They lived in an isolated area in the foothills of the Mazatzal Mountains where her husband worked a mine on the Collom property.

My husband spent his days working the mine; beyond cooking his meals and mending his clothes there was nothing for me to do except sit ... and gaze out over these hills.

She ordered botany books to educate herself and began writing to renowned botanists such as Joseph Nelson Rose, Thomas Henry Kearney and Robert Hibbs Peebles.

[6] Dr John Thomas Howell of the California Academy of Sciences, when naming Galium Collomiae wrote, "It is a pleasure and honor to name this distinctive addition to the Arizona flora in honor of Mrs Rose Collom who has done so much critical field work in that state.

[7] As well as collecting specimens, Collom made careful observations and detailed descriptions of the natural environments, bloom times, growing conditions and uses of native Arizona plants.

She was one of the acknowledged collaborators with botanists Kearney and Peebles when they wrote the book Flowering Plants and Ferns of Arizona.

In the Collaborators section Kearney and Peebles wrote of Collom that "the writers are indebted for the privilege of using her manuscript notes on the habitat, time of flowering and economic use of Arizona plants".

She was their Horticultural Chairman and helped to encourage the use of native Arizona plants for landscaping in home gardens and beside highways.

[5] Collom was also a member of the Arizona Cactus and Native Flora Society which, in 1937, founded the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.