Andrew Lawson has journeyed the length and breadth of the land photographing English Gardens at their most glorious. Through all seasons, from magnificent country houses through to many private gardens full of character, charm and eccentricity, to those of tiny cottage plots, bursting with a colourful array of flowers and vegetables. With it's index and list of gardens to visit, it can also be used as a guide to the most ravishing gardens in the country.
This is the definitive and most authoritative book ever published on the glories of English gardening--historically and horticulturally, a tour de force. An unprecedented in-depth look at the English garden by one of Britain's foremost garden writers and authorities, this book showcases the enduring appeal of the English garden whose verdant lawns and borders of colorful plants are the inspiration for garden lovers worldwide. Kathryn Bradley-Hole--the longtime garden columnist for Country Life--takes a fresh look at more than seventy gardens from across England and distills the essence of what makes the English garden style so sought after. Seasonal photographs capture the gardens--some grand, some personal, some celebrated, some rarely photographed--at their finest moments, accompanied by sparkling, insightful text. Featuring photographs from the unparalleled archives of Country Life, the full story of the English garden is here, from medieval monastery gardens to the Victorians and the Arts and Crafts movement to the twenty-first century. Designs by many of the horticultural world's greats are amply featured, including Gertrude Jekyll, Capability Brown, Piet Oudolf, and Arne Maynard, as well as gardens famous the world over--Sissinghurst, Hidcote, and Great Dixter--alongside new and less-well-known ones, many open to the public.
London's gardeners are twice blessed: not only do they live in one of the world's most vibrant capitals, it is also one of the most verdant. Gardens of every imaginable style, shape and size abound on rooftops, within palaces, surrounding churches, behind walls - on every piece of dry land - even if it is floating on or lapped by the river Thames. In Great Gardens of London, Victoria Summerley and Hugo Rittson Thomas collaborate to unearth the most fascinating stories of plants and people inside London's most exciting gardens. Some of the gardens are strictly private, while others are regularly open to visitors, but all can now be savoured and enjoyed along with those who know them best. Great Gardens of London is a captivating photographic portrait of the greatest gardens of the capital which are primarily closed to the public or rarely open their gates. It will feature gardens designed by some of the leading contemporary garden designers from across the world. Accompanying the photographs will be essays on the design and planting that explain the designers' inspiration and passion.
Join leading garden writer Tim Richardson as he visits twenty-five significant English gardens made or remade over the past decade, in this comprehensive overview of the contemporary English garden scene, probably the most inventive garden culture in the world. From the cutting-edge naturalistic planting design of the Sheffield School to the scientific imagery of Througham Court, this stunning guide surveys a wide spectrum of garden styles;some are challenging or thought-provoking, while others reflect the sensuously romantic tradition of English planting design, which has also been moving ahead in interesting ways. The New English Garden presents all that is most interesting about garden-making in England in the twenty-first century, beautifully illustrated by Andrew Lawson’s photography of some of England’s most famous gardens, from Prince Charles’s garden at Highgrove,Christopher Llyod’s garden at Great Dixter and Arabella Lennox-Boyd’s garden at Gresgarth right up to the Olympic Park in 2012.
This authoritative new series of guidebooks to the gardens of Europe is the perfect companion for any garden enthusiast, whether tourist or armchair traveler. Each title is a richly illustrated in-depth guide to over 100 gardens, from the famous to little-known hidden treasures, and features colorful photography and easy-to-read illustrations commissioned especially for this series. Also included are maps, directions, complete visitor information, special features, and neighboring sites of interest. Each guide, written by a gardening expert, begins with a comprehensive background on the country's garden history and local climate. The most significant gardens in each volume are featured in even greater detail, accompanied by illustrated plans of the gardens and close-up views of particular features. The numerous color photographs and maps show travelers what awaits at each garden. The Garden Lover's Guides are indispensible aids for those planning European travel itineraries. The Garden Lover's Guide to Britain, written by Patrick Taylor, ranges from the sweeping views of Stourhead to the jungle-like ambiance of Inverewe on the Scottish coast.
