RHS ROSES: AN INSPIRATIONAL GUIDE TO CHOOSING AND GROWING THE BEST ROSES by Michael Marriott
Dorling Kindersley, £24.99
ISBN 978-0241543894
Roses are versatile shrubs and Michael Marriott’s brilliant practical guide demonstrates how to use them to their best effect.
Reviewer Matthew Reese is head gardener at Malverleys.
Michael Marriott, one of the world’s leading rosarians and for 35 years an integral part of David Austin Roses, has produced a sound and very practical guide for gardeners in this book. It’s a far cry from the more traditional rose encyclopaedias where roses are catalogued according to their parentage or classification –a fine method for the rosarian, but not always the most convenient approach for the gardener. Here instead we have an easy-to-follow introduction to roses with comprehensive information on how they might best be used in the garden.
The book is divided up into five main chapters, with each chapter divided again into smaller, bite-sized subchapters.
The introductory chapter briefly outlines the history of the rose and discusses scent.
The next chapter, titled ‘Rose inspiration’, advises on how to use the plants, be it in a rose garden, mixed border or even as a hedge. Under the heading ‘Growing up and over’ there are individual paragraphs on walls, arches, pergolas, obelisks and trees that describe in detail many good ideas on how roses might be used to adorn these structures. There are chapters on rose types and also cultivation, but it is the penultimate chapter called the ‘Rose selector’ that will appeal to many.
Here roses are profiled as to how they might be used in the garden with interesting descriptions and photographs.
Among the potential growing situations included in this section are roses for the front of the border, containers, tight spaces and wild areas, and those that are ideal for cutting.
This is the sort of practical information that gardeners want, and RHS Roses has it in spades. It’s beautifully illustrated throughout, well presented, and is written in an easy-to-follow style.
I would recommend this book to both professional and amateur gardeners, as it is an inspirational and accessible guide for growing roses in the garden.
BORDE HILL GARDEN: A PLANT HUNTER’S PARADISE by Vanessa Berridge
Merrell, £40
ISBN 978-1858946900
Thoroughly researched and exquisitely illustrated, this impressive book combines a history and tour of one of the finest gardens in West Sussex.
Reviewer Claire Masset is a freelance garden writer.
If you’ve never visited Borde Hill Garden, this book will make you want to. For one, the photographs by John Glover are superb, atmospherically conveying the garden’s changing moods and astonishing horticultural variety.
Visually stunning it may be, but this book is more than your standard coffee-table fare. ‘To the visitor today, Borde Hill offers, quite simply, the world in one garden,’ writes author Vanessa Berridge. A bold claim, but she goes on to show just how and why this is so.
The book is divided into two parts. The first is an in-depth history of Borde Hill from its Elizabethan origins to the present day. Accompanying the text are family portraits, old views of the house and garden, collection items, letters and plant lists. Re-telling history without sounding dry or academic is a difficult task, but Berridge – an accomplished writer and researcher – does so with ease and elegance.
The second, longer part of the book offers a tour of the garden. Berridge describes all 15 of the garden areas – from the Old Rhododendron Garden and the famous Rose Garden to smaller gems, such as the jungle-like Round Dell and dreamy Paradise Walk. Here too Berridge shows great skill, weaving botanical information with historical fact and her own evocative descriptions.
Of particular interest are the garden’s recent enhancements and additions, which current owners Andrewjohn and Eleni Stephenson Clarke have made since the late 1980s. We learn how the couple have turned Borde Hill into ‘a garden for all seasons’ with new creations from leading contemporary designers such as Chris Beardshaw and Noel Kingsbury.
Like the main text, captions are well crafted, and there is additional information on historical Borde Hill plants, plus a list of champion trees and a useful timeline. Berridge has left no stone unturned and produced, together with Glover, a magnificent book.
CUT FLOWERS: BLOOM GARDENER’S GUIDE by Celestina Robertson
Frances Lincoln, £12.99
ISBN 978-0711269958
A delightful manual on the ethics and practicalities of growing, harvesting and arranging your own beautiful cut flowers year round.
Reviewer Rae Spencer-Jones is a garden writer and RHS books publisher.
Cut Flowers is an almost pocket-sized title that contains a surprising amount of hardworking information. It begins by setting the context for why we should grow our own cut flowers. Spotlighting the mass-market flower industry, grower Celestina Robertson highlights the use of chemicals, carbon emissions, which are greater in flowers grown in European glasshouses than those flown over from Africa, and questionable employee welfare practices.
The good news is that communities of small-scale growers are increasing. The ‘slow flower movement’, which operates on similar principles to the ‘slow food movement’ of social and environmental justice, is happily on the rise.
Beyond industry ethics, Cut Flowers delivers the promise of its lengthy subtitle with advice on how to prepare the ground, sow seed, nurture, harvest and fill your vases. There is much to know and Robertson packs it in.
First, not all cut flowers are made equal. The ability to remain hydrated is crucial (avoid pear blossom and elder) and steer clear of plants that suffer from ‘shattering’ (a sudden drop of petals). There is also guidance on growing for floral design, how much to grow and colour schemes.
