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Category: Books on Gardening & Gardens

Recommended specialist books, monographs, historic gardens and data sources.

Organisations working to save gardens

Organisations working to save gardens

Are you interested in garden history. There is a great deal to be learnt from our horticultural and agricultural past and researchers have a fund of knowledge available via the internet.

You can also research the culture of sculpture and the homeless Knomes

Guardians of the Mint

In addition to the RHS here are some web links to organisations maintaining gardens or retaining documents relating to gardens include:

Garden History Society (www.gardenhistorysociety.org

Kew Gardens http://www.kew.org/library/

English Heritage http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.2

Museum of Garden History

National Trust (www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/

UK Database of Historic Parks and Gardens

Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) (www.scan.org.uk/

Association of Garden Trusts (www.gardenstrusts.co.uk  A national organization representing County Gardens Trusts that are actively engaged in conserving, researching, documenting and caring for the heritage of parks, gardens and designed landscapes.

If you think I have missed an important site or wish to contribute please let us know. Good luck with your researches.

National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens or NCCPG is a charity that manages the system of National Plant Collections. Amongst other activities its member receive a biannual magazine Plant Heritage and information on conservation.

http://www.nccpg.com/page.aspx?Page=1

The web site is informative and can help you locate where and when you can visit a particular national collection and lists open days and events. You can also purchase the Plant Collections Directory for £5.

A Leaf From The Sweet Pea Book

A Leaf From The Sweet Pea Book

Book Cover by Graham Rice

The Sweet Pea is no joking matter, it is not good gardening to trifle with one of the best garden flowers. But hey who is making the trifle anyway…
“What is your wife’s favourite flower?”
“It’s self-raising, isn’t it?”

Sweet peas in the garden 185/365

Sweet peas in the garden 185/365 by Carol Browne, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 ‘I’ve got a few sweet peas growing in the garden. Sadly, I had envisioned a forest of sweet peas, but only have a few at the moment.’
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Pruning Books are a Snip

Pruning Books are a Snip

Cut price books for gardeners.
Pruning Clematis frightens many gardeners. Early flowering clematis alpina, montana, armandii and macropetala should be cut back ass soon as they have flowered in May. This encourages new growth for flowering next year.

Buying a good Pruning Book is a snip if it can save one good plant or thin out your fruiting crop at the right time.
It can be false economy to keep loping without purpose when the cost of a book can be repaid so quickly by the successful reshaping of your ornamental plants.

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Moses or Roses or Moss Roses

Moses or Roses or Moss Roses

Do not mistake roses for noses and ask for a big red one.

Canary Rose

Teach a Poem to Your Canary Bird Rose

Moses supposes his toeses are roses,
but Moses supposes erroneously,
Moses he knowses his toeses ain’t roses,
nobody’s toeses are roses as Moses supposes his toeses to be.

OK but not that poem!

May be you don’t want a poetic budgie but many gardeners feel the urge to rhyme occasionally.

Try clicking these books if you feel poetic;
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Black Flowers and Foliage for Gardens

Black Flowers and Foliage for Gardens

‘Black is the new Black’
Black coral pea

As a child did you read ‘The Black Tulip’ or try to grow a black rose? Well here are some tips to help you grow black plants in your garden’. Most of my black plants unfortunately are black because they are dead but that still leaves lots of other varieties to choose from.

Foliage

  • Certain dark purple leaves look almost black including Cotinus Smoke Tree ‘Royal Purple’, Heuchera ‘Palace Purple’ and Purple Beech Fagus Atropurpurea
  • New Zealand flax phormium tenax has various purple varieties. There are also black mondo grasses nigrescens.
  • If you want black in the fruit and vegetable garden try a grape vine ‘Purpurea’ or bronze fennel. If space permits the Black Walnut tree has black fissured bark.

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Dahlia History and the Blue Dahlias

Dahlia History and the Blue Dahlias

Wish List

Today’s hybridisers are still seeking the true blue Dahlia. We would also like one with a scent and if it was frost hardy that would be a triple bonus but then again it may not be a Dahlia at all. If you want to name a variety you have selected and grown yourself the National Dahlia Society publish the rules for naming and the register of existing names is maintained by the RHS.

Dahlias a History

The National Dahlia Society publish a history of the Dahlia from which the excerpts below have been taken
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Books on Primula, Auriculas and Polyanthus

Books on Primula, Auriculas and Polyanthus

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The Primula; Being the Report on the Primula Conference Held at South Kensington, 1886, Together with a Report on the Orchid Nomenclature Conference,

Comment on Primula Books

The internet can’t give you all the knowledge and joy that a book can provide. I am biased as I collect gardening books but am drawing the line at buying books that are digital publications of the Wiki content (sorry I have included one book in this list of books on the Primula family.)
Books and records on the history of plants and how they have been grown, bred and developed can add extra interest for the gardening amateur, professional or obsessional alike.
This is just a list of some of the books in English about Primulas and related species that are available, even if currently out of print.
Part of the fun is adding to a collection via secondhand book shops and I hope to add to this list as I realise other books are in publication.

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Primula by John Richards

Primula The Complete Guide by Mary A Robinson shares a fount of knowledge from her nursery in Lincolnshire.

