Books you may like to hear about

[Maggi Young]

Does this link work? http://www.kewbooks.com/asps/ForthcomingDetails.asp?id=798

[Giles]

 

[David Shaw]

I will be keeping an eye out for it but there is not enough information yet.

[ruweiss]

The Gesellschaft der Staudenfreunde ev. (German Perennial Society) published this book:
Gentiana, Gentians and related generas by Professor Dr. Juergen Matschke with 192 pages
and more than 200 colour photos. ISBN: 978-3-9808902-3-6, The price is 15 €.
I am just a hobby gardener, but must say, that I really like this book. It offers good advice
for cultivation and shows many species in good photos; also many which are new in cultivation.

[FrazerHenderson]

Wildwood - A Journey Through Trees by the late Roger Deakin. Penguin £8.99 Can$ 20  ISBN978-0-141-01001-4

This quite simply is my book of the year. It embodies the Reithian objectives of being educational (without being didactic), informative and importantly entertaining. The book reawakened my joy of reading, and sharing in the experiences of an other. At times, the prose is so enchanting that one has to put the book down to reflect in the moment. It is the embodiment of charm.

What could be better than a work in, on and of the ecology of life that is art, poetry, literature, culture and plants ......

As Roger Deakin says in the foreword:

A writer needs a strong passion to change things, not just to reflect or report them as they are. Mine is to promote a feeling for the importance of trees through a greater understanding of them, so that people don't just think of 'trees' as they mostly do now, but of each individual tree, and each kind of tree."

What comes through is not just a person, but a person of the best kind, and an individual.

A posthumous work Notes from Walnut Tree Farm has recently been published and which with the earlier Waterlog comprises a small yet significant canon - or rather delightful gifts.

[FrazerHenderson]

Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland - a field guide

This 848pp guide is to published on 31 Otober. It will be the most comprehensive fieldguide with hundreds of photographs and line-drawings. It will have a vinyl cver.

It is available at a special pre-publication price of £19.95 and can be ordered online using PayPal athttp://britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk/. In November the price increase to £25 - save £5 and order soon!!

[Paddy Tobin]

Worth a Read

“The Gardens of Wales” by Helena Atlee
“The Gardens of Wales” is a book I should have had several years ago when we took regular trips across the Irish Sea to visit Crug Farm and Aberconwy Nursery as well as Bodnant Gardens, Powis Castle and Plas Brondanw. The book should have been dropped into my lap with the Americanism, “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. Really, despite our regular visits, we had missed many of the great treasures of Wales – something which we shall have to set to rights before too long especially as Wales is so easily accessible to any of us living on the east coast with ferries from Dun Laoghaoire, Dublin and Rosslare.

Helena Atlee has already written well on “The Gardens of Portugal” and “Italian Gardens: A Cultural History” and her writing is both informative and pleasant to read. In this book she presents a most interesting range of gardens both large and small spread around Wales though there are two main collections, one in the north and another in the south, making them even more suitable for the ferry traveller from Ireland. While she has covered the better known gardens perfectly well, it was reading of the other gardens which I most enjoyed and, certainly, her writing would encourage me to seek them out in future visits to Wales. The photographs are an excellent accompaniment to the text and bring it to life. This is an excellent garden guide and one which will make a garden outing to Wales all the more certain of enjoyment. [The Gardens of Wales, Helena Atlee, Frances Lincoln, London, 2009, HB, 128pp, ISBN 978-0-7112-2882-5, £16.99]

