Alpines have been a favourite plant for generations of gardeners and are as popular now as ever. Historically they were used in rockeries, but they offer far more potential for today's gardens, which are generally becoming smaller. Whether planted in troughs, window boxes, raised beds or between paving, alpines offer fantastic versatility and colour for nearly every month of the year. Topics covered include: traditional and contemporary settings for growing plants; ideas for incorporating alpine plants into a new or existing garden plot; advice on planting and maintenance and information on propagation methods and facilities. There is an A-Z of over 180 of the best alpine plants, with a useful table of flowering times. Aimed at both the beginner and the more experienced enthusiast this essential guide, new in paperback for 2022, contains a wealth of beautifully illustrated information.

A plant a day brings beauty your way. So why not make the most of your garden with 365 of the very best plant varieties - one for every day of the year! From spring blooms to winter interest and everything in between, each plant has been personally selected by expert horticulturist Phil Clayton, who draws on his nearly 20 years of RHS experience, along with his own garden favourites, to showcase a vast array of planting choices. With a range of plants as broad as Phil's knowledge is vast, A Plant for Every Day of the Year is like taking a walk with an accomplished gardener as they show you their favourite plants. Each profile comes complete with stunning photography and an at-a-glance guide to height, spread, hardiness, and other must-know information, so you too can make the most of every season in your own garden. Turn the pages of this plant book to discover: - Unique structure gives the reader a whole year of plants, day by day. - Phil Clayton's unrivalled knowledge and personal approach are apparent throughout, allowing the reader to absorb his experience and expertise. - Easy-to-follow text and clear photography present the plants in an accessible and enjoyable format. A must-have volume for existing gardeners and plant lovers who want to enjoy Phil's personal and insightful commentary on a wide range of plants, alongside individuals who don't know what plants to grow and want to seek advice from a reputable gardener such as Phil. Doubling up as the perfect gardening book for budding botanists, who are looking to achieve their garden or indoor space's fullest potential all year round, A Plant For Every Day of the Year is sure to delight.

One fateful day in 1996, upon discovering that five freight cars' worth of glittering corn have reaped a tiny profit of $18.16, young Forrest Pritchard undertakes to save his family's farm. What ensues--through hilarious encounters with all manner of livestock and colorful local characters--is a crash course in sustainable agriculture. Pritchard's biggest ally is his renegade father, who initially questions his son's career choice and eschews organic foods for sugary mainstream fare. But just when the farm starts to turn heads at local markets, his father's health takes a turn for the worse. With poetry and humor, this timely memoir tugs on the heartstrings and feeds the soul long after the last page is turned.

A colourful, illustrated celebration of wild plants around the world, and why we should love them not loathe them, with 50 graphic illustrations by Paul Farrell. To call a plant a weed is doing it a real injustice. It's simply a wild plant that is not deliberately cultivated, growing where it is not wanted. By this definition, virtually any plant outside a carefully tended garden is a weed. The intolerance of weeds is a mark of how we have turned our backs on nature and urbanized our land and lives. In this enlightening survey, illustrator Paul Farrell uncovers the wild beauty in weeds and explains the benefits of rewilding ourselves a little. Weeds can be medicine, food, and an important aid for wildlife. One person's weed is another's wild beauty. Paul's brilliant modernist illustration style shows us dandelions, thistles and feverfew in a whole new light. Each of the 50 weeds featured is accompanied by a quirky history and its uses in medicine, cooking, arts and even industry. Sample contents: US/Canada weeds: Dandelion; Daisy; Groundsell; Chickweed; Nettle; Wild carrot; Sumac. UK/Europe weeds: Foxglove; Deadly nightshade; Yarrow; Rosebay willowherb; Herb Robert; Scarlet Pimpernel; Violet; Wood Sorrel; Red valerian; Common knapweed

This stunning series of pocketbooks from Kew offers a snapshot into the diverse and beautiful world of plants. Each book lavishly showcases choice examples from individual plant groups or collections, and this new title showcases Japanese plants, from chrysanthemums, to cherry blossom, camellia and maples. Published to coincide with the new Japan festival at Kew Gardens in October 2020. The Library, Art and Archives at Kew is one of the most extensive botanical libraries in the world, with the oldest item dating back to the 1370s. In this pocketbook series from Kew, each book presents 40 botanical paintings from the collection, illustrating the variety within each plant group, as well as the diversity of the collection and artistic styles. An introductory chapter by a Kew expert provides an overview of the plant group or theme, and extended captions accompany each painting. The luxury finish on these books make them a must-have gift item, printed on uncoated paper and with a cloth and foil finish.

