Gardening History

The author presents 100 garden favourites with the stories behind their names. From Abelia to Zinnia, every flower name is explained.

isbn: 1565121384

Between the 1680s and the 1750s, a group of politicians and poets, farmers and businessmen, heiresses and landowners began to experiment with the phenomenon that was to become the English landscape garden. Arguably the greatest British art form ever invented, these gardens were built to charm and delight, to shock and inspire all who visited. That these gardens - including Castle Howard, Stowe, Painshill and Rousham - are still so popular with visitors today is a testament to the innovation and passion of this extraordinary group of eccentrics and visionaries."The Arcadian Friends" takes a highly engaging perspective on the politics and culture of England during the Enlightenment. At the same time it will be required reading for the legions of fans of the great gardens of England. Tim Richardson introduces us to a period of poltiical and personal intrigue, where fantastic biblical landscapes competed for space with temples to sexual freedom; and where the installatioin of a water feature was a political act. "The Arcadian Friends" tells the story of a collection of fascinating characters whose influence changed the landscape of Britain for ever.

ISBN: 9780593060377

"Botanic Gardens: A Living History" is a comprehensive and practical guide to the world's foremost botanic gardens. This visually stunning book unearths the fascinating history of the botanic garden, from the first modern gardens founded in Northern Italy in the sixteenth century, to the technological achievements of contemporary gardens, such as the Eden Project in Cornwall. "Botanic Gardens" draws on a range of iconographic and textual treasures including photography, architectural plans, drawings, scientific journals and personal accounts. The key personalities involved in the establishment of the gardens are profiled - an extraordinary catalogue of explorers, scientists, noblemen, botanists, visionaries and dreamers. The architecture of the gardens is explored and the gardens' relationship with the wider world is also dealt with in depth. Featuring text by a range of writers including historians, scientists, horticulturalists and architects, this book is the only truly comprehensive and up to date survey of these institutions. Global in scope and culturally important, "Botanic Gardens" is a vibrant beautiful book.

ISBN: 9781904772729

This reference work explains the grammar and syntax of botanical Latin, and covers the roots and origins of Latin and latinised geographical names, colour terms, symbols and abbreviations, diagnoses and descriptions, and the formation of names and epithets.

isbn: 0715316435

One January morning in 1734, cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London's Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram, his new contact in the American colonies. But it was not reels of wool or bales of cotton that awaited him, but plants and seeds...Over the next forty years, Bartram would send hundreds of American species to England, where Collinson was one of a handful of men who would foster a national obsession and change the gardens of Britain forever, introducing lustrous evergreens, fiery autumn foliage and colourful shrubs.They were men of wealth and taste but also of knowledge and experience like Philip Miller, author of the bestselling "Gardeners Dictionary", and the Swede Carl Linnaeus, whose standardised botanical nomenclature popularised botany as a genteel pastime for the middle-classes; and the botanist-adventurer Joseph Banks and his colleague Daniel Solander who both explored the strange flora of Tahiti and Australia on the greatest voyage of discovery of modern times, Captain Cook's Endeavour.
This is the story of these men - friends, rivals, enemies, united by a passion for plants - whose correspondence, collaborations and squabbles make for a riveting human tale which is set against the backdrop of the emerging empire, the uncharted world beyond and London as the capital of science.From the scent of the exotic blooms in Tahiti and Botany Bay to the gardens at Chelsea and Kew, and from the sounds and colours of the streets of the City to the staggering vistas of the Appalachian mountains, "The Brother Gardeners" tells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners.

