Books on Gardening

A good book that I picked a little while ago: Insects and Gardens - In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology, by Eric Grissell. Insects are so ubiquitous that we can often tend just to take them for granted, or find them simply pests, so this book opened my eyes to a lot more that goes on in the garden! (I also bought Malcolm McGregor's Saxifrages at the Nottingham Conference, and it is very finely produced and written - wonderful value for $20!).

As the growing season comes to an end, the prime reading season is fast approaching! Not that reading ever ends, but it does tend to wax and wane as we have time for it.
I'd like to point out that in our Book of the Month feature over in the Wiki we have reviews of books that we believe will be of interest to rock gardeners. We have eleven so far, and they are increasing at the rate of, oh, about twelve per year. We have reviewed Malcolm MacGregor's  book on Saxifrages and last month's book on "Attracting Native Pollinators" was reviewed by Eric Grissell.
You can get to the Book of the Month here: http://nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-index.php?page=Book+of+the+Month
And while I'm usually in favor of patronizing small businesses over the big guys, it's rare to find those out-of-the-way deals like Mark did. Our Book of the Month links directly to Amazon, which usually has the books about as cheaply as you'll find, and if you buy using the link NARGS gets a percentage of the transaction!

What a charming place, Mark, sort of quintessentially New England... at least it seems so to someone who's never been there! 
Love the slogan - though I guess I  don't "need" gardening books (not in the sense of food, water and shelter, at least), I have sure never regretted buying them... as the groaning bookshelves here in the computer room will attest.

That's an amazing bargain on Malcolm MacGregor's book, one I ordered a while back, have pored over many times, and anticipate using for as long as I garden. 
Jeremy, the new book on phloxes was already on my must-get list, and I've just checked out the Book of the Month, and now I'm lusting over Flowers of Turkey:  A Photo Guide too.

Thanks for reminding us Jeremy, personally I think I focus too much on NARGS Forum and not enough time on Nargs.org web site itself!  I just went back and read a bunch of the book of the month features; what a useful feature indeed. 

Lori, I not only want the Flowers of Turkey book, but the Flowers of Crete too!  I have sagging wood book shelves too, with "slide-in" shelves, and believe it or not every few years or so I flip the shelves over (camber side temporarily up)!  Yes, the Montague Bookmill has a definite New England flavor... old wood buildings perched among rocky wooded terrain.  With its character and low book prices, it offers even more incentive to go out to visit my daughter at college more frequently and include a side trip to the bookstore.

Tim wrote:

A good book that I picked a little while ago: Insects and Gardens - In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology, by Eric Grissell. Insects are so ubiquitous that we can often tend just to take them for granted, or find them simply pests, so this book opened my eyes to a lot more that goes on in the garden! (I also bought Malcolm McGregor's Saxifrages at the Nottingham Conference, and it is very finely produced and written - wonderful value for $20!).

Tim, it must be an excellent book, on Amazon it gets a straight out 5-star rating out of 10 reviews!
http://www.amazon.com/Insects-Gardens-Pursuit-Garden-Ecology/dp/0881925047

Then Amazon will show related books, so many enticements!
Bees, Wasps, and Ants: The Indispensable Role of Hymenoptera in Gardens
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0881929883/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_sims_2

Mark - I think there is a remarkable symbiosis that occurs between books and gardening; I couldn't do without either but I have great admiration for writers like Malcolm and Eric Grissell who are able to present their knowledge of a subject so informatively and accessibly.

Amen: I have been party to the production of 4 books over the last 20 years: they are an incredible amount of work and they get old really quickly.

Kelaidis wrote:

Amen: I have been party to the production of 4 books over the last 20 years: they are an incredible amount of work and they get old really quickly.

Panayoti, rather than being a contributing party to several books, we need you to be THE sole party for a book or two or more!

Kelaidis wrote:

Amen: I have been party to the production of 4 books over the last 20 years: they are an incredible amount of work and they get old really quickly.

