Gardens Illustrated magazine acknowledges that gardeners love plants and want to know their origins and parentage as well as details about colour, form and habit. This book brings together 25 of the best plant features from the magazine in one highly illustrated volume. Written by a band of well-known plant experts, the profiles include essential information on the provenance of the each species, helping readers to understand the plant's needs. The authors have, in many cases, observed the plant growing wild and all have intimate knowledge of each species and its preferred environment. performers and curiosities - Plant Profiles opens gardeners' eyes to the diversity of the plant families featured, enabling them to introduce new species into their gardens that not only look at home, but really flourish.

Gardeners from Key West to Lake Okeechobee and on up the coasts know that gardening advice for the rest of the country just doesn't apply here. South Florida is unique, and The Art of South Florida Gardening is uniquely intended for South Florida gardeners, who have depended on the solid advice in this book since the first edition came out more than a decade ago. Now it has been updated with more helpful facts, tips, and advice for the conservation-conscious gardener of the 21st century, while maintaining the practical, easygoing attitude South Florida gardeners have found so comforting over the years. This book still makes gardening in South Florida inviting and fun, whether you are an old hand or have just moved hereand even if you have never before considered getting your hands dirty. Harold's warm, wise voice is always encouraging and enthusiastic, and Coralee's lively engaging prose will have you reading as much for pleasure as for its valuable information.

Mildred and Arthur Byne explored exceptional Spanish gardens in the 1920s, sketching and photographing them in order to share design ideas with fellow enthusiasts in the United States. They focused on glazed polychrome tiles and green foliage as the the primary characteristic of a Spanish garden, in contrast with a "cool white house." They also turned their attention to patios as the embodiment of "indoor garden and outdoor salon." This book is their legacy, and offers a multitude of ideas in the forms of architecture, hardscaping, and landscaping. It is also a wonderful tour of historic gardens, including the Alhambra, and gardens of notables including the Duke of Medinaceli, the Duke of Alva, Seville, and the Marques de Viana, Cordova. Regions covered include Granada, Ronda, Las Ermitas, Sierra de Cordova, and Majorca.

Featuring over 40 cool, high-maintenance-looking plants, The Unkillables will ensure your put your plant-murdering days firmly in the past, and will transform your home into the gorgeous green space you always dreamed of. Are you a plant killer? There's nothing more heart-breaking than bringing your new plant baby home, only to have it die a slow death in front of your very eyes. Was it too much water? Not enough sunlight? A drafty corner? The reasons for planticide can seem endless! In The Unkillables, Jo Lambell shares her houseplant knowledge so that even the biggest plant serial killers can have an abundant indoor garden. Jo will take the fear out of the unknown and equip those with no green fingers at all with the skills they need to keep their plants alive and thriving. Plants can be a little intimidating - with their fancy Latin names, complex terminology and 'just look at me and I'll perish' reputation - so choosing hardy, tolerant plants is the best place to start. Jo walks you through the basics of care - light, water, location - as well as sharing information on repotting, propagating, cleaning, First Aid and more.

Gardening organically outdoors is prevalent in most horticultural circles these days, but what about gardening indoors? Many gardeners still use harsh synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides when growing plants in their homes. How can we choose to eat organic foods, buy natural personal-care products, clean our indoor air, and yet still blast our poor houseplants with toxic chemicals? It is time to put down that spray bottle. Going organic with houseplants is not only possible-the results are amazing Author Julie Bawden Davis brings us Indoor Gardening the Organic Way, a definitive guide to growing houseplants organically. From the dirt on mulch to eco-friendly ways to handle plant pests, Davis has provided this essential resource for novice and experienced gardeners alike. When you learn the specialized rules of gardening organically indoors, you'll soon reap the benefits of robust houseplants that will impress visitors and make your indoor environment a healthier place to be.

