White Flower Farm, Logee's, and JP, which is now Park Seed, but still fun to look at. very glossy!

I get DAs, Heirlooms, J&Ps, and looked at the electronic one of Edmund's but DAs is by far the best although I have enjoyed each one. My DA one lives in the bedroom for before bed reading and thus rose dreaming. Regardless, I have ordered unplanned roses from each catalog because the photo caught my eye. Oops. That is the danger of winter and catalogs.

Am there, doing that!

harmony, just some added comfort that you are not the only one who keeps the DA catalogue in the loo! besides, the colors look nice in the bathroom!

Oh my goodness, this cracks me up! MY Austin catalog lives in the bathroom!! I like the Edmunds catalog too. I have some seed catalogs that I look at a lot also. (forgive any mistakes here- I'm typing on my kindle and am NOT good at it!)

Vintage Gardens large catalogue, hands down. It is really more of a book - an encyclopedia of old roses.

Jackie

Jackie, does the catalog from Vintage Gardens have photos? I thought about buying it but didn't see anything about photos in the description.

Yes. The catalogue has lots of photos but not of every rose. It's a great reference. I particularly like the effort they make to demonstrate a rose's growth habit.
Caveat--I got really frustrated when I first received it--seems the roses I want aren't regularly stocked.
But it's a great catalogue and well worth the money.
Susan

Oh Susan, you just made my day. I just found the ordering page for Vintage Gardens Complete Catalogue and I'm ordering it today. This is not just one year of reading, but rather looks like many years of reading. On a funny but yet completely serious note, this one will take over the large loo, and DA will go into the smaller loo (since I've memorized every word already). I'm really excited. I hate to waste one prescious moment in life!

I completely understand! There are GORGEOUS photos and it is definitely a lifetime keeper. Might want to laminate so you can enjoy in the bathtub too. Enjoy.

I do love looking at the Austin catalog, but like Jackie I feel the Vintage Book of Roses is the best. I've learned far more from Gregg's wonderful decriptions than looking at a million photos.

Vintage, hands down. It's the most educational compact rose BOOK I own. They present the classes with such logic, give the heritage of many plants, share their opinions on the true identity of various 'found' plants, openly state if a particular plant is a weak grower, etc..

A mammoth reference. I love the historical background they present on each rose class & how it has evolved, e.g. how early HTs may resemble their HP ancestors or present a more modern growth pattern, how a plant classed by Modern Roses as a noisette is more appropriately called a tea-noisette, how a Bourbon plant favors either its China or damask ancestry, how hybrid musks aren't really (well, kinda/sorta)

It's like a printed Roses Forum :)

Thank you guys so much for suggesting this. I cannot wait until it arrives. Way more than what I was hoping for. I have always wanted to be more educated on the non-modern roses, and sounds like this will be the ideal book for that.