Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening/Plants    3. General    4. New Age / Parapsychology    5. Spirituality - Women's    6. Gardening   

Subjects:  1. Australia & Oceania - General    2. Essays    3. Europe - Benelux Countries (BelgiumNetherlandsLuxembourg    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. Museums, Tours, Points of Interest    7. Travel    8. Non-Classifiable   

Reviews (2)

An impressive and informative collection of essays
What attraction do roses have that other flowers lack? Editor Wayne Winterrowd posed this question to over thirty eminent fellow gardeners, gathering their insights and responses in Roses: A Celebration, an impressive and informative collection of essays which tell of special roses and the horticultural decisions which went into the special enjoyment of roses over other flowers. The perfect gift for that rose enthusiast who already has all the basic gardening guides.

Wonderful!
This book is a collection of 33 essays written by rosarians,writers, artists, nurserymen, etc. on their personal favorite rose. It is delightful reading and the book comes at a good time, when most gardeners are settling in for the winter months to dream about next year's gardening. Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Floriculture    3. Flowers - Roses    4. Gardening    5. Gardening / Horticulture    6. Gardening/Plants    7. Pictorial works    8. Rose culture    9. Roses    10. Varieties    11. Gardening / Flowers / Roses   

Reviews (1)

The Gardens of William Morris
I loved this book. It demonstrated for me the real "art" of gardening. William Morris was a clever and far sighted man who advocated staying within the parameters of nature and natural beauty when making gardens. He also perpetuated the "garden room" theme which hasbeen enormously popular since the eighteeth century. I refer to this bookcontinuously and strive to design and construct garden rooms in my owngarden which are as beautiful. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Garden Design    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. England    7. Garden design & planning    8. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)    9. c 1800 to c 1900   

Features

• Illustrated

Subjects:  1. Botanical Gardens    2. English Garden Design And Planting    3. Essays    4. Europe - Great Britain - General    5. Gardening    6. Gardening / Horticulture    7. Gardening/Plants    8. General    9. BOTANISTS    10. Biography & Autobiography / Science & Technology    11. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)    12. London, Greater London    13. ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS (KEW, ENGLAND)   

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Folklore    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. History    6. Horticulture (General)    7. Plants    8. Utilization    9. Weeds   

Subjects:  1. Christianity    2. Christianity - Christian Life - General    3. English    4. Essays    5. Gardeners    6. Gardens    7. Meditations    8. Prayer-books and devotions    9. Religion    10. Religion - Christian Life    11. Religion - Christian Living    12. Religious aspects    13. Religious life    14. Spirituality - General    15. Gardening    16. Personal Christian testimony & popular inspirational works   

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Flowers - Perennials    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. Garden design & planning    7. Gardening: plants   

Reviews (1)

Little bulbs for little gardens
Don't be put off by the fact this book was written a few years ago, it's still quite newsworthy.I've been gardening for many years -- everything from a two-acre spread to a small urban garden but I never had to"think small" until I moved to the big city. This book has provedvery helpful for resizing thoughts. Read more

Subjects:  1. Bulbs    2. Essays    3. Floriculture    4. Flower gardening    5. Flowers - Bulbs    6. Gardening / Horticulture    7. Gardening/Plants    8. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)    9. USA   

Reviews (6)

Thoughtful and insightful reading
People always said I "had a knack" for growing and nurturing sick plants back to health. I have alot of houseplants and enjoy taking care of them, watering, pruning, repotting, etc. I could never understand why other people couldn't "grow" plants (afterall, plants grow themselves!) or even didn't like plants! But when I read Judith Handelsman's book, it became very clear that this "bond" with nature/plants comes naturally to some but it IS something that can be learned. Through this book and her shared experiences, I learned about myself and how I relate to people, plants, and situations. I loved the book and would recommend it to anyone who wants to understand and/or further expand his relationship with nature.

great reminder of the garden-gardener interaction
I just ran across a used copy of this book and have heartily enjoyed it. Handelsman's experiences with the remarkable presence and intelligence of plants mirrors my own. Learning to meet plants on their own terms is truly an art and such a rewarding one. Handelsman tells her experieces very simply and honestly. Anyone who has approached plants, trees and gardens as a place to grow both their own spirit and sense of community with the natural world will recognize a kindred spirit in this writer. I particularly enjoyed her focus on interacting and learning from houseplants since that opens the experience up to both urban and rural folks who want to explore interacting with plants in a deeper rather than just decorative manner. I'm thrilled to have found a simple book with simple wisdom that opens another level of love and awareness of life.

Amazing! Taught me alot!
I thought this was going to be some sissy spiritual thing, but i could not put it down!!!I am definately ordering the whole "collection"For any gardener who cannot walk past a neglected plant in a supermarket orso-called "plant store" ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1948-    2. Essays    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. General    7. Handelsman, Judith F.,    8. Spirituality - General   

Reviews (6)

Wonderful book!
I am stunned to see some bad reviews for this book! I came across it accidentally at the library and intend to buy it soon. It is certainly not a "garden book" in the sense of what to plant where. What it is is an extraordinary history of grandmothers' gardens and accompanying art, culture, and values. I love cottage gardening, history, the Arts and Crafts movement, Gertrude Jekyll, etc. and this book is about many of these things. I've also learned through it of many interesting books and writers and plan to research them. Highly recommended. Well written too.

