Books you may like to hear about

[FrazerHenderson]

For UK and Irish interest:

Wildflowers of Cork City and County by Tony O'Mahony. This book is the product of field work since 1964! A book full of photos and over 1200 plant species and hybrids are covered. It can be obtained from The Collins Press, West Link Park, Doughcloyne, Wilton, Cork.

British Oaks - A Concise Guide by Micheal Taylor. Crowood Press. 237pp, colour-ilustrated. £25

Wych Elm edited by Max Colman RBGE 148pp colour-illustrated. £20. Available from RBGE - a great book which synthesises art and botany (-as an aside, is botany the work of a great artist?).  I love this sort of story: an individual tree is felled and becomes furniture, art, jewellery ...

Flowers of the Forest by Clive Chatters. Wildguides 246pp £25. A return to old style, literate botany in the New Forest.

Lichens of Great Britain and Ireland by British Lichen Society 1,046 pages!!! Illustrated. £70. The Lichenologists Koran/Bible.

The Fumatories of Britain and Ireland by Rosalind Murphy BSBI. 121 pp maps and ilustrations £12.50

Finally if anyone is interested in recording Orchids in the island of Ireland then log onto www.habitats.org.uk/orchidireland, which is a 4 year, cross-border project.

Good reading

Frazer

[Maggi Young]

Not books in this instance but bulletins from the Potomac Valley Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society........
Jim McKenney, their bulleting editor has posted this info on a couple of other sites and I thought you might find some interesting browse material in their archives.......

Jim offers a glimpse into their March issue and tells of the other  back issues available online........
 For the March taster, take a look here:

http://www.pvcnargs.org/image_page_for_march_2010_pvc_bu.htm

 Bulletins going back to July of 2005 can be viewed from the Bulletins page:

http://www.pvcnargs.org/Bulletins_PVC_NARGS.htm

 

There are loads of interesting images scattered through those bulletins.

Jim McKenney

Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS

Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org

 

Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org

 

 

[arisaema]

Anyone know what the status is for "Flowers of Western China" by Grey-Wilson et al., published by Kew?  It's one I had been looking forward to all last year, but it's no longer listed as a forthcoming title

[David Shaw]

Are you sure that it was due to be published by Kew, Arisaema? I don't remember seeing it during my searches and I try to keep up to date with what is on the go.

[arisaema]

I am, I was checking the Kew Books web site regularly looking for updates. It still shows up on a Google search, but the web page was removed recently. NHBS still lists it as being due in 2009, and I seem to remember someone here in the forum mentioning having seen a printed draft?

[Giles]

Gardens Illustrated: June 2010: Plant Profile 'Meconopsis', by Ian Christie.
8 pages. Fabulous photographs.

[FrazerHenderson]

Recent county floras published..

A Flora of Suffolk by Martin Sandford and Richard Fisk (548pp colour-illustrated) £40hbk.Cheques to Suffolk Flora fund 78 Murray Road, Ipswich IP3 9AQ

Flora of Hertfordshire by Trevor James (518pp colour illustrated) £45 Herts Natural History Society

Warwickshire's Wildflowers. The wildflowers, shrubs and trees of historic Warwickshire by Steven Falk. Hardback, 304pp with colour illustrations on nearly every page and a colour-coded checklist. Available from publisher Brewin Books.

also a mention of

Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland - a field guide by British Bryological Society (848pp colour-illustrated - 1400 photographs and keys. Book weighs 1.3kg) book comes with handy plastic wallet Only £24.95 Available from www.britishbryologicalsociety.org.uk

Grasses of the British Isles. BSBI Handbook No 13 by T Cope and A Gray 612pp available from BSBI http://www.bsbi.org.uk/

[FrazerHenderson]

Taschenflora des Alpen-Wanderers by Ludwig and Professor C Schroter
1904. Albert Raustein, Zurich
Henderson Rating 4/5

Copies of this book which contains botanical notes in French, German and English can from time to time be seen in good second hand bookshops. The price tag is usually quite hefty because of the emblazoned cover. I was quite fortunate on an excursion to North Wales to pick up a copy at a snip (£4). I think it's worth it for the cover alone - the content is very good and the images are clear.

[Maggi Young]

Forumist Magnar Aspakar has a new book of portraits of some of his garden plants.
This "Frodig blanding" ('Luxurious Mix')  has only a sample of the 2000 or so plants he and his wife, Toril, grow in their Norwegian garden but will be delightful if the cover photo of the exquisite Eriopyhtum wallichii - one of my all time favourites- is anything to go by!
 
