Great Botanic Gardens of the World


Book Description

This superb book celebrates over 60 of the world's finest botanic gardens, showcasing the horticultural treasures of each continent.




Amazing Gardens of the World


Book Description

From the gardens of the Palace of Versailles to Beatrix Potter's garden in the Lake District, from Monet's garden in France to the Tivoli Gardens in Rome, from the Japanese garden in Portland, Oregon, to city gardens in Tokyo, this book is a wide-ranging celebration of all types of gardens around the globe. Including formal French gardens and English landscape gardens; famous botanical gardens and little-known curiosities; Iranian and Persian gardens; grand, country-house gardens and inner-city gardens; Zen gardens, strolling Japanese gardens and Chinese gardens; medicinal gardens and one poison garden; knot gardens and Roman gardens, Amazing Gardens of the World explores a huge variety of the approaches and uses of gardening around the world over millennia. In telling the stories of these places, the book touches on the lives of the people who worked in them, designed them, and owned them--people such as Prince Charles, Capability Brown, Gertrude Jekyll, Edith Wharton, and Agatha Christie. Amazing Gardens of the World not only champions the splendor of the world's most magnificent gardens but also reveals many fascinating stories about the history of these places and the people who created them.




Gardens of the World


Book Description

Why have the peoples of the world made pleasure gardens, and why have they made them in such different styles? Here, author Rory Stuart explains how all pleasure gardens derive from one of the world's six great gardening traditions — Italian, Islamic, Chinese, Japanese, English flower garden, and the English park — making them the subject of this book. To create this mammoth resource, Stuart traveled around the world, from Buenos Aires to Vancouver, from Seattle to Cape Cod, from Ireland to India, to China, Japan, and Australia, touring and examining the differences in garden styles. Now he explains them here, abetted by beautiful full-color photos, approaching pleasure gardens as works of art and placing them in their historical and cultural context.




Botanic Gardens


Book Description

This title unearths the fascinating history of the botanic garden, from the first modern gardens founded in Northern Italy in the 16th century, to the technological achievements of contemporary gardens, such as the Eden Project in Cornwall.




Nature's Colony


Book Description

Established in 1859, Singapore's Botanic Gardens has served as a park for Singaporeans and visitors, a scientific institution, and a testing ground for tropical plantation crops. Each function has its own story, while the Gardens also fuel an underlying narrative of the juncture of administrative authority and the natural world. Created to help exploit natural resources for the British Empire, the Gardens became contested ground in conflicts involving administrators and scientists that reveal shifting understandings of power, science and nature in Singapore and in Britain. This continued after independence, when the Gardens featured in the "e;greening"e; of the nation-state, and became Singapore's first World Heritage Site. Positioning the Singapore Botanic Gardens alongside the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and gardens in India, Ceylon, Mauritius and the West Indies, this book tells the story of nature's colony-a place where plants were collected, classified and cultivated to change our understanding of the region and world.




Gardenlust


Book Description

“An extraordinary collection of 21st-century gardens that will arouse wanderlust… Whether you are a garden globetrotter or an armchair explorer, this book is definitely one to add to your collection.” —Gardens Illustrated A steep hillside oasis in Singapore, a garden distinguished by shape and light in Marrakech, a haunting tree museum in Switzerland—these are just a few of the extraordinary outdoor havens visited in Gardenlust. In this sumptuous global tour of modern gardens, intrepid plant expert Christopher Woods spotlights 50 gardens that push boundaries and define natural beauty in significant ways. Featuring both private and public gardens, this journey makes its way from the Americas and Europe to Australia and New Zealand, with stops in Asia, Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. Along the way, you'll learn about the people, plants, and stories that make these iconic gardens so lust-worthy. As inspiring as it is insightful, Gardenlust will delight your passion for garden inspiration—and the many places it grows.




Brooklyn Botanic Garden Gardener's Desk Reference


Book Description

The ultimate gardening reference work compiled by two dozen of the world's leading plant experts under the auspices of one of the world's greatest botanical gardens. Brooklyn Botanic Garden Gardener's Desk Reference is a milestone in garden publishing, the kind of groundbreaking work that appears once in a lifetime. No gardening reference--ever--has combined this scope of information in a single volume. The coverage in most gardening reference books falls into a few standard horticultural categories. The Gardener's Desk Reference unlocks the door to a vast assortment of plant knowledge from around the world. There is enough information in this single volume to serve any plant enthusiast--beginning and professional alike--over a lifetime. For easy use, the wide-ranging material is divided into twenty different sections-- such as: Botany for Gardeners Kitchen Gardening The Horticultural Traveler Weights, Measures, and Conversions The hundreds of indispensable sidebars, graphs, tables, plant lists, maps, and illustrations found throughout the reference make it even more accessible and attractive. To do justice to the continent's breathtaking diversity of climates and plant communities, all plant lists are organized by region, and every recommended species or cultivar has been chosen by an experienced landscaper tested by years of gardening in the area. Never before have gardeners had access to the breadth and quality of information in this authoritative reference.




Royal Gardens of the World


Book Description

A sumptuous exploration of 21 of the world's most celebrated royal gardens, from the formal splendour of Versailles to the organic, sustainable Highgrove. In mainland Europe you can journey from the formal splendour of Het Loo in the Netherlands and Fontainebleau in France to the Baroque World Heritage Site of the Royal Palace of Caserta in Southern Italy. Further afield still lies the Taj Mahal in India and the Peterhof Palace in Russia. Each featured garden will include the history, plantings and evolution of the garden as well as plant portraits of key plants and information about the design and layout of each. Countries included are: England, Scotland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, India, Bali and Japan. This inspiring global selection of royal gardens is a perfect gift for any gardening enthusiast or armchair traveller and takes the reader on a journey of architecturally significant houses and their classic gardens as well as providing planting ideas that range from modest to grand, simple to ornate.




Great Natives for Tough Places


Book Description

From the world-famous Brooklyn Botanic Gardens comes a unique, all-region handbook that introduces gardeners to the many beautiful native plants that thrive in tough growing conditions--with little or no maintenance. It profiles spectacular trees, shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, vines, and bulbs that naturally cope with disturbed and depleted soils, extremes of sun and shade, regular buffeting by strong winds, and other challenging environments. In addition, unlike many tough species, these don't have invasive tendencies but support sustainable ecosystems. Written by the finest experts on the subject, this practical guide provides a bounty of information on everything from site-appropriate designs to propagation and care.