"A brilliantly readable account of double flowers, exploring everything from their many varieties to their biological development, their long history in our gardens and the powerful emotional responses they elicit. This supremely researched book will leave you appreciating double flowers as never before." - Stephen Blackmore, Queen's Botanist and former Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh With charms extending from the romantic allure of double roses and the attention-grabbing flamboyance of double tulips to the exquisite perfection of tiny double primroses, double flowers are among the most loved of our garden plants. Double Flowers is the first popular handbook to explore them in depth. Double flowers are simply flowers with a greater than normal number of petals or petal-like structures. They occur spontaneously in the wild and can also be selected and bred. This superbly illustrated guide - begun by bestselling garden writer Nicola Ferguson before her death in 2007, and completed by Charles Quest-Ritson - celebrates some of the many thousands of beautiful double flowers produced throughout history. The book examines how doubles have arisen; how they are constructed; how and where they will flourish; their particular appeal and how best to place them in the garden; and the advantages and disadvantages of such flowers - for gardeners, for flower-arrangers and for wildlife.

Walk into any nursery, florist, or supermarket, and you'll encounter displays of dozens of gorgeous flowers, from chrysanthemums to orchids. At one time these fanciful blooms were the rare trophies of the rich and influential-even the carnation, today thought of as one of the humblest cut flowers. Every blossom we take for granted now is the product of painstaking and imaginative planning, breeding, horticultural ingenuity, and sometimes chance. The personalities of the breeders, from an Indiana farmer to Admiral Lord Gambier's gardener, were as various and compelling as the beauty they conjured from skilled hybridization. In Visions of Loveliness: Great Flower Breeders of the Past, Judith Taylor wrote engagingly about the vivid history and characters behind eighteen types of popular flowers. In this companion volume she uncovers information about another eight familiar flowers: poinsettias, chrysanthemums, gladioli, pansies, carnations, water lilies, clematis, and penstemons. Taylor has tapped into an enormous trove of stories about extraordinary people with vision and skill who added to our enjoyment piece by piece, starting about 150 years ago. This beautifully illustrated book will please flower enthusiasts, gardeners, and history buffs alike.

144 roses suited to Michigan's unique climate and conditions. Over 300 brilliant full-color photographs

Easy-to-follow advice with tips on buying roses, planting in beds and containers, rose care, pruning and insect control. Also includes recipes for jam, rose brandy and potpourri, how to handle cut flowers, overwintering and more.

This is an illustrated guide to varieties, cultivation and care, with step-by-step instructions and over 150 beautiful photographs. It is a fascinating introduction to these flamboyant plants, with information on their origins in the wild, their place in garden history, and how best to display them. It includes a full photographic directory of more than 60 orchids, including Cattleya, Epidendrum, Laeliocattleya, Miltoniopsis, Phalaenopsis and Wilsonara. It provides practical advice on how to grow orchids, from repotting, staking and propagating to planting in containers, hanging baskets and glass tanks, and on bark. Orchids make up one of the largest plant families in the world, and they have captivated gardeners for centuries. Whether you wish to start an extensive collection or simply to grow a few bright flowers in pots on a windowsill, there is a vast and affordable range to choose from. This beautiful handbook provides instructions for buying, growing and caring for orchids, as well as advice on propagating from seed and dividing established plants.It contains an illustrated directory of epiphytes and terrestrial varieties, with botanical descriptions and cultivation hints and tips. This stunning book shows how to bring a touch of the exotic into your home.

This is an illustrated guide to varieties, cultivation and care, with step-by-step instructions and over 175 inspiring photographs. It offers expert advice on selecting and buying alpines, and how to use them in the open garden, in beds and containers. It includes a photographic directory of over 60 varieties, including Armeria, Campanula, Erigeron, Gentiana, Penstemon, Phlox, Saxifraga and Sempervivum. It offers step-by-step photographic guidance on propagating and growing alpines, with ideas for constructing rock gardens and planting alpines in troughs and pots. The beauty and hardiness of alpines makes them a popular and rewarding choice for any garden. Whether you use them to provide low-maintenance ground cover, or to bring delicate touches of light to a rock garden, alpines are an important resource. This beautiful handbook provides practical advice on choosing and caring for alpines, from selecting the right stones for your rock garden to deciding which dwarf shrubs to plant with your alpines. An plant directory illustrates 60 of the best varieties, from Achillea to Viola.With their ability to flourish in the most unlikely of flower beds and climates, alpines are plants that all gardeners should try.