of the house, with a glimpse of ‘Ispahan’ blooming in the border.
Above: Spilsbury Farm in the month of June is a whirlwind of roses at every turn, including on Tania’s dining table, where tall delphiniums join in the merriment.
Above: In the tall grass along the path, Tania planted roses in groups of colors, the dark, richer tones of ‘Charles de Mills’ and ‘Tuscany Superb’ on the left and the lighter pinks of ‘Queen of Denmark’ and ‘Jacques Cartier’on the right.
Above: Rosa rubiginosa, planted with extra abandon, permeates the air around it with the scent of “spicy stewing apples after summer rain,” as Tania describes it.
Above: Ngo returned to Spilsbury in fall to capture the beauty of the rose hips, including the flacon-shaped coral hips of R. moyesii.
Above: Ngo shooting for the book.
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