This stunning series of pocketbooks from Kew offers a snapshot into the diverse and beautiful world of plants. Each book lavishly showcases choice examples from individual plant groups or collections, and in this pocketbook a selection of plants are showcased from Honzu Zufu, a Japanese 17th century multi-volume manual of medicinal plants with a unique botanical style. Published to coincide with the new Japan festival at Kew Gardens in October 2020. The Library, Art and Archives at Kew is one of the most extensive botanical libraries in the world, with the oldest item dating back to the 1370s. In this pocketbook series from Kew, each book presents 40 botanical paintings from the collection, illustrating the variety within each plant group, as well as the diversity of the collection and artistic styles. An introductory chapter by a Kew expert provides an overview of the plant group or theme, and extended captions accompany each painting. The luxury finish on these books make them a must-have gift item, printed on uncoated paper and with a cloth and foil finish.

'Root to Stem is a seasonal and holistic approach to health that puts plants, herbs and nature at the heart of how we live and eat. It is a new kind of guide that links individual health to our communities and the planet's health to sustain us all.' This perfect companion to the seasons, this book will show you how to take greater control over your own health and well-being, treat everyday ailments, and ensure the sustainability of the planet through discovering how to forage, grow, or shop for plant- and herb-based foods and products. Including: Detox in the spring with sorrel, cleavers and nettles. Harvest summer lime leaf shoots to soothe digestive upsets and feed gut microbes. Bake a Lammas loaf to celebrate the autumnal equinox. Boost your winter immunity with red berries, purple potatoes and rosehips. Root-to-stem eating encourages you to use every edible part of plant, including the leaves, skin, seeds and stalks. Travelling through the four seasons, expert medical herbalist Alex Laird shares the natural ingredients that are available on your doorstep, simple delicious recipes and easy-to-make herbal remedies.

This ingenious and informative new illustrated book reveals the inside stories of more than 50 common and successful weeds, including cultivated `thugs' which gardeners plant at their peril, and presents its findings as evidence for the prosecution and defence. It then explores the ways in which the weeds are so successful, whether annual, biennial or perennial, and suggests effective ways of removing or controlling them, and for using them wisely. Where important, as with weeds such as Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam, it includes your legal obligations as a gardener to stop these most pernicious weeds from spreading. A useful reference section tells you all you need to know about weeding tools, weedkillers, composting weeds and using mulches to stop them spreading, plus specific details on weeds in lawns and ponds and weeds and the law. So whether you're worried by groundsel or ground elder, nettles or knotweed, bamboo or brambles, or would like to encourage dandelions or clovers to grow exactly where you want them, then these are the verdicts you need.

All kinds of garden plants – shrubs, climbers, roses, hedges and trees – need pruning to improve their shape and condition, and to encourage more flowers and fruits.

Whether you are starting a new garden, maintaining established plants or renovating a neglected garden, this essential guide to pruning will come to your assistance time and again.

The acclaimed author of Motoring with Mohammed brings us a compelling adventure into the remarkable world of the orchid and the impossibly bizarre array of international characters who dedicte their lives to it.

The orchid is used for everything from medicine for elephants to an aphrodisiac ice cream. A Malaysian species can grow to weigh half a ton while a South American species fires miniature pollen darts at nectar-sucking bees. But the orchid is also the center of an illicit international business: one grower in Santa Barbara tends his plants while toting an Uzi, and a former collector has been in hiding for seven years after serving a jail sentence for smuggling thirty dollars worth of orchids into Britain. Deftly written and captivatingly researched, Orchid Fever is an endlessly enchanting and entertaining tour of an exotic world.