Old books are ok in my book  ;)  Some of the better botanical references I have are the older ones.  Among my favorites is the "Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States" (Washington, Oregon, and California) by Leroy Abrams, an exquisite 4-volume 2,771-page tome with various publication dates spanning 1923 - 1951.  Even though taxonomy is dated, the older taxonomy can be followed to current-day taxonomy, and supply incredible detail about plants, detail that can be lost in highly abridged modern floras.  The level of detail in beautiful botanical drawings is a lost art that rarely makes an appearance in recent works.  With nearly 3000 pages of botanical descriptions, detailed keys, superb and informative botanical illustrations, and a cumulative index, it was an incredible bargain to find the complete 4-volume set for a mere $50 (this was about 30+ years ago).

Back in the early BC days for me (Before Children), I subscribed to a number of out-of-print specialty book dealers, and some of my most treasured acquisitions come from these days where I had disposable income I could actually spend on such self indulgences.

One interesting aspect of these older floras, the new floras (such as the new yet-to-be-completed online Flora of North America) often dispense with the older synonymy as if it didn't exist, maybe considering it too old to be relevant, so it becomes disconnected and nearly impossible to follow the synonymy references one encounters without the older floras in hand.  The older floras also seem to contain a level of detail not seen in new floras; again invaluable information in understanding the variability of species.  One gains a better understanding of the relationship between species, adding traceable context to taxonomy changes that might have occurred through the years.  In the next two book scans, I show a couple pages from this publication, showing some Phlox species and Eriogonum species.  What a joy to have such publications.

Now if only I could find Part 2 of the Atlas of North American Astragalus by Rupert C. Barneby, 1964, I would be a happy man... the 596-page Part 1 volume is lonely for its companion.

Mark - that really is the most extraordinarily beautiful book. It does put much that is published today to shame. I could never claim to have the deep botanical scholarship that goes in to such a book and there must be few who do these days, but it is a delight to see such fine illustrations.

As a student in London I picked up two parts of 'The Endemic Flora of Tasmania', with exquisite colour plates by Margaret Stones, for £5 apiece (along with 'Rock Garden Plants of the Southern Alps' by W. R. Philipson and D. Hearn) and these are amongst my most treasured books. Faced with such wonderful writing though it can be hard to set pen to paper oneself! The skill is always finding one's own words.

Tim, I would be a sucker for either of the 2 books you mention, I have spent good money for books way out of the realm of Rock Gardening but that intrigued me... Tasmania for sure!  I remember as a teenager, when I should be saving money for college, buying the Flora of the Galapagos, a large volume for significant dollars... somewhat to my Mom's chagrin. ;)

Back to the Northwestern USA flora, among the successors of the Abrams "Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States" is the "Flora of the Pacific Northwest, an Illustrated Manual", C. Leo Hitchcock and Arthur Cronquest (illustrations by Jeanne Janish), University of Washington Press, 1973, 730 pages.  My volume is literally falling apart, having been used so much, but I'm also convinced newer publications never have bindings as strong as they used to be in the old times.

While I have used this Flora extensively, there are issues with the volume that make me wish for a better implementation.  First, the area covered is hard to pinpoint, the author's definition of the "Pacific Northwest" is "all of the State of Washington, the northern half of Oregon, Idaho north of the Snake River Plains, the mountainous parts of Montana, and an indefinite fringe of southern British Columbia"... all rather fuzzy.

Secondly, all plant species are found through a process of stepping through botanical keys, there's never a full description of each individual species as in the earlier work.  There are small drawings on the page margins to augment the botanical keying process, but one never gets the full impression visually from drawings nor a full textual description of any given species, making it much more challenging to use.

Still learning how to use this camera (at least I know which way to point it now....)

Bob

A key with drawings that depict the dichotomies is fabulous!!!!

Sometimes I wonder/can't tell, when trying to key a plant out, is it (1) or (2)?
Is it hirsute, or tomentose...for example.  It would be nice to know where a particular author is coming from.

Rick,

    Maybe the attached will help.  (Swink and Wilhelm, Plants of the Chicago Region, pp. 846)

James

(this post might appear twice; I just woke up)
This doesn't open out very well because the previous owner glued and stapled the spine. Rydberg's description of Aquilegia saximontana had just been published the year before.

Bob

Something a little different; the Rev. Oscar C. Moreton's Old Carnations and Pinks. I would have liked more illustrations, but when you can produce a great deal of text and your illustrator is working so slowly that time seems to come to a complete standstill I guess it's understandable.  But it tries the author's patience to no end.