ISBN: 9780434016129

Over the ages humans have sought out plants across the globe for many uses: to heal wounds, cure disease, soothe troubled minds, kindle love or evoke curious dreams. Gardener and botanist David Stuart tells the story of that search, and how the world of plants has interacted with the world of humans in the quest. This is not only a story of soothing balms and heroic cures. Many plants have a dark side to balance the light and most of the really powerful and effective plants are double-edged. They can heal or kill, calm us or enslave us, cure depression or roar us off to meet strange gods and monsters. The relationship between humans and plants is a complex one. Stuart relates amazing tales of how the quest for plants has sparked wars, helped establish international trade routes and generated fortunes. COVER PRICE £25.00

ISBN: 9780711222656

Five years after returning from his trip around the world on HMS Beagle, the young Charles Darwin became the owner of Down House in Kent, where he moved his growing family, far away from the turmoil and distractions of London. He would live here for the rest of his life. It would become the place where he began work on his masterpiece "On the Origin of Species". For almost twenty years he used the garden around him as his laboratory. In the orchard he conducted experiments on pollination. He built a dovecot where he could breed new strains of pigeons that helped him understand the questions of generation. On his daily walk along the sandbank he observed how plants competed for survival. In his heated greenhouse he conducted experiments on orchids and primulas.In solitude he was also able to struggle with the ideas of evolution that had haunted him since his voyage, and give him the courage to publish his revolutionary new ideas. Bringing Darwin's garden to the present day, Boulter unfolds a shining portrait of the formation of one of England's greatest thinkers and his relationship with the place he loved and shows how his experiments that he conducted over 150 years ago are still revealing new proofs and revelations as we continue to search for the origins of life. 'I much enjoyed "Extinction", and its many conclusions, for which I have every sympathy. I wasn't brought up in science, but I do now begin to see what a vital thing it is in any life' - John Fowles. 'Boulter has an intriguing tale to tell...It is indeed a story worth telling, and a book worth reading' - John Gribbin, "Independent". 'Engagingly argued' - "Times Literary Supplement".

ISBN: 9781845295998

Illustrious gardening writer Ursula Buchan has combined forces with the prince of garden photographers, Andrew Lawson, to explore the English garden and capture its extraordinary richness and diversity. Focusing on gardens that are open to visitors, she explains the historical trends and the work of garden makers of the past that have shaped the English gardens we see today. With a wealth of outstanding examples, illustrated with 350 photographs, she describes many garden styles - formality, the landscape tradition, the Arts and Crafts style, the cottage garden and recent phenomena such as New Naturalism. Colour, water, ornament and foreign influences are among the themes she considers, as well as such defining characteristics as the very English urge to grow flowers and the nation's love of roses.

isbn: 0711226385

Unravels the hidden histories of plants that sustained empires, from sugar and cotton to tea and opium Real-life adventures of planters, traders and smugglers by authors of the highly successful The Plant Hunters (over 12,000 copies sold in hardback) Exciting, vivid stories which bring a new and original perspective to the rise and fall of nations, peoples and empires Illustrated with dramatic contemporary photographs, beautiful botanical drawings, paintings and cartoons COVER PRICE £20.00

ISBN: 9780304354436

This book celebrates the plants of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Quran. From acacia, the wood of the tabernacle, to wormwood, whose bitter leaves, as absinthe, flavour alcoholic drinks, 81 chapters cover the more than 100 plants in the holy texts that have true botanical counterparts. Fascinating stories of the fruits, grains, grasses, trees, flowers, and fragrances include botanical characteristics, habitat, uses, and literary context. Richly illustrated with extensive colour, this delightful ecumenical botany offers the welcome tonic of a deep look into an enduring, shared natural heritage.

ISBN: 9780881928556

For hundreds of years, as Europe explored the world beyond its shores, intrepid adventurers, botanists and plant hunters sent back seeds and specimens of the thousands of flowers they came across on their travels. In Britain in particular, nursery-men and aristocratic garden lovers set about experimenting with each new influx of botanical material, to create the variety of garden flowers we know today. More than 300 artworks have been selected from the Royal Horticultural Society collection to illustrate Flora, with flowers arranged according to the region from where they were originally sourced, Europe, the Turkish Empire, Africa, Asia and Australasia and the Americas. A chapter is dedicated to each of these regions - opening with an essay on the significance of the area to the horticultural world, and unfolding with beautiful illustrations of the flowers originating there. All the major floral categories are included, as well as some fascinating rare varieties.