A Produce Reference Guide to Fruits and Vegetables from Around the World: Nature?s Harvest answers the many questions consumers have about various fruits and vegetables. Providing basic, clear, and understandable information for each produce item, this reference guide gives you a synopsis of the fruit or vegetable, a short history of the item, the common and uncommon name, what it looks and tastes like, how it is used, and the time of year it is available. Information on nutrition, serving sizes, yields, and optimal storage conditions is also provided. From potatoes to shepherd?s purse and from grapes to the Clementine tangor, A Produce Reference Guide to Fruits and Vegetables from Around the World covers both the familiar and the exotic. Other than the obvious fruits and vegetables (such as 12 varieties of cherries and 10 different kinds of squash) you?ll also read about herbs, mushrooms, sprouts, and nuts. A Produce Reference Guide to Fruits and Vegetables from Around the World is packed with useful information. From practical advice to interesting trivia, some of the things you?ll learn include: You should not eat any green parts of potatoes--it will make you sick. How to classify a peach--clingstone vs. freestone and white vs. yellow. The Texas 1015 Supersweet onion is named after its recommended planting date, October 15. Kiwis (originally from China, not Australia) contain an enzyme that tenderizes meat. Women in China once made a dye from the skin of eggplants to stain their teeth black. The famous mutiny by Captain Bligh?s crew was caused by breadfruit. Gourds may have spread between continents by floating in the ocean, as they can float in sea water for 220 days without losing seed viability. The two nuts mentioned in the Bible--almonds and pistachios.As new methods in farming, storing, and shipping are allowing exotic fruits and vegetables unheard of a few years ago to becom

Open Miniscapes: Create your own terrarium and discover the creativity and fun of making your very own indoor garden encased in glass. Do you love the greener things in life but don't have the time or space for endless gardening? This is the book for you. Miniscapes has 16 projects covering four biomes (Desert, Forest, Carnivorous and Air plants), suitable for all skill levels. The book equips you with the knowledge you need about soil and rocks, moss, tools, propagation, choosing your plants and containers, and designing your tiny landscape. Between these covers is everything you need to create and maintain healthy, happy terrariums that are cheap to make and easy to maintain (you can even upcycle things you already have at home).

The ultimate guide to adding beautiful, imaginative, and colorful container gardens to your yard, deck, patio, porch, sidewalk, windowsills, balcony, or roof terrace

An invaluable sourcebook of ideas with more than 400 gorgeous color photos that inspire and teach

Clear, simple, and informative instructions for both first-time and experienced gardeners

Specially commissioned photography by leading garden photographer Andrew Lawson

Comprehensive information on what types of containers work best for what plants; seasonal planting schemes; step-by-step planting techniques; care and maintenance; and selecting the right plants

Complete care guidelines, including feeding and watering, pruning, staking, propagation, and dealing with pests and diseases

A fully illustrated A-Z directory of more than 100 species and varieties of plants, with detailed information on how to grow them

Conceptual Landscapes explores the dilemma faced in the early moments of design thinking through a gradient of work in landscape and environmental design media by both emerging and well-established designers and educators of landscape architecture. It questions where and, more importantly, how the process of design starts. The book deconstructs the steps of conceptualizing design in order to reignite pedagogical discussions about timing and design fundamentals, and to reveal how the spark of an idea happens - from a range of unique perspectives. Through a careful arrangement of visual essays that integrate analogue, digital and mixed-media works and processes, the book highlights differences between diverse techniques and triggers debate between design, representation, technology and creative culture in the field. Taken together, the book's visual investigation of the conceptual design process serves as a learning tool for aspiring designers and seasoned professionals alike. By situating student work alongside that of experienced teachers and landscape architects, the book also demystifies outdated notions of individual genius and sheds new light on the nearly universally messy process of discovery, bridged across years and diverse creative vocabularies in the conceptual design process. Lavishly illustrated with over 210 full colour images, this book is a must-read for students and instructors in landscape architecture.

Discover and enjoy the flowers, shrubs, and trees of America's northern coastal region. Stroll through Portland, Boston Common, New York City, Philadelphia, and the Baltimore Harbor, and delight in getting to know the natural beauty that makes your excursion a gardener's paradise. In this informative guide, over 400 vibrant color photographs taken in natural settings allow readers to see the flora as it was meant to be seen, in the garden. While this book contains historical, mythological, and original tales about the garden plants of the northern coastal region, with a handy cross reference names index, it may also be used as a quick reference guide. As captured here, whether a visitor to one of the East Coast's many botanical gardens, a home landscaper or a native plant enthusiast, there is an abundance of wonder along the coast for every nature lover! Gardeners from Augusta, Maine, to Dover, Delaware, will find this book enlightening and enjoyable.