Disappointing
I was really disappointed in this book - it's more of an art history book than a gardening book, and it's a history of some fairly insignificant art at that (with some exceptions).I found the text to just be a list of artwork.It was extremely uninformative.Even the illustrations weren't all that attractive, since so many were in black and white.

Seeing the garden through an artist's eyes
I'd borrowed this book from the library and I had to go out and buy it! If you are a painter and love the era of early American Impressionism, you'll love this book because it shows you the paintings and it shows you the actual gardens that inspired them.I see gardens as potential painting subjects - especially the "cottage gardens" or "grandmother's gardens" - that were so inspiring to the artists of the late 1800s. If you don't paint, you probably won't get the point of this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cottage gardens    2. Essays    3. Garden Design    4. Gardening    5. Gardening / Horticulture    6. Gardening/Plants    7. Gardens, American    8. History    9. Landscape    10. Landscape Horticulture    11. Landscape gardening    12. Special Subjects In Art    13. United States    14. 20th century    15. Garden design & planning    16. Gardening / General    17. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)    18. USA    19. c 1800 to c 1900   

Reviews (9)

Autobiographical and interesting....
Dorothy Sucher is a therapist by trade, and a gardener by avocation.As I read her book, "The Invisible Garden" I had a sense that she would make a good friend.She seems to have an appreciation of humanlimitations and frailties, and probably lives up to the old axiom "Afriend is someone who forgets your shortcomings." Well, maybe notwhere her husband is concerned, but what can a gardener do with a guy whoseallergic to the great out-of-doors and can't tell a Dandelion from a lily. A meditative delight
My bookclub has just finished reading this wonderful book. We all loved it; one member compared it to "Gifts from the Sea" with its evocation of quietude and solace. This is a book for gardeners, who willdelight in the delicious insights Dorothy has as she hacks her way throughthe brambles beside her stream, as well as nongardeners, who will finallygain some insight into why gardeners delight in working the earth andtransforming the landscapes outside ourselves into things of beauty. Ifound reading the essays enjoyable, humorous, and deeply satisfying. Eachessay is easily read on its own, but together the book becomes a gardener'sjournal, a transcription of what goes on in a gardener's mind as shedesigns and transforms the land around her.

The Invisible Garden
This is an enchanting book, subtle in working on many levels to capture and to hold your attention. The theme, intertwining the impact on her life of some family and friends with various aspects of gardening life, workssurprisingly well. The workmanship is fine, in many senses of that word; asin grading gems, or in the weave of a great tapestry. It is something thather grandfather, or her neighbor Tom--both craftsmen in their own right,and important in her life--would recognize and admire. The style issomewhere between early John McPhee in The New Yorker, and Bill Bryson'slatest book of essays, "I'm A Stranger..", between straightautobiographical and first-person commentary. It comes off very well, andyou put down the book with some insight into a complex person stillexploring herself and the world around her. The insight reflects into ourown life, giving pause for reflection and reevaluation of important thingswe might have slighted in passing. Her sketches of the individuals shechooses to illuminate aspects of her own growth are simultaneously detachedand loving. The chapter on her physicist husband's encounter with flowersshows the tender exasperation that any non-scientist wife of a scientistwould instantly recognize. The vividness of a flashback to hergrandfather's youth, spanning more than a century, pays a debt to hismemory while showing us the unbroken chain of generations. So, too, thebalance in "The Pond" chapter on her mother; and the nostalgia inthe chapter on "Little Houses" grips each of us and thrusts usback to our childhood, where "-all the polyurethane of life-" cannot intrude. A wonderful book, well worth reading.Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography & Autobiography    2. Biography/Autobiography    3. Essays    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. General    6. American English    7. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)    8. Other prose: from c 1900 -    9. Vermont   

Subjects:  1. Dickey, Page    2. Duck Hill Garden (North Salem,    3. Duck Hill Garden (North Salem, N.Y.)    4. Essays    5. Flowers - General    6. Gardening    7. Gardening / Horticulture    8. Gardening/Plants    9. Home Gardening    10. New York (State)    11. North Salem    12. Garden design & planning    13. Homes and haunts    14. USA   

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Flowers - General    3. Gardening    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Identification    7. Nature    8. Plants - General    9. Weed Control In Horticultural Crops    10. Weeds    11. Gardening / Essays    12. Natural & wild gardening   

Subjects:  1. Cox, Freda    2. Diaries    3. Essays    4. Gardening    5. Gardening / Horticulture    6. Gardening/Plants    7. Gardens    8. General    9. Miscellanea    10. Plants, Ornamental    11. Gardening: plants    12. Gardens (descriptions, history etc)   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (4)

Fun and Sassy
Martha Smith is entertaining and light. A great read to lighten your heart and load after working outside in the heat all day.

