Books you may like to hear about

[David Nicholson]

Remember those days (doesn't seem that long ago!) when Christmas neared and letters arrived from various Aunts "Didn't know what to buy for you so here's a "tenner", get something for yourself". No-one left to do that now for me but just in case you have here's just a few suggestions from the second-hand market that caught my eye. All available currently from the ABE Books Web Site from UK based book-sellers. Prices are net of post and package. I have more on my list if anyone is interested!

Gray Alec. Miniature Daffodils, Collingridge 1955, Ł13.00
Green Roy. Asiatic Primulas, AGS 1976, Ł2.00
Grey-Wilson Christopher and Mathews Victoria, Gardening on Walls, Collins 1983, Ł0.64. We had a thread about this recently.
Hughes Sophie, Carnations and Pinks, Crowood Press 1999, Ł0.63
Ingwerson Will, The Dianthus, Collins 1949, Ł2.00
Lowe Duncan, Growing Alpines in Raised Beds, Troughs and Tufa, Batsford 1991, Ł6.87
Philipson and Hearn, Rock Garden Plants of the Southern Alps, (NOTE: NEW ZEALAND) Caxton Press, Ł4.92
Richards E C, Our New Zealand Trees and Flowers, Simpson and Williams 1956, Ł8.00
Salmon John T,  A Field Guide to the Alpine Plants of New Zealand, Godwit 1992, Ł12.00 

[David Shaw]

"Hortus Veitchii".
Caradoc Doy has produced a facsimile edition of this book to mark the centenary of its original publication. There is information on the book on this web site:
http://www.caradocdoy.co.uk/veitch_nursery/hortus_veitchii/book_details
RRP is Ł95 but our members have been offered copies at Ł35 inc. p&p to anywhere in the world.
I think that orders should come to me for onward processing but am not sure about this. If anyone is interested in purchasing a copy of this book send me a pm or email and I will confirm what needs to be done.

[Maggi Young]

Good price David!

[Leena]

What book would you recommend for best information about Erythroniums?

[Maggi Young]

Leena, there isn't a book about  Erythroniums really. There is an old article by Elmer Applegate (1930s) on the western American species
 Ian Young has written articles for the SRGC journal and also the AGS.
There is a lot in his ten years of Bulb Logs, too, of course, since these are his favourite bulbs. http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=bulb

There will be a little article on E. sibericum in the next issue of the International Rock Gardener.
 

Also on the SRGC Website is a great series of 5 articles from Ed Alverson, on his project to see all the North American species....."My big erythronium year"  http://www.srgc.org.uk/monthfeature/content.html

edit to add -  Ian Young's e-book - Erythroniums in Cultivation -  in pdf form - 278 pages in full colour - is available to  download, free, via this link :
http://www.srgc.net/filessub/general/ERYTHRONIUMS-IN-CULTIVATION%20-2016-IanYoung.pdf

[Leena]

Thank you Maggi. 
I have read Ian Young's Bulb Log, and that is what has made me interested in Erythroniums 
The only flowering size Erythronium I have is 'Padoga', but I have sown a lot of seeds last year, and hopefully get more from the Seed Exchange this year. I want to be sure to give them right conditions when the seedlings grow, so that is what made me want to have a book about them.
I had not read "My big Erythronium Year" articles, so thanks for the link.

[David Nicholson]

Maggi, there is also Ian's article on Growing Erythroniums, the one in three parts. You were kind enough to send me copies on PDF files some years ago. I thought it came from the old Web Site but I've had a look and can't find it. (that doesn't mean it isn't there of course, you know what blokes are like when they are looking for something   ) I still have the files and would be happy to send them on to Leena if she will send me her personal email address to my personal email address.

[Maggi Young]

Re: Ian's three part article on growing Erythronium, as mentioned by David- I'd forgotten I had those here- I was going to ask Ian 
I'll send them to you, Leena

[Leena]

David, thank you for the offer.
Maggi, thank you for the articles, what a wonderful surprise when I opened the computer.

[FrazerHenderson]

18. Asirda Lâle [The Tulip in the 18th Century] by Ekrem Hakki Ayverdi

In the 1950s, Ekrem Ayverdi (1899-1984), a noted architectural historian and devotee of Ottoman culture, chanced on an album of tulip paintings in his native Istanbul.

The album, of quarto size, with a contemporary goat-skin and a gilded cover with a bossed, sun motif, contains 49 representations of tulips, one multi-flowered narcissus (a jonquil) and a single, poorly executed red-flowered cyclamen. The first four pictures are mounted on decorative collage pages with the rest on unadorned paper. Forty-four of the tulips are named, of which seven are repeated. The names are in Arabic, Farsi or Turkish, written in Arabic script.

So taken was Ayverdi with the beauty of the album that he resolved to find out more and sought to establish when and by whom the work was produced. By making comparisons with other works and investigating written information, the quality and type of paper and paints he was able to establish that the work was of the 18th century. Further research with reference to known dates by which various tulips and their cultivars had been named enabled him to establish that the work had been produced between 1726 and 1730. Ayverdi noted that the Defter-i Lâlezâr-i Istanbul, the register which gives over one thousand names of tulips grown between 1681-1726, includes 31 of the 37 named in the album, one appearing first in 1725/26. In addition, 24 of the varieties in the album are listed, with their prices, in the Narkh Defteri, the register of the Kadi (the Canon Law judge) of Istanbul for 1726. Since by 1750 the name of only one of the 37 varieties is found in the Risâle-i esami-i Lâle, a treatise on tulip names, Ayverdi concluded that the album dates from circa 1725, when the appreciation of tulips in Istanbul was at its height.