Bob

Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris is an absolutely excellent reference for the non-botanist.  An alphabetical listing of botanical terms is illustrated with line drawings, plus comparative illustrations of different categories of structures and descriptions are provided at the back (e.g. inflorescences, leaves, surfaces, stems, etc.):
 

It's extremely helpful when trying to make sense of species descriptions.  I highly recommend it!

That said, I agree 100% with you, Rick!  It would be the absolute ultimate if a book included illustrations to show the differences between similar species in line drawings... specifically in the Roger Tory Peterson sense of pointing out the field marks and differences on the illustrations (with arrows, in his case) and also describing these in words (for us slow learners  ;) ).  I can't even imagine the additional effort this would take, but it would be fantastic.  Monographs often do include pages of similar species displayed together, but I'm thinking more of the sorts of books that one might use as a field guide, e.g. Flora of Alberta.

I have always loved books  concerning plants. The first I got was from an old aunt (my mum's aunt actually) and she had got it from her father as a Xmas present in 1919! It is a German textbook on plants (all kind of "plants" as mushrooms etc are included too). It is colourful plates and a lot of text (in German!) printed in 1876.

"Lehrbuch der Praktischen Pflantzenkunde in Wort und Bild, für Schule und Haus, für Gebildete aller Stände. Mit über 1000 Abbildungen auf 60 colorirten Tafeln in Doppelfolio und 214 Holzschnitten. Herausgegeben von Carl Hoffmann, Stuttgart. Hoffmann´sche V*erlags-Buchhandlung." *It is actually printed a B!

My "bible" regarding wild plants is Lid´s "Norsk flora" with black and white drawings and a lot of keys; and "Store nordiske flora" of Bo Mossberg et al with beautiful colorful drawings.

Wow, lots of inspiration being shared here, and much to ponder and comment on; I'll be back.  But here's a quickie newsflash, I was googling around for Linanthus seed, and discovered that a version of Abram's "An Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States" is completely online, for free, as a Google eBook.  This link should take you to the Linanthus section, with L. grandiflorus found on Page 426!

http://books.google.com/books?id=WSasAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA430&dq=seed+california+linanthus&hl=en&ei=xhbATp60J4r50gGc6LjQBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=seed%20california%20linanthus&f=false

I don't really have anything better to do than spend time looking for books online. (The dog would disagree.) My latest acquisition was a near-new copy of Correll and Johnston's Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas for $18. Eighteen dollars. Ten cents a page.
It's best not to tell anyone about your secret passions (mine is collecting monographs, etc.) otherwise the prices might go up.
Here's the coolest thing I've acquired lately. (For a couple of dollars more.)  It's in mint condition which is why I didn't fully open the pages.

Bob

Nold wrote:

Here's the coolest thing I've acquired lately. (For a couple of dollars more.)  It's in mint condition which is why I didn't fully open the pages.

Bob

So you don't read it but just admire it ;)

Nold wrote:

I don't really have anything better to do than spend time looking for books online. (The dog would disagree.) My latest acquisition was a near-new copy of Correll and Johnston's Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas for $18. Eighteen dollars. Ten cents a page.
It's best not to tell anyone about your secret passions (mine is collecting monographs, etc.) otherwise the prices might go up.
Here's the coolest thing I've acquired lately. (For a couple of dollars more.)  It's in mint condition which is why I didn't fully open the pages.

Bob

Wow, a flora of Texas has always represented a major void in my US flora-by-state coverage; at only $18 it's a steal.  I see an old friend in the photos you posted, I have the same Gentes Herbarum treatment on Aquilegia, with exquisite line drawings inside, in fact, I have scanned some of these and under fair use provisions posted them here on NARGS and on SRGC Forums:
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=151.msg4872#msg4872

I see from a light pencil scribble inside the cover, I paid $12.50, but then again, that was back about 30 years ago.  You made a good "find".  I'm a sucker for such publications, but I more or less "kicked the habit" when I had children, disposable income was harder to come by then... still is.  But maybe I should start my antique-book-hounding again  ;)

Quote:

But maybe I should start my antique-book-hounding again

No, you shouldn't. You should leave all that to me......
Just like when all the new Karel Lang porophyllum sax hybrids make it to the U.S. (or Canada), I should get all those, too. http://www.skalnicky.cz/saxifraga_lang.php 
(I think AbeBooks does have another copy of Correll and Johnston that isn't over a hundred dollars.)

