Garden Books – Gardens Around the World and in Our Imagination

  • Post published:08/23/2019
  • Post comments:2 Comments
Gardenlust
Gardenlust by Christopher Woods

Gardenlust by Christopher Woods

The first of the garden books I’ve been reading is Gardenlust: A Botanical Tour of the World’s Best New Gardens by Christopher Woods (Timber Press $40).

Gardenlust is a beautiful book with stunning photographs of amazing gardens. Woods has very specifically chosen fifty gardens created in the past twenty years. There are gardens from North America, mostly the U.S., then on to the other Americas, Europe, Africa, India, Asia and Australia and New Zealand. Needless to say the approach and plants in each area are very different.

As it happens I visited the Chinese Garden of Flowing Fragrance at the Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino, California a couple of years ago. The Huntington also has a Japanese garden but this classical Chinese garden is very new.

The lake of Reflected Fragrance is in the center of the Garden. In this shan shui landscape with its plants, eroded limestone boulders, and lake the visitor sees mountains, water, and balance.

Obviously this garden is not located in a Chinese climate. However, California plants like sago palms, California incense cedar and other plants have found their place is this peaceful garden.

The importance of trees are much discussed as we consider climate change. The Tree Museum in Rapperswil, Switzerland is a small garden. Its two and a half acres are owner Enzo Enea’s collection of rescued trees. When he found trees about to be bulldozed and discarded, he brought them to his garden. There is an allee of bald cypress, and plants like a fragrant azealea in large pots. Sinuous clipped shrubs balance the strict geometry of hedges.

The Aloe Farm in Hartsbeespoort, South Africa is something of a display garden, a nursery and botanical garden. I am never likely to walk among the 400-500 species of aloe that grow in South Africa, but it is a delight to see their color and many forms in this wonderful book.

One Central Park in Sydney, Australia (1000 square meters) is made of two buildings, 16 and 33 stories high. The buildings are draped with hydroponic gardens which are comprised of 35,000 plants. There are also bougainvillea, and many other vines, and many grasses are planted on the roof. This garden and art installation attracted so many visitors, that an artificial lawn had to be installed around the buildings.

I hope I have tempted you to pick up this extraordinary book and continue exploring other wonderful gardens.

The Posy Book by Teresa H. Sabankaya

The Posy Book
The Posy Book by Teresa Sabankaya

The Posy Book: Garden Inspired Bouquets That Tell a Story by Teresa H. Sabankaya (Countryman Press $24.95) is a delightful book about the messages you can send to friends and loved ones.  A ‘posy’ is a small bouquet, and the message is created by the language of flowers.

There are other garden books that translate the language of flowers like Kate Greenaway’s Language of Flowers and Mandy Kirkby’s Victorian Flower Dictionary, but Sabankaya gives us a much larger vocabulary, as well as suggestions for specific flowers for arrangements.

The book suggests the flowers for many messages, and gives specific instruction on how to create a posy. Clear photographs make the process easy to understand.

Beyond that, she also suggests creating pretty sentiment tags the recipient can keep, a reminder of the sentiments expressed.

The Posy Book is not just a how-to. There is a history of the way flowers were used as symbols from ancient times. It is certainly easy to understand the appeal flowers have had over the centuries. Today flowers remain an important part of funerals, as well as weddings and other important occasions.

The final third of the book includes a large floral dictionary. In addition there are suggestions of particular flowers for specific occasions like goldenrod (encouragement), freesias (trust and thoughtfulness), dock (patience) and elderberry for kindness and compassion to be sent to a mother-to-be.

Flowers, plant and tree foliage, herbs, all can be used in a posy with its tender message.

The Green Giant by Katie Cottle

The Green Giant book
The Green Giant by Katie Cottle

The Green Giant by Katie Cottle (Pavilion $16.95) is only  one of the garden books available for the young set. However, there is always something all of us can enjoy and learn. In this case, Bea and her dog are finding summer on grandpa’s farm boring until . . . Bea chases the dog who chases a cat. Bea finds herself at a greenhouse filled with plants. There she meets the Green Giant. At  first she is frightened, but the Green Giant is friendly and tells her how he grew up in a gray city, until he ran away to the country.

All summer Bea, her dog and the Giant play among all the plants on the farm. When it is time to leave the Green Giant gives her seeds to bring back to the city. She spreads those seeds and the city becomes greener and greener.

All three books can inspire us about ways we can find to make our back yards, our home towns, and cities greener in every sense, and more beautiful.

Between the Rows   August 17, 2019

 

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Beth@PlantPostings

    Thanks for the recommendations: They all look great! I’m trying to cut back on the number of physical books in the house, but I’ll always have room for great gardening books!

  2. Pat

    Beth – I too am trying to cut back on physical books, but gardening books are so beautiful – as well as useful.

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