Generic Primula Books

Primulas by Sidney Clapham (1973)
Primulas by A. G Puttock (1957)
Primulas Old and New by Jack Wemyss-Cooke
The Genus Primula In Cultivation And The Wild. by J. J. Halda (1992)
Hardy primulas by H.G Lyall (1959)
Primrose and Polyanthus by Peter Ward
Synoptic Guide to the Genus Primula by G. K. Fenderson
A Plantsman’s Guide to Primulas (Plantsman’s Guide Series) by Philip Swindells (23 Mar 1989)
Primulas of the British Isles (Shire natural history) by John Richards (Jun 1989)
Primulas Of Europe & America. by Smith GF & Burrow B & Lowe D B an excellent Alpine Garden Society Guide
Asiatic Primulas Gardeners’ Guide by Roy Green
‘Primula’ Wikipedia consolidated articles
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Auricula and Polyanthus Books

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Primroses and Auriculas Wisley Handbook by Peter Ward
The Auricula: History, Cultivation and Varieties by Allan Guest
Auriculas Through the Ages: Bear’s… by Patricia Cleveland-Peck
Auriculas for Everyone: How to Grow and Show Perfect Plants by Mary A. Robinson
Auriculas and Primroses by W.R. Hecker (22 Apr 1971)
Auriculas: Their Care and Cultivation (Illustrated Monographs S) by Brenda Hyatt (22 Jun 1989)
Auriculas by Roy Genders (1958)
Auriculas by Gwen Baker and Peter Ward (5 May 1995)
Alpine Auriculas. by Telford Derek (1993)
Florists’ auriculas and gold-laced polyanthus by C.G Haysom (1957)
The auricula its culture and history. yr. 1898 by George William Johnson (1 Jan 1847)

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Auriculas: An Essential Guide (Crowood Essential Guides) by Paul Dorey

Primroses and polyanthus by Harold Charles Taylor (1954)
The polyanthus for garden exhibition and market (Foyle’s Handbooks) by Roy Genders (1958)
The POLYANTHUS : Its History and Culture. by Genders Roy (1963)

I am happy to receive any additions or corrections to this list via the comments section.

Auriculas for Everyone
Mary A. Robinson.
GMC Publications.
ISBN 1-86108-149-9
£14.50 plus £2.50 p&p

Auriculas
G.Baker & P.Ward
B.T.Batsford Ltd.
ISBN 0-7134-7366-5

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The Auricula: History, Cultivation and Varieties Allan Guest

Auriculas – Their Care and Cultivation
B.Hyatt Cassell, London.
ISBN 0-304-34070-7

Weather Permitting

Weather Permitting

‘Underwater gardening is my new hobby’ says a correspondent from the Somerset Levels.

Drought or a rainy wet summer whatever we are going to get there is a book by the doyen of British gardening Beth Chatto. Her garden in Elmstead Market Essex is worth a visit for the gravel garden alone and her treatise on Drought Resistant Planting or gravel gardens are equally captivating.

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What on earth can happen after this dramatically wet winter?

If you imagine a wet spring and summer are in prospect then bog gardens and ponds may feature in your plans. Again Beth Chatto’s garden can give you inspiration but if you can’t visit have a look through her book Beth Chatto’s Damp Garden.

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Control & Click on these books to buy from Amazon

10 Parks Around the UK

10 Parks Around the UK

Park yourself on a bench in one of Britains top parks.
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Top 10 most beautiful parks compiled by Rae Spencer-Jones extracted from 1001 gardens for the Daily Telegraph. If you can cope with 1001 garden visits then good on you…. but read the book first.

  1. Royal Botanic Garden Kew has a tropical plant festival in the glasshouse until March 2010
  2. Virginia Water – Saville garden and Valley garden have a varied and exotic woodland, landscape and garden to visit.
  3. Hylands Park Essex has a wide variety of interesting flora, fauna. There is also a large variety of mature trees including oak, ash, hornbeam, and field maple, plus an additional 25,000 new trees.
  4. Clumber Country Park Nottinhamshire is ideal for long walks or cycling so you need to be fit.
  5. Talkin Tarn Cumbria nestles in a 165 acre site, containing a glacial tarn surrounded by mature woodland and gentle meadows
  6. Coed y Brenin Gwynedd is Forestry commission land with lots of bike tracks.
  7. Healey Dell Nature Reserve Lancashire sits in a picturesque part of the Spodden Valley on the outskirts of Rochdale. It is rich in wildlife, with a fascinating archaeological history
  8. Stanwick Lakes Northampton is a unique countryside attraction in the heart of the Nene Valley very good for wild life.
  9. Normanby Hall Museum and Country Park Lincolnshire with a walled garden, house and farming museum to complement the Park
  10. Vogrie Country Park Edinburgh has 250 acres of natural trails, a walled garden and ponds. The 19th-century landscape includes trees brought to Scotland by plant collector George Forrest. Great for walking.

Lister Park
Lister Park Bradford.

RHS Recommended Lilies

RHS Recommended Lilies

To end our lily week we go back to an earlier post about RHS lilies.
.a title=”Wet Evening Lily Buds by brianpettinger, on Flickr” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/hortoris/3746351513/”>Wet Evening Lily Buds

Each month the Royal Horticultural Society offer a plant collection or two for sale with the Garden magazine. Back in 2009 the RHS Lily collection included three varieties.

Lilium Vico Queen with orange, trumpet shaped flowers up to 6 inches long on plants 6 feet tall. The outward facing, slightly pendant blooms are well scented and are good for the middle or back of the border.
Lilium paradalinum giganteum can grow 10 feet tall can carry stems with up to 30 crimson, turkscap flowers speckled with yellow & scarlet. A variety that tolerates alkaline soil.
Lilium leichtlinii has rich yellow flowers heavily speckled with reddish-brown

Cultivation of Lilies