"A wonderful book, I've been up all night reading it, laughing and crying out in horror and clucking at the vivid images of bureaucracy with the bit in its teeth." —Annie Proulx

"An extraordinary, well-told tale of botany, obsession and plant politics. Hansen's vivid descriptions of the complex techniques some orchids use to pollinate themselves will raise your eyebrows at nature's sexual ingenuity." —USA Today

Carolyne Roehm shares her passion for flowers in hundreds of exquisite photographs. Inspired by Irving Penn's iconic 'Flowers', Carolyne has carefully photographed close-ups of her gorgeous blooms and paired them with images of her arrangements, table settings, and her abundant gardens at Weatherstone, her 18th-century Connecticut estate.

The names of those early orchid hunters are preserved today in the Latin names by which the orchids they discovered are still known. In the last two decades orchids have been subject to extensive hybridisation in the search for novelty and ever more fantastic colours and shapes; indeed thousands upon thousands of hybrids have appeared. Jack Kramer concentrates on the original botanical orchids as they appeared in nature and their habitats. These orchids had waned in popularity with the introduction of the new hybrids and were also at risk in many cases of extinction as their natural habitats were despoiled and ravaged by man. Fortunately, new cloning techniques have rescued such endangered species from oblivion. This book addresses the technical needs of the novice orchid enthusiast in choosing species appropriate to the climate and facilities available, as well as guiding the beginner in the basics of orchid cultivation. ' The lesson to be learned is that you can successfully raise orchids as lo

A journalistic tour de force, this wide-ranging collection by the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography "Stilwell and the American Experience in China" is a classic in its own right.
During the summer of 1972--a few short months after Nixon's legendary visit to China--master historian Barbara W. Tuchman made her own trip to that country, spending six weeks in eleven cities and a variety of rural settlements. The resulting reportage was one of the first evenhanded portrayals of Chinese culture that Americans had ever read.
Tuchman's observations capture the people as they lived, from workers in the city and provincial party bosses to farmers, scientists, and educators. She demonstrates the breadth and scope of her expertise in discussing the alleviation of famine, misery, and exploitation; the distortion of cultural and historical inheritances into ubiquitous slogans; news media, schools, housing, and transportation; and Chairman Mao's techniques for reasserting the Revolution. This edition also includes Tuchman's "fascinating" ("The New York Review of Books") essay, "If Mao Had Come to Washington in 1945"--a tantalizing piece of speculation on a proposed meeting between Mao and Roosevelt that would have changed the course of postwar history.
"Shrewdly observed . . . Tuchman enters another plea for coolness, intelligence and rationality in American Asian policies. One can hardly disagree."--"The New York Times Book Review"

This companion book to 'Natural by Design' concentrates on over two hundred plants, individually photographed and profiled. The key to any successful garden is knowing the plants, the conditions that nurture them, and the care that must be taken in their propagation, cultivation, transplanting, and pruning. Knowing the native and adaptive plants of the region and how best to use them in the landscape will enable the gardener to create gardens of self-sustaining beauty.

Bill Alexander had no idea that his simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard would lead him into life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, weeds, and weather; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; and skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer). Not to mention the vacations that had to be planned around the harvest, the near electrocution of the tree man, the limitations of his own middle-aged body, and the pity of his wife and kids. When Alexander runs (just for fun ) a costbenefit analysis, adding up everything from the live animal trap to the Velcro tomato wraps and then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it comes as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each one of his beloved Brandywine tomatoes. But as any gardener will tell you, you can't put a price on the unparalleled pleasures of providing fresh food for your family.

A handy guide for Missouri packed with best plant varities for your garde: annuals, perennials, trees & shrubs, vines, roses, ornamental grasses and herbs.

In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldn't help but notice that thousands of normally sober, hardworking Dutch citizens from every walk of life were caught up in an extraordinary frenzy of buying and selling. The object of this unprecedented speculation was the tulip, a delicate and exotic Eastern import that had bewitched horticulturists, noblemen, and tavern owners alike. For almost a year rare bulbs changed hands for incredible and ever-increasing sums, until single flowers were being sold for more than the cost of a house.