With a small selection of the pictures together with an introductory essay from Ayverdi about his investigations, a pamphlet was published by Kemal Press in the 1950s. It is likely that a book with the full range of illustrations from the album would have been too expensive for an independent publisher to produce. In later years Ayverdi disposed of the album in order to fund the publication of some works on architecture. Through various transactions the album made its way to auction in 1998 when it was sold for Ł111,500. A few years prior to its sale at auction a number of the pictures were reproduced in a book by the Turkish botanist Dr Turhan Baytop entitled Istanbul Lâlesi [The Tulip of Istanbul]. 

In 2006 the original Ayverdi essay together with all the album pictures was reproduced and published by Kubbealti Neşriyâti.  And just as Ayverdi had done so some 60 years earlier I chanced on this facsimile in an Istanbul bookstore and was similarly captivated and beguiled by the exquisite paintings.

The tulips are portrayed in a stylised form reminiscent of Tulipa acuminate.  The leaves are shown, in most representations, as being undulate. The flowers, delicately shaded in soft pink, carmine red, purple, orange, yellow and cream in whole or streaked colours, conform to the criteria required of the tulip in the Mizan'1 Ezhar (The Habit of Flowers), the authoritative treatise on the subject of the cultivation of flowers written in 1703 by Mehmed Lâlezari.

Though the tulips are shown without adornment, the scarlet flowered Nize-i-rummâni (‘the pomegranate –coloured lance’) is presented in an exquisite, cobalt-blue glass vase.  Ayverdi mentions that this tulip was the most expensive and was sold in the early 18th century for a price of seven and a half gold Turkish lira. He also mentions that the Nâib-I Krali (‘the regent’) was exchanged for 2 carts of oats, 4 carts of barley, 4 fat oxen, 12 fat sheep, 8 fat pigs, 2 barrels of wine, 4 barrels of beer, 2 barrels of butter, the equivalent of 50 kilos of cheese, one bedstead, a suit of clothing and a silver vase – and we thought that the apogee of tulipmania was in the Netherlands!

As Ayvedi says in his introductory paragraph “…this graceful blossom [of the tulip] became the sumbol of an entire epoch, and gave its name to an era. The Occidental Turks loved all flowers with unrestrained exuberance. Within the fellowship of Islamic civilization, it was solely the Turks who adopted the flower as an element, creating a distinctive and personal universe of ornamentation in architecture and in tiles. But the passion for tulips so far surpassed the affection for other flowers that it became a world in its own right.”

That affection is clear in the wonderful and evocative names given to many of the tulips in the album: ‘the augmenter of joy’, ‘the heart-breaker’ and ‘the bringer of joy’. But it is not only emotions that are evoked, senses managed to be affected, for it is interesting to note that one of the tulips, a carmine red with a white ground, is given the Arabic name which translates as ‘scented’. And though I stand to be corrected, I am not aware of any current tulip which has scent discernable to human olfactory senses.

If you should be in Istanbul I thoroughly recommend searching for a copy of the book: it is more likely to be found in a book shop rather than the book bazaar. There are a few English language copies available but they are hard to track down. The Turkish version will give equal pleasure. I’m sure that a few hours on the internet may prove fruitful in securing a good second-hand copy and whilst the price for such a copy may seem relatively high it won’t be anywhere near that charged at auction for the original album!

[Tim Ingram]

What a tremendous story! This must be the same book that Martyn Rix refers to in his recent book 'The Golden Age of Botanical Art', and there is a picture there of one of those amazing acuminate tulips. So presumably the 'species' sold as acuminata is really one highly developed by selection - fascinating how the aesthetic tastes of different horticultural cultures result in such different plants.

[FrazerHenderson]

Tim

Tulipa acuminata is indeed a hybrid of unknown parentage.

It was named botanically in 1813 (Vahl) and the name stuck.

There is a representation in Redoute's work on Liliaces where it is titled as Tulipa cornuta.

A couple of photograph's taken of the images within the book.

I should  have mentioned that my review is reproduced from the W&NETS 2012 Annual Journal.

[Gerry Webster]

Extremely interesting Frazer.

I think the Turkish botanist "Dr Turban Baytop" should be Turhan Baytop, after whom Crocus baytopiorum is named.

[FrazerHenderson]

Gerry - thanks, a keen eye - drafting infelicity now corrected

[Maggi Young]

Lorraine Green and Marcela Ferreyra : Flowers of the Patagonian Steppe

  Vazquez Mazzini Editores       www.vmeditores.com.ar


"A field guide to recognise the main species of the plants of the Patagonian Steppe, selected for their abundance, beauty and adaptations.

With attractive and detailed drawings in ink and watercolour, this guide describes in accessible language and with scientific accuracy the botanical features of each species, observations for their identification, scientific and common names, uses, flowering period, possibilities for cultivation, habitat, distribution, among other useful information. It also includes a botanical and medical glossary, as well as a list of the species present in the area. "

The unusual beauty of the Flora of the Patagonian Steppe.

250 species described – More than 300 colour illustrations

 see Here: http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9907.msg262911#msg262911