Then there is the nitty-gritty of planning your space. If it is tiny, use one good-sized pot or grow climbers. If it is shady, choose from the list of shadeloving plants. Robertson delivers sustainable practices of horticulture – create no-dig beds and use water-saving drip irrigation. A seasonal plant catalogue with lovely evocative photography provides tips for each plant on when to cut, vase life and how to dry. Finally, readers learn how to care, condition and arrange their flowers – recipes are provided for inspiration.
If you care about the provenance of the products you buy, and the benefits of sustainable and ethical practices, or you’re a novice grower who wants to know more, then Cut Flowers is the book for you.
GROW 5: SIMPLE SEASONAL RECIPES FOR SMALL OUTDOOR SPACES WITH JUST FIVE PLANTS by Lucy Bellamy
Mitchell Beazley, £22
ISBN 978-1784727611
A beautiful book for small-space growing that shows how to use a limited palette of carefully selected plants for maximum impact.
Reviewer Louise Curley is a freelance garden and nature writer.
We’ve all been in a garden centre, nursery or at a plant fair surrounded by a plethora of plants at their peak and felt like a child in a sweet shop. The choice can be overwhelming, and the result is often some rather random purchases, which once you’ve got them home you realise you don’t know what to do with them.
If you’d like your planting to look more considered rather than a horticultural hotchpotch, then Grow 5 will guide you through the process of combining plants, whether it’s using a particular theme, such as a wildflower meadow, ancient woodland or winter seedheads, or a colour scheme. Aimed at those with a small urban space, like author Bellamy’s own Bristol back garden, the simple but clever idea is that each of the 52 projects spanning the gardening year uses a selection of only five different plants.
Why five plants? Nature was Bellamy’s inspiration. ‘Think of a woodland floor in early spring woven with celandine, wood anemone, primroses, sweet violets and grasses or mixed moorland grasses with harebells and orchids – all repeating palettes of just a few plants.’ By focusing on just five plants it’s easier to see the interaction of different forms, textures and colours, and see why certain plants work well together.
Each of the 52 ‘recipes’ has a an ‘ingredients’ list and a guide on how to create the look, with brief details about each plant, alternative suggestions, and –a nice addition – the wildlife they will benefit. Several recipes from different seasons could be used to create a succession of interest throughout the year, allowing readers to build up their own planting plans.
Some details about plant hardiness – some wouldn’t survive winter in my Yorkshire garden – and what to do with plants in containers when they’ve outgrown their confines would have been helpful. But the enticing photographs by Jason Ingram and interesting plant groupings make this a pleasing book that will give you plant-combining confidence.
ENGLISH GARDEN ECCENTRICS: THREE HUNDRED YEARS OF EXTRAORDINARY GROVES, BURROWINGS, MOUNTAINS AND MENAGERIES by Todd Longsta e-Gowan
Yale University Press, £30
ISBN 978-1913107260
An entertaining account of eccentric garden makers who created intensely personal gardens between the early 17th and 20th centuries.
Reviewer Advolly Richmond is a researcher in garden history.
Who would you bequeath your gold pheasants, blue macaw and ‘other feathered prisoners’ to? A dilemma faced by Lady Reade whose ‘avian zeal’ and remarkable garden made her a reluctant celebrity. In English Garden Eccentrics, landscape architect and historian Todd Longstaffe-Gowan introduces the reader to a cast of unconventional characters with their individual passions and yes, their obsessions.
The author delights us with the surprising tales behind the 20 or so individuals who from the early 17th century through to the beginning of the 20th century fashioned a range of unusual gardens. In many cases their endeavours were born out of personal misfortune, afflictions, scandals and undisguised curiosity.
I was acquainted with some of the stories, but the attention to detail and remarkable images brought a new perspective to familiar accounts. The vivid contemporary visitor accounts brought the people, gardens and their idiosyncrasies to life.
Each vignette explores a garden and their designers. We are introduced to people driven by many emotions, the ‘Mole Duke’ at Harcourt House and his compulsive excavation of garden tunnels in search of privacy. At Elvaston Castle, Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington, was besotted with his young bride, and created a shrine to their undying love through a series of romantic but extraordinary gardens full of incredible topiary. The curious beauty of the gardens remained a secret until his death.
The stories are amusing, at times tinged with sadness but always informative and very entertaining. Each chapter is to be savoured, because these gardens ‘functioned as a form of biography’ with each personality revealing themselves through their creativity. The poignant current status of each site in the conclusion confirms the obvious transience of their creations, which were so lovingly curated. I loved this book; I want to invite them all to take tea with me.
LOTUSLAND
Edited by the board and sta of Lotusland and written with the assistance of Clinton Smith. Foreword by Marc Appleton
Rizzoli, £42.50
ISBN 978-0847869893
A sumptuous visual celebration of a Californian garden that is a quirkily designed yet botanically serious one-of-a-kind, eccentric space.