Historians would come to call it tulipomania. It was the first futures market in history, and like so many of the ones that would follow, it crashed spectacularly, plunging speculators and investors into economic ruin and despair.

This is the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most coveted--and beautiful--commodity in Europe. Historian Mike Dash vividly narrates the story of this amazing flower and the colorful cast of characters--Turkish sultans, Yugoslav soldiers, French botanists, and Dutch tavern keepers--who were centuries apart historically and worlds apart culturally, but who all had one thing in common: tulipomania.

The perfect purchase for anyone wanting to garden on a shoestring - and grow your own garden from scratch, Grow Your Own Garden is an inspirational, accessible and practical gardening guide that will have great appeal to novices and more experienced gardeners alike. Full of beautiful colour photography and expert advice from the BBC's Carol Klein. 'Buy it or drop big hints ... you will not be disappointed' -- ***** Reader review 'Covers pretty much everything a gardener needs to know' -- ***** Reader review 'Quite inspirational' -- ***** Reader review 'Wonderful book written by a very knowledgeable lady' -- ***** Reader review 'Brilliant book - so informative' -- ***** Reader review ***************************************************************************************** Carol Klein is passionate about propagation. Her own garden, as seen on Gardeners' World, is almost grown entirely from cuttings and seeds and in this book she's on a mission to share her joy in working with nature to cultivate the plants she loves. Too often gardeners are intimidated by propagation, assume it's not for them and go for ready-grown plants from the garden centre. But Carol, a gifted communicator with her infectious enthusiasm, boundless horticultural expertise and easy practical explanations, shows just how simple and satisfying it is to grow your own plants, not to mention sustainable and cheap. She demonstrates, step-by-step, how to divide herbaceous perennials, nurture seedlings or grow new stock from root cuttings, stems or leaves, showing how there is no mystique involved and anybody can do it.

Plants and gardens play a central role in life on Earth. They have provided food, clothing, shelter, medicines, employment, leisure and enjoyment throughout history. Both also have many symbolic uses in art, mythology and literature, making plants and gardens the perfect theme for the Designer Bookbinders fourth International Competition held at the Bodleian Library in 2022. The chosen theme also celebrates 400 years since the founding of Oxford Botanic Garden. This beautiful catalogue features richly illustrated texts and finely printed volumes which are bound with skill and creativity using varied materials by binders from all over the world. The fourth in a series following on from 'Bound for Success' in 2009, 'Prize Volumes' in 2013 and 'Heroic Works' in 2017, 'A Gathering of Leaves' is a celebration of the stunningly inventive winning bindings featured alongside all the competition entries.

A leading light in the field of medicinal herb cultivation, The Chinese Medicinal Herb Farm is the first cultivation guide of its kind, and presents invaluable information for growers interested in producing high-quality efficacious herbs in all climates of the US, with the historical connectedness of ancient practitioners.

It has become increasingly important-especially as the market for herbal medicine continues to grow-that we transition to local and domestic medicinal cultivation. Increasingly there are concerns in regards to not only the quality but the purity of imported herbs, and wild herbs picked for medicinal purposes are ever more endangered than in past years both at home and abroad.

Peg Schafer, longtime grower and teacher, guides readers with information on propagating, cultivating, and harvesting Chinese herbs, and presents fascinating new scientific data that reveal the age-old wisdom of nature and the traditional systems of Chinese medicine. Through 79 detailed herb profiles--all tested and trialed on Schafer's certified organic farm-Schafer offers easy-to-follow information, suitable for both growers and practitioners, for growing efficacious wild-simulated herbs. Also included is important information on species conservation, crop integration, and how to avoid the introduction of invasive species. Sidebars on traditional medicinal uses for each herb and delicious recipes are also featured throughout.

Vegetable and CSA farmers will find this book of great interest for adding value-added crops to their repertoire, and beginner growers looking to incorporate medicinals into their gardens will find this an invaluable guide to understanding where herbal medicine comes from, and will make eating-your-medicine more accessible than ever.