Bob

James, that's a very useful page on plant surface terminology.  Like Lori, I also have the book Plant Identification Terminology and I wondered why it didn't have such a comparison.  But it does!  Somehow I missed the whole surface section when I was perusing it for the first time a few months ago.  I am very impressed:

In a perfect world, everyone would use the same exact definitions for identification terminology, but we aren't always on the same page.  An even better reason to have the author of a key explain pictorially what he (or she) actually means.

Quote:

In a perfect world, everyone would use the same exact definitions for identification terminology

I can think of several instances where botanists disagree as to whether or not the taxon in question even possesses the described characteristics, e.g. the presence of a hypogynous nectary disc in Pennellianthus (Penstemon) frutescens.
And just try to find out where Yucca baileyi really grows. Some authorities say it grows all around me, but I've never seen it. Others say it doesn't grow anywhere near me. Some say southern Colorado, some say Utah, some say New Mexico, some ignore it altogether.

Bob

Sometimes it's worth thinking of the books that have never been written. The late Jim Archibald studied literature and was an exquisite writer when describing his travels in the AGS Bulletin. But sadly as others have said he never wrote about his exploits in other ways, as for example other great plant collectors like Kingdom Ward. On the other hand his legacy to our gardens was immense and the connections he made with other gardeners through his seedlists unequalled.

It seems to me that in recent years much of the very best writing about gardening has come from the States, and what I like most are books by figures like Claude Barr who combined the botanical and gardening aspects of plants so well, and stimulated others to grow the plants too. The other book I find completely inspirational and beautifully produced is 'Rocky Mountain Alpines', Alpines '86. The combination of articles covering geology, geography, plants and gardens is superb. It would be great if more people (gardeners) could see the gamut of subjects that the alpine garden societies are interested in!

Quote:

Sometimes it's worth thinking of the books that have never been written.

I can think of a lot that should never have been written ......
One of the true treasures of rock gardening literature has never been published in book form (discounting one custom binding that I know of), namely, the articles written by Dwight Ripley in his travels through western North America with Rupert Barneby, and some travels in the Mediterranean (or maybe only Spain, I forget).
They appeared as articles in the AGS bulletins of the 1940s, and thanks to the AGS they are now available on the CD-ROMs published by the society. 

Bob

True, the books that haven't been written.  I scrounge used book stores
( in person book stores ), library sales, anything to find books, including of course!
good gardening books. ( and needless to say, online too ) To find a real treasure is
such a treat! But, back to books that haven't been written, I agree totally, so many
gardeners and plant explorers with so much to say, and how we would love to read
what they might write.
** those Karel Lang sax hybrids are almost enough to make me swoon!

Writing gardening books is a huge amount of work if facts are of major importance. Checking and rechecking day after day. And even then, it's possible to make stunning mistakes.
This is my idea of a real gardening book. And possibly the funniest book I've ever read this side of H. Allen Smith. I remember reading it aloud to my late wife and the two of us laughed so hard we almost passed out.
Bob

(first edition)

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!

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

Nold wrote:

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.  ;D

I think I'll stick with the real thing.

Bob

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...

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 ...)

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

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

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

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.

Oh I'm so jealous! My boss has this book and every lunch break I take it out and drool over it! It's getting a bit soggy now. One day I'll have my own. Enjoy it Mark...every page is wondrously gorgeous!!

One would want to be a little careful of those pools, say during garden parties!!  ;D ;D

Looks like a great book!!! But the price is too much for me. It is good, you got is for a good price! :'(

Lina.