Reviewer Tim Richardson is a garden writer and critic.
It’s easy to dismiss a garden such as Lotusland as being merely quirky or eccentric (Nikki de Sant Phalle’s Tarot Garden in Italy also springs to mind in this light). But as this sumptuous celebration book shows, it’s most certainly possible to blend an idiosyncratic – if not downright kooky – vision with proper botanical intent.
That is the story of Ganna Walska’s garden in California’s Montecito Heights. Always known as ‘Madame’, in 1941 the sometime opera singer and pioneer yoga enthusiast sunk all her hopes (and funds) into a 37-acre garden of succulents, cacti, aloes, ferns and cycads.
Lotusland was conceived as a series of fantastical episodes featuring a smörgåsbord of giant clamshells, chunks of coloured glass and statuary, and a style that wanders freely from ancient Japanese to classical Italian to Spanish vernacular. If it sounds like a car crash, it isn’t – because the mature plants hold everything together wonderfully well.
A roster of professional botanists collaborated with Walska on the planting, and the result is a garden of some 35,000 named specimens that still attracts specialists. A visit truly is a unique experience, and if Madame’s sixth and final marriage did not survive the experiment, then the garden at least has continued to burgeon since it was opened to the public in 1993.
This book has the feel of an official publication, and accordingly Lisa Romerein’s sensitive photographs foreground the garden’s ‘serious’ side, with less emphasis on the more idiosyncratic design elements.
If we lose a little of the ‘quirk’ in the process, the plants – and especially the mineral landscape in which they are set – are brought to life in close-up and large-format photographic spreads. This is very much a picture book, but the texts, though brief, are concisely informative.
WHAT TO SOW, GROW AND DO: A SEASONAL GARDEN GUIDE by Benjamin Pope
Frances Lincoln, £22
ISBN 978-0711269934
A thoughtful and inspiring book on how to create a thriving, beautiful and productive garden, including advice on monthly tasks and timely checklists.
Reviewer Aaron Bertelsen is a vegetable gardener and author.
With this, his first book, Benjamin Pope has pulled off the neat trick of appealing to beginner and more experienced gardeners alike. No matter how many years you have had your hands in the soil, it is always good to be reminded not only of the right way to tackle essential tasks such as pruning and propagation, but also of the importance of observing what is going on around you. As the author quite rightly says, one of the best things about gardening is that you never stop learning.
Season by season, we are guided through the process of planning, preparing and managing the garden. As a visual person, I found the extremely clear pictures accompanying Pope’s explanations very useful. For each stage of the year, he picks out an interesting selection of trees, shrubs and plants that will be at their best, and provides a handy list of seasonal tasks.
But he also goes further, encouraging us to really embrace and celebrate the season, whether by creating a seasonal arrangement, foraging for delicacies such as elderflowers to make cordial, or preserving the precious traditions that connect us to the rhythms of the wider natural world. While I cannot say for sure that I will be singing to my fruit trees, I may well recreate the part of the wassailing ceremony that involves raising a glass to their good health.
I will also be following Pope’s excellent advice on supporting bird life by providing food and water and materials for nesting – something I am keen to do in my own new garden.
This is a thoughtful and inspiring book by an author who truly understands – and values – the work involved in creating a garden, but also recognises the importance of stepping back and appreciating the moments of beauty that make the effort worthwhile. It’s often said that gardening is good for mind, body and soul. With this book, Pope proves that point, and his own credentials with some glimpses of the glorious garden where he works.
Other books
More new releases, focusing on shade-loving plants, the lost art of pressing flowers and miniature flower arrangements.
THE GROVE: A NATURE ODYSSEY IN 19 FRONT GARDENS
by Ben Dark, Mitchell Beazley, £14.95, ISBN 978-1784727383
The writer and head gardener muses on 20 plants, including privet, hollyhocks and wisteria, observed in the front gardens of a suburban street.
THE LITTLE FLOWER RECIPE BOOK
by Jill Rizzo, Artisan Books, £23.99, ISBN 978-1648290534
Easy-to-follow seasonal guides to miniature flower arrangements, such as a thimbleful of pansies or a teacup of delphinium, phlox and Chinese forget-me-not, from an acclaimed US florist.
TREETOP HIDEWAYS:TREEHOUSES FOR ADULTS
by Philip Jodidio, Rizzoli, £32.50, ISBN 978-0847869619
A tour of extraordinary tree structures around the world, from a house among tree trunks in Norway to a pod of ‘art villas’ in Costa Rica.
SHADE
by Susanna Grant, Frances Lincoln, £12.99, ISBN 978-0711269569
A comprehensive handbook from the Bloom Gardener’s Guide series that encourages gardeners to make the most of those areas of their gardens that don’t get much sun.
THE MODERN FLOWER PRESS
by Melissa Richardson and Amy Fielding, William Collins, £30, ISBN 978-0008447366
The florists behind JamJar Flowers share their modern take on the lost art of pressing flowers, with advice on how to prepare, press and display them.