RHS New Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers
Edited by Christopher Brickell
Comprehensively written and researched by leading plant experts, this authoritative reference book includes many features that make plant selection and identification easy.The Plant Catalogue enables you to find the type of plant you are looking for quickly and easily. No previous knowledge of plants or botanical names is necessary: simply turn to the desired category, such as trees, shrubs or perennials, where you will find plants organized by size, season of interest and colour. Popular flowering plants, including azaleas, irises and orchids are featured in special sections.Whether you are looking for a shrub to grow in a container or a climber that will flourish in acid soil, the Plant Selector has the answer. Giving guidance on finding the ideal plant for a particular purpose or location, the Plant Selector will help you track down everything from fast-growing climbers and aromatic annuals to wind-resistant trees and shrubs for shady corners.
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The Flower Expert
by D.G. Hessayon ,
Second revised edition of "Flower Expert" With colour photographs, one-line description and detailing everything you need to know about perennials, annuals, bulbs and growing/caring for flowers for a garden full of fragrance and colour.
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Introduction to the
Victorian Flower Garden
From the 'Handy Book of the Flower-Garden' (1868) by David Thomson
The practice of horticulture has been regarded as the most healthy
employment and most delightful recreation in which human beings can be engaged.
This remark holds good of all its branches, unless it be the forcing of flowers and
fruits under glass, which is adverse to physical well-being. it is true that in the
departments of culinary vegetables and fruits the important element of utility is of
first importance; but even they are not without their pleasures of a satisfactory nature.
The retired Roman emperor Diocletian was so pleased with watching the growth of the
cabbages which he had planted with his own hand, that he refused to leave them in order
to esume the reins of power. Doubtless, the originators of new fruits, such as the
late Mr. T. A. Knight and Tan Mons, not to speak of more modern instances, enjoyed
the most exquisite delight in cultivating and matching the progress of their seedlings,
in realizing their gains, and in imparting them to the world at large. It is pleasing
to enjoy the consciousness of skill applied, of diligence and power exercised, and of
cherished expectation gratified at length.
Flower-gardening - the subject of this little work - less of material
utility than the departments just referred to. It does not contribute to the substantials
of the table, but it does to its elegances, and has numerous other and more refining
attractions, which have always made it a favourite pursuit. If the late distinguished
Prince Consort was right in calling horticulture one of the fine arts, it is this
department of it which especially vindicates the name. It gives scope to the arts of
design, and works with the most beautiful materials; it affords pleasure both to the
artist and the observer; it exhibits to the greatest advantage beautiful flowers, which
are amongst the most admirable objects of nature, and it presents them arranged,
harmonized, and contrasted in the most favourable circumstances; it adds a grace to the
magnificent country residence, the moderate villa, and the more humble cottage home; it
imparts an interest to the oft-revisited flower-patch in the vicinity of large towns,
where perhaps the pale mechanic or little shopkeeper, tending a few flowers, realizes
the truth of Keats' celebrated line -
'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever'
Much sentiment might be expended in the pleasures derivable from
flower-gardening, and much might be written on the elevating tendency of the study,
culture, and arrangement of flowers, and of the joys that the sight of them is capable
of raising in the hearts of the sorrowful and afflicted, and more than enough said to
justify the exclamation, ' Give me a fine day and a flower-garden, and I will make
ridiculous the pomps and pageants of emperors and kings.' They mistake the use of
flowers who regard them as a mere luxury. Theirs is something akin to the office and
power of the simple melody, which often fills the eye with tears and softens the heart.
The love of flowers is co-existent with the infant's dawn of consciousness, and lasting
as life; and surely there was intention in the formation of the teeming multitude of
flowers which meet the eye at almost every step. Science informs us, that though
there were gigantic Club-mosses and Ferns in the earliest periods of the earth, there
were no bright nor fragrant flowers till the era of humanity. They formed part of the
preparation in that Eden home, where a delicately sensitive human organism and an
emotional mind were to vibrate like a well-strung harp of a thousand strings to every
influence from without. Reflecting the colours which stream in light from the centre
of worlds, the influence of flowers cannot be regarded as anything less than one of
the gifts bestowed by Providence to make the sweets of life outweigh its evils.
Philanthropists are now more than ever recognising the moral influence of flowers as an
auxiliary in raising the masses of our pent-up cities - only as an auxiliary, however;
for potent though that influence be, it falls short of stirring the profoundest depths
and touching the highest chords of our nature.
Having taken a glimpse within the threshold of the temple, and half bent
the knee at the shrine where only poets and philosophers can acquit themselves, we retire
to the less dreamy and chosen sphere of the practical.
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Good Gardens by Design: The Principles of Classic Planning and Plant Selection
In this beautiful book Donald Chilvers draws on his wide experience of making gardens for small country houses, using case studies and then focusing on the lessons which emerged from those experiences. There are many elements that contribute to the design of a good garden of which the most significant is the site itself. The author has included a section "The 100 Best Plants" which lists those plants which a designer uses in the initial shaping of a garden. Beautiful photographs of the 'before and after' kind and easily digested plans illustrate this gorgeous book. This book will inspire people who look to make radical changes to an established garden or to deal with a greenfield site; it should also appeal to people who may contemplate entering the design field themselves and to those who like to read about garden experiences in general.
by Donald Chilvers
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