The Tomato Book: A guide to the pleasures of choosing, growing and cooking by Gail Hartland and Sofia Larrinua-Claxton
This book is written by two enthusiasts, two lovers of tomatoes, of growing them and of eating them. They hold no claim to being experts other than having grown tomatoes for many years and having tried many, many different varieties. Over these years they have kept accurate notes on how each variety performed in cultivation, their taste and their suitability for culinary uses. It is simply an excellent book, a simple book indeed presenting its information in a user friendly way with no unnecessary frills or padding. After a short introduction the main part of the book describes a wide range of tomatoes gathered together in groups according to type: cherry, plum, standard globe, beefsteak etc. Cultivars are recommended for sauces and salsas, soups and salads. There is a section on cultivation in the garden or under protection, notes on possible pests and diseases and the book concludes with a selection of tasty recipes. After reading the book I have already identified a number of cultivars which I will try next year. The regulars, Alicante, Moneymaker, Gardener’s Delight and the like are all very fine but Black Krim, Cherokee Purple or Extra Sweetie might be next year’s crop. [The Tomato Book, Gail Hartland & Sofia Larrinua-Craxton, Dorling Kindersley, London, 2009, HB, 192pp, ISBN: 978-1-4053-4118-9,£12.99]   

The Gardens of Frank Lloyd-Wright by Derek Fell
Inevitably, the front cover of this book has a photograph of Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd-Wright’s most famous architectural project and, it has to be said, that he is certainly better known as an architect rather than as a landscape architect. However, on reading this book I am certainly enlightened and impressed by this aspect of his work and now realise that Frank Lloyd-Wright made a significant contribution to this area. As an aside, when asked by the owners to complete the work at Fallingwater and landscape the area around the house, he suggested that what was already provided by nature was sufficient and only added some native plantings to bulk up what was already there. This approach typifies his landscape work as he was ever conscious of the nature of the site and worked with it rather than attempt to change it while using native plants in his planting schemes. The book describes his work at his two homes, Taliesin, his summer home on a prairie hillside in Wisconsin and Taliesin West, his winter home in the Sonora Desert in Arizona. By way of information, Taliesin was an estate of some 3,000 acres and his landscape plans involved the purchase of houses and businesses within view of the house and removing them, the planting of thousands of trees – entire woods, in fact, the damming of streams to create lakes and even adopting methods of farming which best suited the design. A retelling of a conversation he had with his neighbour is both amusing and illustrative: Wright complained to him that his Guernsey cows were not producing enough cream and so his neighbour suggested he switch to Holsteins. Wright thought over the proposal for a moment and replied, “Jack, Holsteins are black and white. Black and white on green? No; black and white do not look good on green. Never bring anything black and white or red and white in the way of an animal in sight of my eyes – coffee and cream, which are the colour of my Guernseys, on green, are the three most restful colours you can find. That is why I have Guernseys, and why I want nothing but Guernseys.”

Given that his two homes are situated in very different areas and conditions the accounts of his work on both are contrasting and interesting. There are also reports on his work on other projects which widens the range and interest of the book. In all this is a most interesting book, well written and excellently illustrated by the author’s photographs. Personally, while I enjoyed the book immensely, I could not imagine myself enjoying Frank Lloyd-Wright’s company – just an impression I took from the book. [The Gardens of Frank Lloyd-Wright, Derek Fell, Frances Lincoln, London, 2009, HB, 160pp, ISBN: 978 0 7112 2967 9, £30] 

The Rose by David Austin
Have these two words, Rose and Austin, become synonymous in the past ten years or so? Certainly, David Austin has been the most prominent breeder of roses of late and his introductions have added greatly to our enjoyment of roses in the garden and has also made that enjoyment much more easy as he bred plants which were more resistant to pests and diseases while holding the beauty and scent of what we might call “old-fashioned” roses. It is to be expected then that when such a man writes on his specialist subject he would produce a book of the highest standard, well informed and well presented, and there is no disappointment in this regard. This is certainly an outstanding book and one which any rose enthusiast will enjoy greatly.

