A collection of sparkling and unpredictable essays ranging across the whole world of gardening, and sometimes slightly beyond, from the acclaimed author of The Transplanted Gardener and The Potting Shed Papers. Tales of great gardeners and heroic plant hunters share space with more personal revelations – exactly why every man needs a tractor, how to deal with woodchucks or a relentless west wind, the challenge of a knotweed infestation. Botanical frauds and heroic plant hunters, splendid gardens past and present, stirring discoveries and hopeless failures – all these and more fall beneath the writer’s amused and endlessly curious eye.
Funny, informative and dependably entertaining, Elliott once again demonstrates why readers from Bill Bryson to Alan Titchmarsh have so enjoyed and praised his work.
Inhoudsopgave
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
GARDEN TOURS
H. Avray Tipping and a Debate Reconciled
Piercefield and the Picturesque
A Visit to Highgrove
Royal Gardeners
Hidcote
Morville and Ninfa
ORIENTALIA
Japonaiserie
From Chinese Gardens
Pruning
A Collector in the Right Place
ECCENTRICITIES
Electro-Horticulture
Frauds and Figments
Imaginary Plants
HEROES AND HEROINES
The Tragedy of Vavilov
The Queer German
A Floral Orgy
Two Remarkable Women
Anglo-Florentines
Luther Burbank
A Galaxy of Gardeners
BOTANY
The Knotweed Challenge
The GLP
The Maize Maze
Long Live the Seeds!
Names
COUNTRY LIFE
Wild West Wind
Commuting with Cats
Logs
Critters
Time
Over de auteur
Charles Elliott is an editor and writer who lives in London and gardens in Monmouth near the Welsh border. He is a regular contributor to Horticulture magazine, and has been a magazine editor and senior editor for Alfred A. Knopf in New York. He has written several books, including The Potting Shed Papers and More Papers from the Potting Shed. He lives in Monmouthshire and West London.