Product Description

Twice a year America's rose lovers cut the prettiest blossoms off their best plants and travel to the national rose show, where they lovingly groom their precious blooms for hours in a frigid hall in order to contend for the highest honor: the Queen of Show. Doctors. Teachers. Sheet metal mechanics. Lawyers. Truck drivers. Men and women. These are type A gardeners, and for them this is a blood sport. They grow tender roses in the frigid North and disease prone roses in the humid South simply for the challenge. They decorate otherwise lovely yards with paper bags and panty hose to isolate their choice specimens. They traipse through overgrown fields in the worst weather to save antique roses from extinction.

Aurelia Scott trails these self-professed Roseaholics as they plan, prepare, and compete, battling high winds, Japanese beetles, and the finicky demands of their precious charges. With all the appeal of Word Freak, Otherwise Normal People celebrates the singular satisfaction of cultivating beauty—and, of course, the thrill of victory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #582213 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 235 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Scott, a freelance journalist from Maine, hung out with several of the gardeners competing in the American Rose Society's 2004 spring national show. She discovered a subculture "where brain surgeons and construction workers are social equals," with a freewheeling competitive "spirit of make-do and can-do" that inspires improvisations like creating rose beds out of 40-gallon trash cans. (Two glossaries explain the classifications and other terminology for unfamiliar readers.) Scott's narrative structure—a chapter with each of her topics, building up to the competition, with a brief epilogue—is similar to the film Best in Show, but she doesn't poke fun, and for the most part she's caught up in their "infectious" enthusiasm for roses. Whatever weight they exert on her own passion for gardening, however, remains largely unspoken. When Scott admits that her desire to practice organic gardening is dampened by her jealousy of the blooms an interview subject achieves spraying with chemicals, the personal revelation is jarring in its unexpectedness. The backseat approach frees Scott to elaborate on the outsized personalities of the gardeners she met. If only their colorful stories were matched by photographs of the flowers they raised. (May 18)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
A rose is a rose is a rose, but don't try telling that to the hundreds of self-acknowledged "rose-aholics" who wake in the middle of the night, pack up jury-rigged coolers and containers laden with pristine blossoms, and head off down the highway to compete in local, regional, and national rose exhibitions. Scott follows the most passionate of the bunch as they prepare gardens, prune canes, protect blooms, and pinch back buds, all in the hopes of taking home crystal bowls, silver candlesticks, and, at the very least, blue ribbons proclaiming their prowess at growing some of Mother Nature's finickiest flowers. As colorful as the bouquets they propagate, Scott's rosarians represent an ecumenical cross section of the American landscape: PhDs seek advice from long-haul truckers, first-generation immigrants compete against Mayflower descendants, and long-married couples bond over blooms. With a breezy, infectious enthusiasm, Scott offers a vividly engaging account of big-time rose competition and the seemingly average individuals who take leave of their senses in this addictively sensory pursuit. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A testament to the sheer nuttiness of what happens when you cross unchecked human ambition with nature."--Seattle Times (Seattle Times )

"Has done for rose growers what the mockumentary 'Best in Show' did for dog shows and 'The Orchid Thief' did for orchid collectors. . . . [Scott] explores a subculture that is as entertaining as it is obsessive."--Boston Globe (Boston Globe )

"Her book will amaze and entertain. . . . If you enjoy the deeply focused but friendly nature of gardeners, you'll savor every page of this true story of passion and obsession."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle Post-Intelligencer )

"Investigative visits with some gung-ho rose-lovers, who reveal their methods motivation and super-competitive ways. Scott, a journalist and rose grower in Portland, Maine, treks cross-country from her hometown to various sunny spots in California, stopping at the homes of numerous rose experts to find out why the flowers enthrall these cheerful, hardworking, deeply committed people. . . .Along the way Scott offers some fascinating bits of historical trivia. . .The laborious agonies of creating beauty, captured in relaxed, anecdotal prose." --Kirkus Reviews

"Investigative visits with some gung-ho rose-lovers, who reveal their methods motivation and super-competitive ways. Scott, a journalist and rose grower in Portland, Maine, treks cross-country from her hometown to various sunny spots in California, stopping at the homes of numerous rose experts to find out why the flowers enthrall these cheerful, hardworking, deeply committed people. . . .Along the way Scott offers some fascinating bits of historical trivia. . .The laborious agonies of creating beauty, captured in relaxed, anecdotal prose." --Kirkus Reviews (Kirkus Reviews )