'Clever... valuable introduction to the study of plant science.' - Gardeners Illustrated RHS Botany for Gardeners is more than just a useful reference book on the science of botany and the language of horticulture - it is a practical, hands-on guide that will help gardeners understand how plants grow, what affects their performance, and how to get better results. Illustrated throughout with beautiful botanical prints and simple diagrams, RHS Botany for Gardeners provides easy-to-understand explanations of over 3,000 botanical words and terms, and show how these can be applied to everyday gardening practice. For easy navigation, the book is divided into thematic chapters covering everything from Plant Pests, and further subdivided into useful headings such as 'Seed Sowing' and 'Pruning'. 'Botany in Action' boxes provide instantly accessible practical tips and advice, and feature spreads profile the remarkable individuals who collected, studied and illustrated the plants that we grow today. Aided by this book, gardeners will unlock the wealth of information that lies within the intriguing world of botanical science - and their gardens will thrive as a result. This is the perfect gift for any gardener. Contents Includes... The Plant kingdom Growth, Form and Function Inner Workings Reproduction The Beginning of Life External Factors Pruning Botany and the Senses Pest, Diseases and Disorders Botanists and Botanical Illustration ... And Much More!

The instantly recognizable English cottage garden encapsulates that delightful mix of scented climbers, drifts of flowers inter-mingled with herbs and vegetables, fruit trees and traditional features. Much loved and copied throughout the world, it is uniquely individual. With no strict rules to adhere to, it is a garden style that is both informal and functional, celebrating fragrance, flowers and seasonal interest at its heart. The old cottage style of gardening, that blended planting to create a flowery yet productive plot within a small space, is still highly relevant and easily transferable to today's modern garden, whether it be a city courtyard or a large garden in the country. Appropriate for gardeners of every level of ability, The English Cottage Garden covers all aspects of designing a cottage-style garden; from choosing the right trees, climbers, shrubs and perennials to creating an authentic cottage feel to the planting It also covers the use of colour within the garden; how features can establish a framework and create focal points; and why companion planting is essential to this style. Illustrated throughout with a wealth of photographs showing gardens, planting combinations, colourful border schemes and individual flowers, this book is an essential read for anyone interested in the quintessential cottage garden.

The essential elements of a dry Japanese garden are few: rocks, gravel, moss. Simultaneously a sensual matrix, a symbolic form and a memory theatre, these gardens exhibit beautiful miniaturization and precise craftsmanship. However, their apparent minimalism belies a deeper complexity. In Zen Landscapes, Allen S. Weiss takes readers on a journey through these exquisite sites, explaining how Japanese gardens must be approached according to the play of scale, surroundings and seasons, as well as in relation to other arts, thus revealing them as living landscapes rather than abstract designs. These gardens are inspired by the Zen aesthetics of the tea ceremony, manifested in poetry, painting, calligraphy, architecture, cuisine and ceramics. Japanese art favours suggestion and allusion, valuing the threshold between the distinct and the inchoate, between figuration and abstraction, and Weiss argues that ceramics play a crucial role here, relating as much to the site-specificity of landscape as to the ritualized codes of the tea ceremony and the everyday gestures of the culinary table. With more than 100 stunning colour photographs, Zen Landscapes is the first in-depth study in the West to examine the correspondences between gardens and ceramics. A fascinating look at landscape art and its relation to the customs and craftsmanship of the Japanese arts, it will appeal to readers interested in landscape design and Japan's art and culture.

This book is the first study of the portico and its decorative program as a cultural phenomenon in Renaissance Italy. Focusing on a largely neglected group of porticoes decorated with painted pergolas that appeared in Rome and environs in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, it tells the story of how an element of the garden-the pergola-became a pictorial topos in portico decoration, and evolved, hand in hand with its real cousin in the garden, into an object for cultural emulation among the educated patrons of early modern Rome. The liminality of both the portico and the pergola at the interface of architecture and garden is key to the interpretation of these architectural and painted forms, which rests on the intersecting frameworks of the classical tradition, natural history, and the cultural identity of the aristocracy. In the mediating space of the Renaissance portico, the illusionism pergola created an art gallery, a natural history museum, and a virtual garden where one could engage in leisurely strolls, learned conversations, appreciation of art, and scientific investigation, as well as extensive travel across time and space. The book proposes the interpretation that the illusionistic pergola was an artistic formula for the early modern perception of nature.

"Grow Now is an earth manual that applies to everyone, everywhere. Regenerating life begins with our hands, the soil, and our heart. Take this book and go outside, stay outside, and transform." --Paul Hawken, author of Drawdown and Regeneration Did you know you can have a garden that's equal parts food source and wildlife haven? In Grow Now, Emily Murphy shares easy-to-follow principles for regenerative gardening that foster biodiversity and improve soil health. She also shows how every single yard mirrors and connects to the greater ecosystem around us. No-dig growing, composting and mulching smartly, and planting a variety of edible perennials that attract bees and butterflies are all commonsense techniques everyone can use to grow positive change. You'll also find detailed advice on increasing your nature quotient, choosing plants that cycle more carbon back into the soil, selecting a broader variety of vegetables and fruits to improve overall soil fertility, rethinking space devoted to lawns, and adding companion plants for pollinators to rewild any plot of land. Exquisitely photographed and filled with helpful lists and sidebars, Grow Now is an actionable, hopeful, and joyful roadmap for growing our way to individual climate contributions. Gardening is climate activism!