isbn: 1902686330

Whether roses from China, geraniums from Southern Africa, hibiscus from the Pacific or orchids from the Americas, all the best-loved garden flowers are illustrated in this book, along with the story of their journey from the wild species in far-flung places to domestic varieties in our gardens. For hundreds of years, as Europe explored the world beyond its shores, intrepid adventurers, botanists and plant hunters sent back seeds and specimens of the thousands of flowers they came across on their travels. In Britain in particular, nurserymen and aristocratic garden lovers set about experimenting with each new influx of botanical material, to create the garden flowers we know today. This book tells the story of this evolution, drawing on the superb archive of the Royal Horticultural Society.

ISBN: 9781902686141

In an era when supermarket conformity rules, it is refreshing to discover that there are still wonderful, traditional varieties of fruit and veg out there waiting to be grown and tasted. What about Glaskin's Perpetual rhubarb, quick to settle in and ready to be cut in its first year? Or Alderman peas, deliciously sweet even when they reach the size of marbles? Not to mention Ashmead's Kernel apple, as devoured and praised by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: 'exploding with champagne-sherbet juice infused with a lingering scent of orange blossom'.But "Forgotten Fruits" is more than a guide to these unusual varieties. It's also a fascinating work of natural and social history. Did you know, for example, that beetroot was instrumental in ending the slave trade? Or that observing gooseberries helped Charles Darwin to arrive at his theory of evolution? Or that there are over 2,000 varieties of cooking and eating apples in Britain alone? If you want to grow a bit of history in your garden, if you'd like to get a real taste of the huge variety of local produce that Britain has to offer, or even if you just want to find out a bit more about how rural life in the UK has evolved over the past centuries, "Forgotten Fruits" will prove irresistible - and enlightening - reading.

ISBN: 9781905211807

This text traces the use of ornamental features throughout the history of the Western garden, and explores the variety that are still being sold in salerooms. It presents some tried and tested principles of design that can still be applied to the typical modern garden. COVER PRICE £16.95

ISBN: 9780500280799

The flowering plants in a garden, and their variety of colour and form, are the result of hundreds of years of tradition, science, skill and intrepid exploration. They may be native plants which have been carefully selected to provide larger blooms or a great colour range, exotic species with origins in distant lands, or cultivars which have been painstakingly bred to confirm to an ideal of shape and form. This book probes into the past histories of many of the world's most popular cultivated plants, to discover how and where they lived in the wild, and relates uplifting tales of their discovery is some of the remotest regions on earth. There are insights into how plants that are now simply decorative were once used for medicinal or cosmetic purposes, or for food or ritual, and also into how they earned their common or Latin names. Author Dr John Grimshaw adds his own enthusiasm and personal planthunting experience to bring his text to life and creates a lively volume for active gardeners, plant enthusiasts and amateur horticulturalists. COVER PRICE £18.99

ISBN: 9780316856348

This volume collects 50 stories of gardening invention, innovation and discovery. Among them is that of Thomas Hyl, who in 1577 devised the first water sprinkler; Nathaniel Ward who began a craze for indoor gardening in 1829 with his terrarium case; and Henry Telende, who in 1720 grew England's first pineapple. From the invention of the trellis, flower pots and the waterscrew in the ancient world; via secateurs, jute string and flame guns in the Victorian age; to the Gro-Bag and Flymo of modern times, the ingenious achievements make an inspiring international collection. COVER PRICE £14.99

ISBN: 9780750925433

These gardens of obsession are visionary, magical, beautiful, dreamy, witty and bizarre - all personal realizations of driven, all-consuming fantasies in the garden, representing all classes and all economic resources. These gardens are metamorphoses of dreams into garden realities. They use all sorts of materials, and range from large rocks shaped by Prince Orsini in the 16th century into Renaissance beasts below his villa near Rome to 20th-century plastic flowers floating in green corrugated sheeting in the front garden of Clifford Davis's terrace house in Blackpool. There are gardens that lie in the jungles of Mexico, a back garden in Chartres, France, a rock garden in India, and many "Edens" and paradises in the USA, as well as Holland, Spain, Scandinavia, South Africa and Australia. COVER PRICE £25.00

