Books on Gardening

[Kelaidis]

Are you sure you don't mean "P." Allen Smith, Bob? He's pretty funny, but in other connotations of the word I suppose...You shall make me re-read my Farrer talking about him that way...I am probably one of relatively few livingt people who have read The English Rock Garden from cover to cover. Several times, actually. And there are some howlers in that (incluidng the monocot Dracocephalums). Most of the howlers are intentional, however...

Love the pix of all your acquisitions! Books are so beautiful. I don't find the bargains nowadays BECAUSE of the Abebooks, Alibris and all the rest, which let booksellers know the going price of things, as well as get them out to the world at large.

I wonder that you haven't decided to invest in a Kindle and obviate all that papyrus!

[Nold]

H. Allen Smith. Author of How to Write Without Knowing Nothing, Lo! the Former Egyptian, Waikiki Beachnik, etc.
I received a Kindle as a gift and promptly re-gifted it. How many people over 50 can actually see the thing, let alone read anything on it?
I'd hardly consider myself a Luddite (I just donated about 1000 LPs to the local library), but electronic media will never be able to capture the magic of books.
I recently acquired a copy of Hitchcock's Manual of Grasses of the United States (1935); it smells of old books, libraries, my grandparents' house, etc.
And then there was the book I got from the U.K. It was slightly damp from the English air.
Can e-books provide that kind of experience?

Bob

[McDonough]

H. Allen Smith. Author of How to Write Without Knowing Nothing, Lo! the Former Egyptian, Waikiki Beachnik, etc.
I received a Kindle as a gift and promptly re-gifted it. How many people over 50 can actually see the thing, let alone read anything on it?
I'd hardly consider myself a Luddite (I just donated about 1000 LPs to the local library), but electronic media will never be able to capture the magic of books.
I recently acquired a copy of Hitchcock's Manual of Grasses of the United States (1935); it smells of old books, libraries, my grandparents' house, etc.
And then there was the book I got from the U.K. It was slightly damp from the English air.
Can e-books provide that kind of experience?

Bob

Bob, for that sort of enhanced reading experience you'll need the new Kindle TurboDroid with the optional iAroma 2.6 plugin and 3D-i7GeoEmpathic Memory Array. 

[Nold]

I think I'll stick with the real thing.

Bob

[Schier]

Oh boy, that one on the Dolomites looks wonderful.. they all do! I've been scouring ebay
et al, the past couple of days.  And then on Friday there's the local library sale, and occasionally there's a gem to be had there.
I have always said, there's nothing like an actual book.  Fiction, non-fiction, anything.
I often read in the bathtub, and the occasional book has become a bathtub book, meaning, soggy junk. ( only read fiction books in the tub though, and nothing rare, believe me ) anyway, I'd hate to do that with a Kindle, have it end up in hot water.
Also, I have two teenage sons.  They too have become expert scroungers in the used books stores,
not looking for gardening books though, but they will point them out to me. Oh my, I have got off the subject, so back to catching up on posts for me...

[Nold]

Farrer's books are available as reprints and those are pretty cheap online. Like from AbeBooks. I like the first editions, simply because I have sentimental associations with old books.
I even go for Gertrude Jekyll, though I find her books pretty much unreadable.


Bob

[Nold]

More. (No apologies for the Grade Z photographs attached. I'm very lazy and took them on the cutting board in the kitchen.)
Alpine Flowers by Paul A. Robert. The book was originally published by Iris Verlag, ganz auf deutsch, in 1938, with 18 gorgeous watercolors by Robert, but also published in the UK in 1938 by Batsford with twice as many watercolors.
It was then published in English by Iris Verlag, again, in 1945, with 18 watercolors. This is the version pictured. 

Bob

[AmyO]

Really fantastic books....and the photos are good enough to make me want to get out & comb the used book stores around here! Thanks for sharing.

[Nold]

Couple of examples from Correvon's Alpine Flora, with cool Art Nouveau style drawings, and then one from Schroeter's (where's the umlaut when you need it most?) Alpine Flora.
Both of these are fairly easy to find in used book stores. These are for the illustrations, not the text, necessarily.

Bob

[Tim Ingram]

Bob - that picture of Carlina is just wonderful. I have innumerable books on gardening and floras but very few illustrated with paintings, and they do something that photographs are never able to do, however superb such images can be. One that I do have is a book of the paintings of Margaret Mee, 'In Search of the Flowers of the Amazon Forests' - they are extraordinarily beautiful and unique.

[Nold]

By odd coincidence the British printing of Paul A. Robert's Alpine Flowers arrived at my door today. As I said, it has twice the watercolors that the one printed in Switzerland does (did).
Here are a couple.

Bob

(The second appeared in G.S. Thomas's book on rock gardening.
My wife was an admirer of Mee's watercolors and it was all I could do to talk her out of going to the Amazon and paddling through the rain forest in search of spiders 2m across and stuff like that ...)

[Nold]

I just noticed that AbeBooks has a copy of Skalky a jejich stavba (rock gardens and their construction) by Holubec and Vlasak for $15 US.
In case there isn't anyone who doesn't have this jaw-dropping book.

Bob

[Howey]

Just noted in the Globe and Mail obituaries that Francis Cabot, creator of the famous garden Les Quatre Vents in Cap L'Aigle, Quebec, and author of his wonderful book all about how it all came to be - A Greater Perfection - passed away recently in his 80s.  This garden sounds really fantastic - with its echos of the gardens of the Generalife in Granada, the Taj Mahal in India and the show piece Pigeonier with its companion reflection pool and views through the portals of the countryside beyond.  I love how he speaks of the ducks that fly at a great rate back and forth through those portals aiming at a certain landing spot on the water.  And I am surprised that Eccramocarpus is hardy in zone 4?  The garden incorporates art, poetry, sculpture, whimsy and all types of gardens within it.  Reading that book is the next best thing to being there. Tim and Bob, I too love the paintings of Margaret Mee and was able to pick up a "companion" book Amazon from Kew.  I imagine many of the plants in the paintings were/are in danger of becoming extinct.  Also have Schroler's Flore des Alpes - the text in my copy is German and English.  Both real treasures to look at and read over and over.  Fran
Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[Howey]

After reading he book by Francis Cabot (Frank to his friends), The Greater Perfection, I decided to go there in the spring to see this masterpiece garden.  Not so easy for one who won't be driving there from London and who doesn't speak French.  Anna Leggatt, of The Ontario Rock Garden and Hardy Plant Society in Toronto, who did go a few years ago, tells me you must book ahead (January isn't too early), it costs $30 for a guided tour, is open to the public only 4 days a week and her replies were in French.  Luckily her husband was able to translate.  She tells me it was well worth the trip.  Fran
Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[McDonough]

I can't believe it, my wife totally surprised me this Christmas with a copy of Francis Cabot's The Greater Perfection, a magnificently produced book.  And come to find out, she got it through Amazon.com (Hortus Books reseller) for a reasonable price; it was their last copy (new).  Amazon still has 3 new books available but the price is way over the top, and 11 used copies, again very pricey.

Front cover (left), back cover (right).




The images of garden design are beyond words; total inspiration.



The composition and axial symmetry is surpising, often dynamic, I love the use of borderless reflecting pools cut right into the grass, situated dead-center on main circulation axis and visual site lines.




Amazon book available as of Christmas day 2011, unfortunately extremely expensive.