Feisty and Funny
I found this gardening memoir to be both feisty and funny.I love the wayMartha Smith describes her "Mae West Memorial Garden". I couldalmost smell the lilacs and dahlias as I was reading. For anyone who lovesgardening essays with a humorous slant this book is a must read!!

Hilarious!
My husband and I are both avid gardeners and on a recent road trip, I read this book aloud to him as he drove and he almost wrecked from laughing so hard.This is a very funny book and the author knows too well the joys aswell as the back-breaking hard work that gardening can be.My favoritechapter - "Canna lily kill you?" - a must read for gardeners whoenjoy a spike of humor. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. American Satire And Humor    2. Essays    3. Gardening    4. Gardening / Horticulture    5. Gardening/Plants    6. General    7. Horticulture (General)    8. Humor    9. English    10. Essays, journals, letters & other prose works    11. Horticulture    12. Literary studies: general    13. USA   

Reviews (5)

I gave up on this book after 40 pages...you will, too!
Stay away from this book! Jamaica Kincaid's book is filled with pseudo-philosophy and hollow observations towards life which reads artificial.As someone who has trekked the Himalaya, I can only surmise that Kincaid was on some shallow, self-absorbed trip of her own. Don't just take my word for it, read just one of her own passages (pages 27-28): "One group was from Austria but we decided to call them the Germans, because we didn't like them from the look of them, they were so professional-looking with all kinds of hiking gear, all meant to make the act of hiking easier, I think. But we didn't like them, and Germans seem to be the one group of people left that can not be liked just because you feel like it."She can't even be bothered to learn the name of one of the Sherpas who helped carry her provisions, and instead refers to him as "Table" since he was also responsible for setting up the table where her and the other hikers ate. Giving him this demeaning nickname as you would a dog gives you some idea as to the type of person Kincaid is. Save yourself a few bucks, there are far, far better books to read about the Himalayas.

Himalayan Adventure
This is a lovely book which beautifully describes an extensive trek in a remote area of the Himalayas. Ms. Kincaid and her close friend, Dan Hinckley, a distinguised botanist, make the trip together.Dan Hinckley has traveled in the region extensively.It is the author's first Himalayan trek and she trains diligently to be prepared for its rigors. The author is a gifted writer who describes the feelings and emotions triggered by the beauty of the region and its warm and hospitable people.Ms. Kincaid's style is most engaging and includes wonderful description, humor, and great senstivity.The focus of the trek is the collection of seeds for propagating Himalayan plantlife in North America. The passion of the participants for gathering the seeds of rare species is engaging to gardeners and non-gardeners alike.All who have journeyed to this special part of the world, or intend to, will enjoy this charming book.

A Difficult Trek
As an avid reader, enthusiastic traveler, lover of Nepal, and a wannabe gardener, I eagerly picked up "Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya".Jamaica Kincaid has written of her trek through the mountains of Nepal gathering seeds to plant in her Vermont garden. What promises to be a literary trek through some of the world's highest peaks ends up feeling more like a slow walk down an endless sidewalk. While there are a few remarkable descriptions of the mountains and rivers she crossed, most of the book is filled with the author's introspective whining. The pages of a travel memoir should transport the reader into another land and introduce us to it's places, people and unique culture. Unfortunately, "Among Flowers" fails to do any of those things.
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Subjects:  1. Asia - Central    2. Asia - General    3. Description and travel    4. Essays    5. Essays & Travelogues    6. Kincaid, Jamaica    7. Nepal    8. Travel    9. Travel - Foreign    10. Travel - General    11. Travelers    12. Himalayas    13. Travel / Essays & Travelogues    14. Travel writing   

Reviews (1)

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Miss Lawrence says, "Dill is a hardy annual. The seeds can be sown in fall or early spring. The seedlings must be thinned, and Mrs. Clarkson says she saves every scrap that is pulled up.She uses them in potato salad,and sprinkles them over broiled lamb."Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Gardening    3. Gardening / Horticulture    4. Gardening/Plants    5. General    6. Landscape Design And Planting    7. Gardening / Essays    8. Landscape art & architecture    9. gardening; horticulture; southern; plants; botony   

Subjects:  1. Art    2. Art & Art Instruction    3. Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions - General    4. Essays    5. History - General    6. Permanent Collection Catalogs    7. Still Life Painting    8. Techniques - Painting    9. Techniques - Painting - Specific Subjects    10. Art / History / General   

Editorial Review

Moving into a 19th-century federal brick house in Vermont, artist Deborah Schenck decided to re-create the luxurious English country gardens of her youth at her new home. Through the first year at Fern House, Schenck documented the growth and transformation of her home, gardens, and family. Read more

Reviews (1)

Excellent photos and text!
Both the photographer and writer successfully transport you to the dreamy world of Fern House throughout the year.Evoking glimpses of the tranquil lifestyle so mant people associate with Vermont, it is a beautiful book, both to keep AND to give! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Anecdotes    2. Artists    3. Essays    4. Gardeners    5. Gardening    6. Gardening / Horticulture    7. Gardening/Plants    8. Vermont    9. Gardening / Essays