ISBN: 9780297823735

Gardens Through Time tells the history of garden design through the story of the Royal Horticultural Society, from its foundation in 1804 to the present day. The history of British gardens has rarely been tranquil. Architects and horticulturalists invariably come to blows over garden design. This debate, as well as the influx of exquisite plant material from all over the world, keeps gardens vibrant and interesting. The society that started life 200 years ago with 7 well-connected men now serves and educates over 280,000 people. Gardening has bloomed into a GBP3.5 billion-a-year industry. Written by presenters, Jane Owen and Diarmuid Gavin, this is the story of the Society, plants, people, ideas and inventions behind the passion. It concludes with a look at the contemporary garden specially designed by Diarmuid for the TV series. Combines carefully researched historical material with commissioned photography. COVER PRICE £25.00

ISBN: 9780563487159

This is a celebrated body of work, long out of print. It is based on lectures presented internationally to European and American professional societies but intended as a complete survey. The book provides comprehensive coverage of major aspects of modern landscape philosophy, design and practice and is illustrated throughout with photographs, original pictures and drawings.MINT/ NEW COPY

ISBN: 9781870673129

Traces the history of greenhouses and conservatories and shows examples from Britain, Europe, and America.

ISBN: 9781854101136

This is a thematic book with a loosely chronological structure. An introductory chapter explains why garden restoration has become increasingly important and popular. Chapters then look at how modern technology has helped garden restoration; why certain gardens need restoring because their style is no longer fashionable or they have lost their original identity through neglect; and the need to restore gardens created by important designers or plantsmen, or gardens that have been destroyed or neglected because of war. A final chapter shows why major garden restorations contribute to gardening history. There is also a gazetteer of the gardens, indicating which ones can be visited by the public.

ISBN: 9781845332716

Richard Taylor, author of the best-selling "How to Read a Church", joins forces with garden historian Andrew Eburne to produce the ultimate guide to historic and modern gardens. Gardens are amongst the fastest-growing visitor attractions today - in the UK alone 15 million people will visit a garden this year. "How to Read an English Garden" is the essential book for every garden lover. It provides an account of the different elements of gardens of all ages and explains their meaning and their history. Here, you'll find the answer to such questions as: when were tulips introduced into our gardens, and what was 'tulip-mania'? What is a knot-garden, and what was the origin of its design? Who was 'Capability' Brown, and how did he get his name? And why are mazes such a common feature in English garden design? In addition, the book explains how lawns, flowerbeds, trees and ponds came to be a feature, not just of grand houses but of gardens everywhere. Among the many subjects covered are: garden design, plant introductions and collectors, kitchen gardens, water gardens, and garden styles from around the world - English, American, Chinese and Moorish to name just a few. Clearly laid out and beautifully illustrated, "How to Read an English Garden" brings historic and modern gardens to life: a book to accompany garden visitors everywhere, or to be enjoyed and dipped into at home.

isbn: 0091909007

The twenty-five landscape designs selected for this book have changed the way we look at landscape. Each is here separately explored and illustrated and the reasons for its importance and influence explained. The present state of the sites will be noted - and almost all can be visited - but the main purpose of the book is to show how each subject has both reflected contemporary artistic trends and influenced their course. Visitors today sometimes find these gardens bewildering: their meanings obscure, their aesthetics alien. Katie Campbell shows how in the early years of the twentieth century landscape designers attempted to create a new style for the modern era. They combined industrial materials and avant-garde aesthetics to create startling new spaces. They turned to contemporary art and architecture for inspiration and explored Jungian iconography to imbue their sites with meaning. They erected some extraordinarily potent landscapes. More recently, designers have sought ways to fuse architecture with landscape, to use metaphor, wit and irony or scientific theory, or to evoke the wilderness in city spaces. The book ranges through public and private designs in Europe and the Americas - from Fletcher Steele's steel and concrete to Luis Barragan and Isami Noguchi.