 See details here.....
http://magnar.aspaker.no/
The  book has 96 pages , all photos are from he Aspaker garden.
The book can be ordered by post  from Magnar at magnar@aspaker.no

Price with post and packing 230 Norewegian kroner (About £25)

Congratulations to Magnar on publishing this volume...... and Ian and I also wish every success to Göte  Svanholm in finding a publisher for his most excellent book.

[mark smyth]

There is a new Hosta book, Little Hostas, out now that features only miniature plants. Available from Amazon, Book Depository and other book stores

[FrazerHenderson]

Mark - thanks for the tip on miniature hostas. My wife adores them (never leaves a Flower show without a least a couple of specimens) and is building up a collection, so this may suit the purposes for a present.

The following might contacts might prove useful:

http://chestofbooks.com/flora-plants/index.html: this site provides books which can be read for free online. There are a number of alpine books.

Woodside books produce a quarterly catalogue of botanical books details from ann.gipps@btinternet.com

[Giles]

Alpines - from Mountain to Garden.
Richard Wilford
Published by Kew. £29

A large format book, which after an intro on alpine gardening, covers the world region by region, who plant hunted there, and what they found.
Interspersed with pages with more information on particular plants of interest.
Photographs of plants in their native habitat, and in cultivation. Some historical botanical illustrations too.
Not a 'how to grow alpines' book, more background reading for alpine gardeners.
Alot of very desirable plants covered, many I've never seen/heard of before.

[FrazerHenderson]

FOUR HEDGES by Clare Leighton
Little Toller Books www.dovecotepress.com
2010. 170pgs. 80 illustrations £10
Henderson Rating 4.6/5

Looking for a present? Then I well recommend this charming reprint of a 1935 classic written by one of Britain’s finest writers/wood-engravers. The book is artlessly written and beautifully illustrated with distinctive wood engravings. It is certainly one of my top reads this year. The introduction by Carol Klein (Gardeners World) was a revelation –

“No matter how many people have read and will read this book everyone will feel that she is speaking directly to them, showing them the sweep of the reaper’s arm, helping them feel the weight of the apples, how the grass smelt, how cleggy the earth felt. There are moments of astonishment, deep joy and humour. Who wouldn’t identify with pulling off the gardening gloves, the better to get to grip with the soil, to feel it and love it, abandoning not just gloves but all inhibitions and restraint that deny the visceral experience of gardening. Without being subjected to any deliberate manifesto we are persuaded, we want to join the cause. We yearn to find in our own garden the wonder Clare elevates from the familiar.”

Art (or indeed poetry) and gardening seems to be in tune with our sensibilities and are so often intertwined (for example is not our own bulb expert also an accomplished artist?): this book is a fine example of such a confection.

Below the dust jacket (A Lapful of Windfalls) and an internal illustration…

[FrazerHenderson]

The Laskett: the story of a garden by Roy Strong
Bantam Press www.booksattransworld.com
270 pgs  oodles of photographs and line drawings
£25
Henderson Rating 4.6/5

Another splendid read: the story of the creation of a modern formal garden in Herefordshire. Sir Roy has an engaging, conversational writing style as one is escorted around his (and his late wife’s) garden. Great stories enjoyably told, full of interesting facts and asides conveyed with ease and accessible scholarship. A real pleasure.

I do believe -possibly along with Kathleen Swift’s The Morville Hours (see earlier review) - that this book is the finest description of the creation of a garden yet written.

It is genuine shame that we do not see more of Sir Roy on the TV talking about gardens and gardening – it would be grand for a change to have a provocative, literate, informative yet entertaining presenter.

[FrazerHenderson]

One of the benefits of snow and ice is enforced domesticity and the chance to explore one's own library. So after a bracing walk (or trudge),its hot chocolate, Chopin and a good book.

And Garden Party by Sir Roy Strong certainly fits into that category. The book is a collection of 51 stimulating and entertaining short articles on gardens and gardening.

The afterword by A.N. Wilson provides a splendid summation:

" Sir Roy was blessed at birth, or the font, with the tongue of a ready writer. His prose is compulsive...like a glittering conversation with the best-informed and most charming of companions."

Technical details: 250 pgs. illustrations by Julia Trevelyan Oman.
Frances Lincoln Publications. £14.99 (but availalbe at amuch reduced prices almost anywhere). Henderson Rating 4.5/5.