y passion for roses found expression when my identity changed from New York fashion designer to suburban gardener.

After marrying and completing four years of art school, I designed clothing for a small company in Berkeley, California. Following the birth of my two daughters, I started my own fashion design business with a showroom in New York's garment district. The eveningwear I designed sold in over 100 specialty stores across America. When my fashion career completed its course, I began a life devoted to roses.

The transition of grooming women in colorful silks to tending exquisitely attired blooms seemed natural. Roses became my teacher, confidant, photographic muse, and tale-spinner. Communing with the blooms brought revelations of deep meaning, and I often thought others would love to know the things I was discovering.

Hints of a greater purpose inspired my gardening and photography efforts. I tested my rose photography by selling photo-greeting cards, and started a small flower business specializing in gift baskets of roses. The many rose arrangements were terrific photography subjects.

Three years later, in New York, I presented a photography portfolio to publishers the same way I formerly introduced buyers to a fashion collection. The Poetry of Roses, my first book, published in 1995, resulted from this trip. The pleasure of choosing rose poems for the anthology and illustrating them with my photographs was a gift beyond my dreams.

I enjoyed promoting my book and had fun trying to figure out the format for my next book. In the meantime, I became a garden designer. My love for roses and their many companions found new expression in my present business Rose Place Garden Design.

The idea for my latest book, R is for Rose, came to me while standing under a blooming arch of Rosa Rouletii. The thought was to fashion an 'R' out of Rouletii's flowers and branches for the word Rose. When I realized the resulting 'R' was also the rose's initial, I wanted to create a gorgeous book featuring the entire alphabet in roses!

Enjoy the website. I hope you can almost smell the roses!