ISBN: 9780711225336

It's Spring 1941 and London is being destroyed by the Blitz. Gwen Davis, a young horticulturist, leaves the city for the Devon countryside. In charge of a troop of Land Girls, her job is to rebuild the grounds of a neglected estate. The manor is far removed from the fighting but Gwen has her own battles - as she struggles with her shyness and fear of intimacy to create a community among her girls. Then Gwen meets two people who will change her life. Raley, an officer awaiting posting to the front and Jane, a frail, free spirit whose fianc? is missing in action. Through them, and the beautiful garden that she stumbles upon, she finds a flowering of a different sort -her own profound capacity for love, even in the face of pain.

ISBN: 9780747568131

A fascinating history of Britain's plant biodiversity and a unique account of how our garden landscape has been transformed over 1000 years, from 200 species of plant in the year 1000 to the astonishing variety of plants we can all see today. Thousands of plants have been introduced into Britain since 1066 by travellers, warriors, explorers and plant hunters - plants that we now take for granted such as rhododendron from the Far East, gladiolus from Africa and exotic plants like the monkey puzzle tree from Chile. Both a plant history and a useful reference book, Maggie Campbell-Culver has researched the provenance and often strange histories of many of the thousands of plants, exploring the quirky and sometimes rude nature of the plants, giving them a personality all of their own and setting them in their social context. The text is supported by beautiful contemporary paintings and modern photographs in 2 X 8 pp colour sections. COVER PRICE £25.00

ISBN: 9780747272144

How did exotic, oriental plants find their way into the borders of English gardens? Penelope Hobhouse - plantswoman, garden designer and authority on historic gardens - is uniquely qualified to shed new light on the absorbing history of gardens from ancient Egypt to the twentieth century. Available in paperback, this is the definitive book on the history of gardens and gardening which describes the evolution of the Western model and explains the various historical factors which have created the modern idea of gardening as both art form and popular pastime. In her magnificent survey of the rich heritage of Western gardening, Penelope Hobhouse's engrossing text is perfectly complemented by an unsurpassable collection of beautiful illustrations that range from the earliest Egyptian tomb painting to some of today's best garden photography. Great care has been taken in the design of the book, making it both structured and accessible. Plants in Garden History is a classic work that will be referred to for many years to come.

isbn: 9781862056602

This is an A-Z of places associated with plants, plant hunters from yesterday and today, and from across the world. It takes an in-depth look at the plants themselves: where they came from, who discovered them and how they came to be named as they are. It also includes stories about plant explorers and their often dangerous journeys, and is illustrated throughout with archive pictures of plants and their discoverers.

isbn: 0715324217

There are plenty of books on how to look after houseplants, but until now no one has written about why and when plants came to be found in the home - and the fashions that swung from the aspidistra in the Victorian drawing room to the orchid in the designer loft. Catherine Horwood explores the role of houseplants and cut flowers in the home and has brilliantly combined social history, plant history and the history of interior design. This book explores the changing role of houseplants in the home. Social history, plant history and the history of interior design are brilliantly combined. It is illustrated with drawings, prints, watercolours, oils and photographs - some quirky and amusing, others beautiful and sumptuous.