"Scott leads readers through the slow, diabolical transition that takes 'otherwise normal people' from hobbyist to serious grower, putting rose-mania in perspective for the rosarian and the amateur. She has a light, humorous style. . . .You will never look at a rose the same way again." Washington Post (The Washington Post )

"The rose gardener's answer to our recent intrigue with dog-show people, spelling-bee aficionados, bird-watchers and any other over-the-top hobbyist who, when viewed closely, demonstrates how human nature can hang its hat on one topic ferociously so."--Rocky Mountain News (Rocky Mountain News )

"This fun read . . . offers the rose lover's equivalent of the film Best in Show. . . . [Scott] observes this fascinating subculture lovingly. . . . You don't have to aspire to showing the world's best-ever 'Peace' to enjoy the ride, and Scott manages to sprinkle plenty of fascinating rose history into her brew." Houston Chronicle (Houston Chronicle )

"With a breezy, infectious enthusiasm Scott offers a vividly engaging account of big-time rose competition and the seemingly average people who take leave of their senses in this addictively sensory pursuit." --Booklist

"With a breezy, infectious enthusiasm Scott offers a vividly engaging account of big-time rose competition and the seemingly average people who take leave of their senses in this addictively sensory pursuit." --Booklist (Booklist )

"A testament to the sheer nuttiness of what happens when you cross unchecked human ambition with nature."--Seattle Times (Seattle Times )

"Has done for rose growers what the mockumentary 'Best in Show' did for dog shows and 'The Orchid Thief' did for orchid collectors. . . . [Scott] explores a subculture that is as entertaining as it is obsessive."--Boston Globe (Boston Globe )

"Her book will amaze and entertain. . . . If you enjoy the deeply focused but friendly nature of gardeners, you'll savor every page of this true story of passion and obsession."--Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle Post-Intelligencer )

"Scott leads readers through the slow, diabolical transition that takes 'otherwise normal people' from hobbyist to serious grower, putting rose-mania in perspective for the rosarian and the amateur. She has a light, humorous style. . . .You will never look at a rose the same way again."
—Washington Post (The Washington Post )

"The rose gardener's answer to our recent intrigue with dog-show people, spelling-bee aficionados, bird-watchers and any other over-the-top hobbyist who, when viewed closely, demonstrates how human nature can hang its hat on one topic ferociously so."--Rocky Mountain News (Rocky Mountain News )

"This fun read . . . offers the rose lover's equivalent of the film Best in Show. . . . [Scott] observes this fascinating subculture lovingly. . . . You don't have to aspire to showing the world's best-ever 'Peace' to enjoy the ride, and Scott manages to sprinkle plenty of fascinating rose history into her brew."
—Houston Chronicle (Houston Chronicle )

"With a breezy, infectious enthusiasm Scott offers a vividly engaging account of big-time rose competition and the seemingly average people who take leave of their senses in this addictively sensory pursuit." --Booklist (Booklist )

Customer Reviews

Rose Madness?!
I truly enjoyed this book! Regardless if you show roses or not, this is a very informative book. I don't show my roses but as rose lover I really enjoy looking at "healthy looking roses" and learning so I really had a good time reading this book. Too bad it doesn't have pictures!!!!
It's a very easy and pleasurable reading! It makes me want to see the rose gardens she mention!

Otherwise Normal Review
If you're into roses, you'll read this book with a smile and also with a notepad to record new tricks of the trade.
The personalities of the featured rosarians definitely "come through."
The style, subject matter, and the rosarians are a delight.
This is a must read for any serious rosarian.

The other side of growing roses
The innocent reader who knows nothing of roses will believe that extraordinary measures are necessary to grow them properly. Fortunately, that's completely untrue *unless* one plans to exhibit. The majority of people who love and grow roses have no interest in exhibition--but rather in the beauty of these plants.

The book is entertaining, certainly, but modern hybrid teas interest me not at all, so I was disappointed by Scott's lack of attention to old-garden roses.

A technical reader familiar with roses should have assisted in the production of this book. It is, unfortunately, rife with factual errors. Just an example from memory: Scott discusses 'New Dawn' and claims it was "bred" by a particular nursery. No, it wasn't. The most cursory research would have revealed that 'New Dawn' is a repeat-blooming sport of 'Dr. W. Van Fleet'. A sport is a spontaneous genetic mutation, thus 'New Dawn' arose from 'Dr. W. Van Fleet' and was not itself "bred" (hybridized).

A copy editor would have been useful as well. Somewhere near the beginning of the book Scott refers to someone "pouring over" reading material. Please.