Please note that the books' prices are set in dollars, so the UK price
will vary.
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THE HUNGRY JUNGLE
Plants from the jungles of Central America or the Far East can
swiftly engulf, once they are abandoned, the works of Mankind. However,
the plants from less luxurious environments are no less expansionist.
Some become noxious weeds in lands on the other side of the globe to
their place of origin. Some become immensely wide-grown crop plants.
Some batten on a most peculiar quirk in the nature of some human beings:
the collecting instinct. Exploiting this, tiny tulip species from
Azerbaijan, great trees from the rain forests of Oregon, campanulas from
the screes of Himalayan mountains, have, in their own way, conquered
the world.
So, why do our gardens look the way they do? In The
Plants that Shaped our Gardens, David Stuart turns the conventional view
of garden history upside down: he contends that it is plants that have
driven the evolution of the modern garden. From the ends of the earth -
the outer reaches of the Ottoman Empire, China, Japan, the Americas -
daring explorers brought new plants back to gardens across Europe
(encountering hair-raising adventures along the way). The influx of
exotica stimulated a frenzy of hybridization, which in turn inspired
gardeners to make room to show off the latest fritillary, delphinium or
rose.
From the burgeoning of the parterre to Dutch tulipomania to
the craze for rhododendrons, Stuart’s book traces the making and
remaking of the modern garden as it acquired features we now take for
granted (the flower bed, the herbaceous border), as well as others that
have become less familiar (the shrubbery, the rockery), and came full
circle to welcome native species and cottage garden varieties long
neglected in favour of the foreign and the new.
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GEORGIAN GARDENS: Styles, Evolution, Planting Maintenance
Covers
the century from 1730, and covers the changes of style over that
period, flower gardens, American gardens, kitchen gardens, planting
plans and so on. Contains all the print editions black and white
illustrations.
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GEORGIAN GARDENS:
Gazetteer
This
is a list of the most important UK locations as they stood when the
first edition appeared. Things have moved ahead fast, and many
new sites have been discovered. If readers feel like updating the
gazetteer for a future edition, they can add material to
www.georgiangardens.wordpress.com
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OLD FASHIONED FLOWERS
 OLD FASHIONED FLOWERS tells the stories of some of the lovelîest garden
flowers grown in earlier ages, ones that your grandparents would have
known, or their grandparents, way back into the mists of time. All are
the fascinating 'antiques' of the garden, and the plants chosen are
mainly hardy perennials or biennials, with some of the most essential
bulbs, and a scattering of annuals. Annuals, herbs, roses and other
shrubs, fruit and vegetables will appear in further books.
This one covers seventy genera, many species and garden varieties, and
is illustrated wǐth one hundred and twenty colour photographs of the
flowers. The book enables gardeners to create gardens abounding in
interest and beauty, scent and colour.
The book sample contains the table of contents, which gives a full
listing of all the plants covered.
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THE GARDEN TRIUMPHANT:
Victorian Garden Taste
 Whether you want to grow Victorian flowers, have a 'period' garden, or
are just interested in gardens of the past, this is the book for you.
In the Victorian era, almost everyone gardened, and for the first time
most gardeners gardened in the same way, whether wealthy tycoons in
their vast houses, or the humblest citizens growing roses and potatoes
side by side in their tiny lots.
Gardening in Victorian America and England created thousands of new
businesses, the manufacturing of new lawnmowers, cast iron urns,
ceramic edgings, the new rubber hoses, and more.
It discovered huge new markets: women in their parlours waiting for
something to do took on gardening as a hobby; gardeners anxious for
something new to read or to plant embraced each new fad.
The influence of Victorian gardening was immensely powerful, and is
still with us. Wherever a garden has alternate blue lobelia and white
alyssum along its paths, or is awash with old roses and pinks, even if
it has only island beds, gnomes, or terracotta pots with lemons, it is
still late Victorian.
The Garden Triumphant gives a unique picture of how the gardening
public lived and thought during the period that created whole nations
of gardeners.
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The New SHRUBS AND
SMALL TREES: Part 1, Getting the best from your plants, Shrubs
large and small
 Easy Species for Temperate Gardens
Parts 1 and 2
The original book has had to be split into two parts, but taken
together, they cover nearly one hundred and sixty easy-to-grow and
exceptionally lovely shrubs, small trees, climbers and roses, as well
as many pages of information about how to get the best out of them, how
best to use them, and the sorts of thing they can contribute to your
garden, whether that's tiny or huge.
Each plant is given a colour photograph, and some basic idea of why the
author thinks it's one of the best in its class.
The sample of vol. 1 has a full table of contents if you want to check
out the scope of the book.
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The New SHRUBS AND SMALL TREES: Part
2, Small trees, Climbers, Roses
Filled with many lovely ideas for planting your garden
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Fruit Gardening 
Here is the book for every gardener, with a temperate, or cool temperate
garden, and who wants to produce fruit. It covers over 40 different
type of fruit, both tree fruits, and 'soft' fruits. There is something
to suit any size of garden: wall-trained cordon apples, or ground cover
strawberries, for a very small space, a stately walnut tree for a large
garden and exotic fruit to grow under glass or, sometimes, on the
windowsill. All the fruits that can be grown practically in temperate or
cool temperate climates are covered, and the range is irresistible:
pears, peaches and nectarines, a vine, currants, gooseberries and
strawberries, oranges, melon and pineapple.
The practical
information includes considerations of climate and growing conditions,
planting training, pruning and harvesting, and there are helpful
suggestions on the fruit to suit your garden.
The author has grown
his own fruit for very many years, and in gardens that have ranged from a
grand 18th century walled kitchen garden to a small garden once owned
by the village stonemason. He has written many books, and very many
articles. If you would like to find out more, visit his author page here
on Amazon. He also has a website and a blog - www.david-stuart.co.uk
and www.davidcstuart.wordpress.com. |
GLORIOUS HISTORIES: Tales from a Traditional Kitchen Garden
 Roman
generals, Chinese merchants, Portugese adventurers, Mayan gardeners,
king's botanists, together with untold millions of the humble and
forgotten, have contributed to the distribution of countless sorts of
fruit and vegetables, and have contributed to the development of new
varieties within them. They have also contributed, unthinkingly,
into the decline of others into oblivion.
This is the story of
some of the species that have become traditional inhabitants of kitchen
gardens in much of the English speaking world. Some needed
specialised growing conditions, others were once used for surprising
purposes - artichoke juice was once a cure for baldness, rhubarb for
'‘Wamblings of the gut’, convulsions and cramps, sciatica, ‘Yeoring’
and mange, and to cleanse ‘the bodie from pale and wan spots (or the
Morphew), and bloody fire’, and so on. The book has many other
surprising examples, and the numbers in the text refer to the sources
of the information.
The book covers 120
crops, each one illustrated with either a photograph or historical
document. It also gives some of the stranger or most delicious
recipes for the crop. Each crop has been grown, harvested and
consumed by the author.
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