About Me

Carolyn Parker, gardener, author and photographer, shares her everyday world inspired by roses––from pruning and publishing, to cooking and photo sessions.

A budding passion for roses fired up yearnings to learn all I could about them. As my familiarity grew with roses in our garden, I marveled at their diversity and tried to capture daily rose magic with my camera.

Photography is a great creative outlet, but I also felt a need to write about roses––there’s just so much going on with them.

The learning curve was comfortable with gardening. Acquiring roses, planting them properly, searching for companion plants seemed intuitive for me, and fun. Trial and error (there were lots of mistakes), persistence, and Mother Nature are master teachers.

Photography and writing were another story. Bad pictures and overwrought, ungrammatical prose can be discouraging, but time, the help of friends, dedication, and an uncontrollable urge to share the joy of roses finally won out.

I’ve written and photographed two books––"The Poetry of Roses" (an anthology) and "R is for Rose: Reflections of a Passionate Rose Lover." I’m also a newspaper columnist, with a monthly rose column.

I live in Lafayette, CA, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our home and garden are on a flat, sunny, corner lot, which is approximately half an acre. Leroy, my husband, and I grow about 300 roses, whose ranks are always changing. Numerous flowering shrubs, herbs, and perennials join and enhance the mix.