ISBN: 9780711228009

London is a city of hidden gardens, a place where few ever glimpse the many colourful secrets behind the sober townhouse facades that give so little away. But the gardens are there, fascinating in their diversity and infinite in their variety, and beautifully revealed on the pages of this book. The secret gardens of London that are uncovered here go beyond convention; they range from the large, classical and formal, with simple, single colour schemes, to tiny gardens that run riot with colour of every imaginable hue. There are gardens on roofs and gardens in basements, gardens where the boundaries cannot be seen and gardens on terraces. There are gardens on top of the world, gardens with water - even gardens on water. There are gardens sheltered by tropical plants, or by billowing sails. There are English cottage gardens, and modern gardens that present sculpture outdoors. There are gardens of artists and gardens of practical enthusiasts. There are collectors' gardens, passionate plantsmen's gardens, gardens restored, revived or reclaimed. The gardens revealed here in this intriguing selection of unique places - thanks to the shared dreams of the owners and the ingenuity of London's finest designers - will delight and inspire anyone with an interest in gardens, gardening - and learning one or two secrets along the way.

ISBN: 9780500511787

This is a very accessible history of the vices and virtues of British gardeners through the ages, particularly those who shaped the National Trust gardens. From the obsessive to the visionary, the eclectic to the eccentric, each chapter explores how a range of different individuals played out their excess in a variety of gardens, thus revealing the gardens' concealed secrets - just how and why they were created; the fortunes lavished and lost; clandestine and unorthodox uses; and hidden meanings for those who want to know how to 'read' a garden. Sir Francis Dashwood's lusty garden at West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, for example, has been described as "laid out by a curious arrangement of streams, bushes and plantation to represent the female form". This is very much a reading book for those passionate about gardens and in particular historical gardens. The chapters cover: Pride and Humility; Avarice and Generosity; Envy and Love; Wrath and Kindness; Lust and Self Control; Gluttony and Temperance; and finally, Sloth and Zeal.

ISBN: 9781905400461

In seventeenth-century Britain, a new breed of 'curious' gardeners were pushing at the frontiers of knowledge and new plants were stealing into Europe from East and West. The man responsible for introducing many of the plants to Britain at that time was John Tradescant, whose passion for collecting sent him as far as Russian Archangel, the pirate strongholds of North Africa and the battlefields of France. Tradescant's only son John was his apprentice. "Strange Blooms" tells the Tradescants' story - as gardeners, as collectors and above all as exemplars of an age that began in wonder and ended with the dawning of science. Meticulously researched and vividly evoking the drama of their lives, Jennifer Potter's book takes its readers to the edge of an expanding universe. "Strange Blooms" is a magnificent pleasure for gardeners and non-gardeners alike.

isbn: 1843543346

This book focuses for the first time on sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century country houses in their settings. Investigating the complex relations between Tudor and early Stuart houses and the landscapes in which they were set, Paula Henderson offers new perspectives on some of England's most magical buildings. She examines natural and man-made landscapes as well as gatehouses, garden buildings, banqueting houses and other ancillary structures. More than 200 splendid images illustrate the book, which also features a complete gazetteer. Drawing on new documentary material and on research into many rediscovered buildings associated with original settings, Henderson refutes common perceptions that gardens of the period were confined and highly artificial and that 'natural' landscapes were not appreciated until the eighteenth century. She explains how and why Tudor country estates were organized and designed, and she provides a new evaluation of what the gardens and other aspects of the landscape meant to those who created and visited them.

isbn: 0300106874

For over 100 years, "Country Life" has regularly covered British gardens and gardening - but it has also featured fine gardens made abroad, particularly those in the Mediterranean region. Kathryn Bradley-Hole has visited gardens in the South of France and all over mainland Italy, but also in North Africa, Sicily, Greece and Spain, and unearthed the absorbing stories behind their creation and development. More than 35 glorious locations are featured here, illustrated with stunning archive photographs from the Country Life Picture Library. They include private residences in Greece, Spain and Italy, and the iconic gardens of the French Riviera - including Villa Maryland on Cap Ferrat, La Leopolda at Beaulieu, the novelist Edith Wharton's own villa garden at Hyeres and Auguste Renoir's home at Cagnes-sur-mer. The book also reveals, uniquely, the fabulous colonial and Arabic gardens of Algeria, a troubled region that has been unknown and out of bounds to present generations, which Kathryn revisited and re-photographed in 2005.

ISBN: 9781845131241