Drawing from the unrivaled photographic archives of Country Life, this magnificent volume charts the challenges, changes, and surprises of English garden design throughout the last century. The story begins with Arts and Crafts gardens, typified by herbaceous borders and modern planting, and continues with the Edwardian debate between formality and "wild" gardening as well as interwar grandeur, postwar practicality, and pioneering artists' gardens. Beautifully illustrated with 200 photographs, this is an illuminating survey of an outstanding century of British garden-making.
The Story of the English Garden is the National Trust's accessible history of the nation's gardens, sumptuously illustrated and artfully curated. From tiny medieval gardens to vast Georgian parks, from Victorian glasshouses crammed with exotic specimens to the elegant outdoor 'rooms' of the Edwardians and the functional, ecologically aware gardens of today, this book explores the love affair between the English and their gardens for over 500 years. It's a fascinating story about passion – and power and politics too. The book is beautifully illustrated throughout and includes new photography of some of the most influential gardens in the world, including Sissinghurst. Drawn from the National Trust's extensive archives, The Story of the English Garden is the definitive guide to Europe's greatest collection of historic gardens – a rich celebration of World Heritage sites, rare and exotic plants and groundbreaking architectural design.
An altogether different kind of book on English gardens—the first of its kind—a look at the history of England’s magnificent gardens as a history of Britain itself, from the seventeenth-century gardens of Charles II to those of Prince Charles today. In this rich, revelatory history, Sir Roderick Floud, one of Britain’s preeminent economic historians, writes that gardens have been created in Britain since Roman times but that their true growth began in the seventeenth century; by the eighteenth century, nurseries in London took up 100 acres, with ten million plants (!) that were worth more than all of the nurseries in France combined. Floud’s book takes us through more than three centuries of English history as he writes of the kings, queens, and princes whose garden obsessions changed the landscape of England itself, from Stuart, Georgian, and Victorian England to today’s Windsors. Here are William and Mary, who brought Dutch gardens and bulbs to Britain; William, who twice had his entire garden lowered in order to see the river from his apartments; and his successor, Queen Anne, who, like many others since, vowed to spend little on her gardens and instead spent millions. Floud also writes of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the founder of Kew Gardens, who spent more than $40,000 on a single twenty-five-foot tulip tree for Carlton House; Queen Victoria, who built the largest, most advanced and most efficient kitchen garden in Britain; and Prince Charles, who created and designed the gardens of Highgrove, inspired by his boyhood memories of his grandmother’s gardens. We see Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who created a magnificent garden at Blenheim Palace, only to tear it apart and build a greater one; Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, the savior of Chatsworth’s 100-acre garden in the midst of its 35,000 acres; and the gardens of lesser mortals, among them Gertrude Jekyll and Vita Sackville-West, both notable garden designers and writers. We see the designers of royal estates—among them, Henry Wise, William Kent, Humphrey Repton, and the greatest of all English gardeners, “Capability” Brown, who created the 150-acre lake of Blenheim Palace, earned millions annually, and designed more than 170 parks, many still in existence today. We learn how gardening became a major catalyst for innovation (central heating came from experiments to heat greenhouses with hot-water pipes); how the new iron industry of industrializing Britain supplied a myriad of tools (mowers, pumps, and the boilers that heated the greenhouses); and, finally, Floud explores how gardening became an enormous industry as well as an art form in Britain, and by the nineteenth century was unrivaled anywhere in the world.
An authoritative and superbly illustrated celebration of the great gardens of the United States and Canada from the author of the highly acclaimed TheÿNew English Garden. The gardens chosen for this book range from eighteenth-century landscape gardens such as Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in North Carolina, through twentieth-century creations such as the lakeside garden at Innisfree in New York State and dramatic Naumkeag in Massachusetts to the work of exciting new designers such as Topher Delaney in San Francisco and Martha Schwartz in New Mexico. Many of the gardens are open to the public, so readers can actually visit them. The others, newer domestic gardens, offer instead glimpses into a glamorous world of luxurious outdoor living. To view a video preview of Great Gardens of America click here