Congratulations Mark

By seeing these prices
I am happy I bought over hundred different African seeds for that money ;D
I love books (I have over 15 meter length)
but You are right
these prices are a little over the top

Roland

We hope we may be permitted to publicise our new book on this wonderful forum:-

                                      Mountain Flowers – The Dolomites

A new book co-authored by forum regular, Cliff Booker from Whitworth, Lancashire and David Charlton from Derby will be published on Valentine’s Day 2012, a very appropriate date as this particular labour of love has been fifteen months or more in the making.
Cliff, a retired Local Government Officer and his co-author; David, a semi-retired solicitor have produced the first handy, pocket-sized field guide in English to the magnificent wild flowers of the Dolomites of northern Italy.  This beautifully illustrated book describes over 140 species of the meadows, forests, screes and high mountain ridges of these glorious limestone peaks.
Because the book is intended for the traveller with limited or no botanical knowledge, technical language has been kept to a minimum and each species has been photographed in such a way as to aid easy identification.
Lecturer, photographer and writer Cliff and his wife Sue were founders (way back in 1986) of the East Lancashire Group of the Alpine Garden Society, which still meets to this day in their original venue at Ramsbottom Civic Hall, near Bury.  Since retirement Cliff has lectured across the country to other AGS groups, natural history societies, specialist and photographic clubs and remains the Group Secretary of the East Lancashire Group.  David is the current Group Secretary of the Derby Group of the AGS and is a trustee of the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.
Both of the authors are Gold Medal winning exhibitors at AGS Shows and Cliff and Sue’s son Andrew has contributed massively to the new book as designer and technology wizard.
May 2010 saw Cliff and Sue enjoy a three-week whirlwind lecture tour of six States and Newfoundland in Canada sponsored by the North American Rock Garden Society and since 2001 they (and latterly David and Judy Charlton) have led spring and summer wildflower walks in their beloved Dolomites for UK based holiday experts; Collett’s Mountain Holidays of Saffron Walden in Essex, thereby amassing many of the images featured in this guide.

The new book is being distributed by Collett’s and is available at £9.95 plus £1.65 p&p. ISBN Number: 978-0-9571628-0-8

Hopefully (with enough enquiries to spur them on) the book will be available from the AGS and other retailers.

Enquiries about the book to Cliff at [email protected] or David at [email protected] or visit http://www.mountainflowers.co.uk/

Collett’s Mountain Holidays
3A Market Hill, Saffron Walden,
Essex, CB10 1HQ
Tel. 01799 513331
http://www.colletts.co.uk/

http://www.colletts.co.uk/mountain-flower-special-in-the-italian-dolomit...

Congratulations Cliff.  ;D.  From your samples it looks beautiful and will be enjoyable for browsing at home not just in the mountains. I like the fact that you have included the scientific names first which is often not done for this type of publication.

It has always surprised me that there are not more field guides published on major alpine flower areas.  On our trips to the Dolomites we have depended on a well thumbed copy of "Alpine Flowers of Britain and Europe" by Grey Wilson and Blamey - quite comprehensive but no photos.

I look forward to getting my copy of the new Dolomites book!  :D :D :D

Many thanks David ... the Grey-Wilson & Blamey book has been the 'bible' for visitors to the Alps for so many years (including us) and our new book is intended to act as a photographic reference guide for less botanically experienced travellers.  We hope the images will entrance, educate and entertain in equal measures.  Feedback will be greatly appreciated please.

Hasn't been anything on this topic for a while and obviously many gardeners pretty well love books nearly as much as their gardens. These are some hand coloured plates from 'The Floricultural Cabinet' which was published from the 1830's on, and show what an amazing range of plants were being cultivated (I suppose not surprising because it was the height of introductions to the UK from all over the world). With the ease of photographic reproduction these days it is quite hard to sense how very striking these plates must have been ...except that they are really just as striking today for anyone who knows the plants, and they were painted with great sensitivity.

Just arrived from New Zealand (many thanks Steve), a copy of the WONDERFUL 'Above the Treeline' (A nature guide to alpine New Zealand) by Alan F. Mark.

This magnificent field guide to New Zealand's rich and diverse alpine environment features 472 pages, more than 1150 colour photographs, two maps and includes detailed descriptions of more than 675 species of flowering plants.

The ISBN is 978-1-877517-76-1 and it is published by Craig Potton Publishing.  The superb images include contributions by forum members, Steve Newall, David Lyttle, Dave Logan, Dave Toole and many others.

Thoroughly recommended (even if the recommendation happens to come from a New Zealand plant devotee).

I'am maybe a little late, I just was checking out this post, but the book 'The Greater Perfection' is available through Hortus Press for $75.00.
I bought 4 copies last year for friends and myself.
She has also available 'The Caucasus And Its Flowers' for $25.00
http://www.hortuspress.com/pdf/hpOrderForm.pdf