The Genus Tulipa is the most complete survey of tulip species to date. Each species is illustrated Diana Everett, with accompanying colour photographs of the plants in habitat and distribution maps. The high level of detail provided in this book makes identification possible for the many species of tulips. Additional material includes check lists of tulip species and their synonyms, as well as country by country check list; glossary with diagrams; information on nurseries selling tulips; and full bibliography.
Species tulips are the ancestors of the garden hybrids described in the final chapter, and this full account will help gardeners refine their growing skills and enhance their enjoyment of tulips as a whole."--BOOK JACKET.
Inspired by seventeenth and eighteenth-century botanical engravings, photographer Christopher Baker set out to revisit the beauty and detail of these drawings in a different medium. With camera in tow, he spent eight months in the bulb fields of Holland, photographing the most outstanding cultivated and species tulips. Working with renowned bulb expert and grower Willem Lemmers, who hand-picked and approved every tulip photographed, Christopher Baker was able to capture each flower at the peak of its perfection. The result is an art book with a mission: Exquisite to look at, Tulipa, is also the ultimate authority on cultivated and species tulips. Mr. Lemmers, a third-generation bulb grower, tells the stories behind five hundred tulips: their parentage and origins, and the growers who bred them. Each tulip profile includes the tulip's registered name and synonyms, a description of its characteristics, and its suitability for the garden and for forcing. Mr. Lemmers also provides a definitive and up-to-date explanation of the most recent classification of tulips, as well as a look at the classification system's fascination four-hundred-year history. The volume contains more than three hundred photographs organized by growing season from early- to late-flowering. Chosen for their importance as superb specimens of the tulip's form and characteristics, these portraits show the diversity, range, and sublime charms of the flower that has obsessed nations. This exploration of the magical, sensuous, awe-inspiring tulip is a must-have for collectors, gardeners, armchair enthusiasts, and art lovers alike.
A revised and updated edition of the internationally bestselling classic Anna Pavord's now classic, internationally bestselling sensation, The Tulip, is not a gardening book. It is the story of a flower that has driven men mad. Greed, desire, anguish and devotion have all played their part in the development of the tulip from a wild flower of the Asian steppes to the worldwide phenomenon it is today. No other flower carries so much baggage; it charts political upheavals, illuminates social behaviour, mirrors economic booms and busts, plots the ebb and flow of religious persecution. Why did the tulip dominate so many lives through so many centuries in so many countries? Anna Pavord, a self-confessed tulipomaniac, spent six years looking for answers, roaming through eastern Turkey and Central Asia to tell how a humble wild flower made its way along the Silk Road and eventually took the whole of Western Europe by storm. Sumptuously illustrated from a wide range of sources, this irresistible volume has become a bible, a unique source book, a universal gift and a joy to all who possess it. This beautifully redesigned edition features a new Preface by the author, a revised listing of the best varieties of this incomparable flower to choose for your garden and a reorganised listing of tulip species to reflect the latest thinking by taxonomists.
When Rolf Dahlgren and I embarked on preparing this book series, Rolf took prime responsibility for monocotyledons, which had interested him for a long time. After finishing his comparative study and family classification of the mono cots, he devoted much energy to the acquisition and editing of family treatments for the present series. After his untimely death, Peter Goldblatt, who had worked with him, continued to handle further incoming monocot manuscripts until, in the early 1990s, his other obligations no longer allowed him to continue. At that time, some 30 manuscripts in various states of perfection had accumulated, which seemed to form a solid basis for a speedy completion of the FGVP monocots; with the exception of the grasses and orchids which would appear in separate volumes. I felt a strong obligation to do everything to help in publishing the manuscripts that had been put into our hands. I finally decided to take charge of them personally, although during my life as a botanist I had never seriously been interested in mono cots.
“Pollan shines a light on our own nature as well as on our implication in the natural world.” —The New York Times “A wry, informed pastoral.” —The New Yorker The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, Cooked and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in America Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?
The most comprehensiveand authoritative accountof lavender. Describingsome 39 species, theirhybrids and cultivars, thisbook brings togethertheir taxonomy,distribution, history,cultivation, propagation,and an overview of theircommercial products,essential oils and chemistry. Lavishly illustrated withRHS Gold Medal award winning paintings bybotanical artists Christabel King, Georita Harriottand Joanna Langhorne. With 31 botanicalpaintings, 45 line drawings and many colourphotographs.