This volume discusses gardens as designed landscapes of mediation between nature and culture, embodying different levels of human control over wilderness, defining specific rules for this confrontation and staging different forms of human dominance. The contributing authors focus on ways of rethinking the garden and its role in contemporary society, using it as a crossover platform between nature, science and technology. Drawing upon their diverse fields of research, including History of Science and Technology, Environmental Studies, Gardens and Landscape Studies, Urban Studies, and Visual and Artistic Studies, the authors unveil various entanglements woven in the past between nature and culture, and probe the potential of alternative epistemologies to escape the predicament of fatalistic dystopias that often revolve around the Anthropocene debate. This book will be of great interest to those studying environmental and landscape history, the history of science and technology, historical geography, and the environmental humanities.

This early work on landscape gardening is a fascinating read for the gardener and historian alike, but also contains much information and anecdote that is still useful and practical today. All the work described is well within the scope of the ordinary man or woman with no previous experience, and no tools will be required that are not in the ordinary household toolbox. Extensively illustrated with working diagrams. Contents Include: Laying Out the Plot - "Labour-saving" Gardens - Stone Edging - Wood Edging - Laying Out the Lawn - The Oval or Circular Lawn - The House Step; Crazy Paving: Imitation Crazy Paving; Bird Baths and Sundials; Non-Rustic Screens and Arches - A Rectangular Trellis Screen - A Semi-Circular Trellis Screen - "Rising Sun" Trellis - A Trellis Fringe - A Trellise Window - Arches - A Four-Way Arch - An Arch Pergola; Rustic Work - Rustic Summerhouses; Garden Furniture: Seats, Tables, Etc. - A Simple Garden Seat - Garden Chairs - A Garden Table; and Ornamental Ponds. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

'Wonderfully intense and honest - a poignant manual of how to grow hope against the odds.' Chris Packham, TV presenter and author of Fingers in the Sparkle Jar Finding herself in a new home in Brighton, Kate Bradbury sets about transforming her decked, barren backyard into a beautiful wildlife garden. She documents the unbuttoning of the earth and the rebirth of the garden, the rewilding of a tiny urban space. On her own she unscrews, saws and hammers the decking away, she clears the builders' rubble and rubbish beneath it, and she digs and enriches the soil, gradually planting it up with plants she knows will attract wildlife. She erects bird boxes and bee hotels, hangs feeders and grows nectar- and pollen-rich plants, and slowly brings life back to the garden. But while she's doing this Kate's neighbours continue to pave and deck their gardens locking them away, the wildlife she tries to save is further threatened, and she feels she's fighting an uphill battle. Is there any point in gardening for wildlife when everyone else is drowning the land in poison and cement? Sadly, events take Kate away from her garden, and she finds herself back home in Birmingham where she grew up, travelling the roads she used to race down on her bike in the eighties, thinking of the gardens and wildlife she loved, witnessing more land lost beneath paving stones. If the dead could return, what would they say about the land we have taken, the ancient routes we have carved up, the wildlife we have lost?

Here are 100 beautiful orchids that you can grow in Florida.

These orchids were chosen for their beauty, ease of cultivation, and suitability to Florida's climate. Whether you are an old hand at growing orchids or are a beginner anxious to try it, you will find help here choosing the plants that will work for you, as well as help on how best to make them prosper.

First you will learn about the structure of orchids; how they are named; and how to pot, water, feed, ventilate, and protect them from weather and insects. You will find you can grow them inside and outside in Florida, and some even in the ground as part of the landscape. Then you will be introduced to 100 fabulous orchids that are well-suited to Florida. You'll find answers to commonly asked questions, lists of suppliers, and a handy reference chart to plant size, flower color, bloom size, bloom time, and exposure.

Orchids of South Africa is the first field guide to local orchids to be published in over 30 years, and presents the more than 450 orchid species found in the region, including Lesotho and Swaziland.

A comprehensive roundup of orchids in their natural habitat, the book features:

- multiple photos for each species

- distribution maps

- flowering time-bars

- succinct text, enabling sure identification of these fascinating plants.

An illustrated introduction discusses orchid structure, ecology and conservation status.

Informative, colourful and easy-to-use, Orchids of South Africa is the authoritative update enthusiasts have been waiting for.