This is a substantial book which brings us through the history of the rose in the garden, the various classifications of the rose, to a treatment of roses in the garden and house with guidelines on their care and cultivation. It is an important point to make regarding this book that the book deals widely and in a fair representative manner with the rose. There is a danger that the author might give an unbalanced amount of attention to roses of his own breeding but this is not the case at all. No, this is an excellent and balanced general treatment of this most favourite and persistently loved garden plant. If you enjoy roses you will delight in this book. It is an outstanding treatment of the subject by an author who is not only an expert but also loves his subject. [The Rose, David Austin, Garden Art Press, Suffolk, 2009, HB, 352pp, ISBN: 978-1-870673-53-2, £39.50]

[FrazerHenderson]

As a follow up to Paddy's reviews you may be interested in a review of recent books on Welsh gardens or should that be gardens in Wales (including that mentioned by Paddy) by Stephen Lacey in the Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardenstovisit/4943878/Gardens-of-Wales.html
 

[Maggi Young]

This talk of gardens in Wales reminded me of a book I've been meaning to mention:
"Close: A Journey in Scotland " by Allan Pollok-Morris .
ISBN 978 0 9560338 0 2 Published by Northfield Print  ( www.northfieldprint.co.uk ) circa £20

This book is a record of the author's travels around many gardens of Scotland and is illustrated with many fine photographs ( taken by the author). Recorded are great  Scottish gardens, often, though by no means exclusively,  designed and created by Scots . An inspirational book, documenting some of the finest garden dsign you will see anywhere.... I make no apolgy for my favourite being the Aberdeen garden of a friend, Tom Smith, a magical place that never fails to delight.
The book is something of a " coffee-table" publication.... very beautiful to look at and certainly the smart sort of book to have to hand .... but I would like to own it, nonetheless..... I was only given a loan of a copy  

Writing this makes me realise we must visit Tom's garden again soon.... and take pictures for the forum!


See some of the photos from the book here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3539145/Close-A-Journey-in-Scotland.html

[Lvandelft]

Abe Books delivers in G.B. incl. PP for ca. £ 13.50 !

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

I've also seen in the last few days mention of a book with a title along the lines of, "Scotland for Gardeners". I haven't chased it up and will probably let it pass.

Has anyone read Dan Hinkley's new book, "The Explorer's Garden, Shrubs and Vines from the four corners of the world"? This is a follow-up on his "The Explorer's Garden" which dealt with herbaceous plants, published ten years ago. This volume was meant to follow on quickly but, obviously, was delayed somewhat.

I'd like to hear other people's opinions on it. My own opinion is that he has missed the boat somewhat in that the plants which are the subject of the book are no longer the novelties they were when he collected them. Perhaps, with our proximity to Crug Farm we have had access to much of the plants he writes about whereas gardeners in North America may not have had the same access. Nonetheless, I am finding it an interesting, informative and pleasant read.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Franz,

I've read Stephen Lacey's reviews of the two book. What caught my attention were the comments on Portmerion. I have to agree with Anderton's comments about this place. It certainly is not, in my view, a garden and an afternoon spent there was interesting simply because the place was so odd and quirky.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Maggi,

I've also seen in the last few days mention of a book with a title along the lines of, "Scotland for Gardeners". I haven't chased it up and will probably let it pass.

Paddy

Paddy, the "Scotland for Gardeners" book is the latest venture from Ken Cox, with photos mostly by his brother, Ray.
 http://www.gardeningscotland.com/pdf/Glendoick%20Garden%20Centre.pdf
Ian got a copy but I haven't had much of a look at it yet.  It's a kind of giant list of gardens and nurseries  

[Paddy Tobin]

Maggi,

That's the one. It's not one which is of immediate interest to me so I will let it pass.

Paddy

[Paddy Tobin]

Another book of Scottish interest arrived by courier today: "Mary McMurtrie's Country Garden Flowers", published by Garden Art Press. I know someone mentioned, with delight, receiving some of Mary McMurtrie's paintings recently. Having glanced through the book, which contain, as might be imagined, numerous examples of her work, I can understand the attraction. She has a very gentle style and her paintings have a very attractive softness of finish to them which is very pleasing to the eye. 

I'll comment when I have it fully read. In the meantime it must join the queue of books to be read. I find I have to discipline myself in this manner as the temptation to read the latest received book so often leads to those previously received being neglected even forgotten about completely.

Paddy