or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Sell Back Your Copy
For a $1.54 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I'd like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die [Hardcover]

Rae Spencer-Jones (Editor), Elizabeth Scholtz (Preface)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

List Price: $34.99
Price: $23.09 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $11.90 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 19 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Wednesday, February 1? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover $23.09  
Paperback --  

Book Description

February 1, 2007
Garden lovers and discriminating travelers will relish this armchair tour of the most beautiful and interesting gardens around the world. Succinct descriptions with stunning color photos showcase the creations of the world's outstanding landscape gardeners, architects, and garden designers. From Spain's famous gardens of the Moorish Alhambra at Granada to San Diego's Healing Garden, created for patients at the San Diego Children's Hospital, this lavishly illustrated guide will delight both lovers of natural beauty and hands-on gardeners. Among the many gardens pictured and described in this beautiful volume are--

  • In the United States and Canada: Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Boscobel in New York's Hudson Valley, Williamsburg Gardens in Virginia, Magnolia Plantation and its Gardens near Charleston, South Carolina, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin in Wisconsin, the Toronto Botanical Garden, Pacific Undersea Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, and many more. . .
  • In England: The Japanese Garden in London's Holland Park, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, Shakespeare's Garden in Stratford, London's Victoria and Albert Museum Gardens, and many more. . .
  • In France: The Gardens of Versailles outside Paris, the Garden of Claude Monet at Giverney, Chateau de Vauville in Cherbourg, and many more. . .
  • The rest of the world: Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy, Potsdam Gardens near Berlin, Germany, the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan, and hundreds more.

    In addition to photos and a textual description, each entry cites special features such as fountains and architecture, the garden's size in acres, and the names of the garden's designers. The garden descriptions are organized geographically by country. More than 800 breathtaking color photos and illustrations.

  • Frequently Bought Together

    1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die + The Most Beautiful Gardens in the World + In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World
    Price For All Three: $99.59

    Some of these items ship sooner than the others. Show details

    Buy the selected items together
    • In Stock.
      Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
      Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

    • The Most Beautiful Gardens in the World $45.00

      Usually ships within 1 to 3 weeks.
      Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
      This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details

    • In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World $31.50

      In Stock.
      Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
      This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details



    Editorial Reviews

    From Publishers Weekly

    This gorgeous volume is like porn for horticulturists. Gardens from all around the world in every possible climate, style and size fill this book to bursting. Here are public spaces everyone knows—like Central Park in New York City, Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens in Canada and Les Jardins des Tuileries in Paris—as well as gardens only the most well-traveled ever get to see; such as Bagh-e Eram in Iran or Jargu Jui Sculpture Park in Romania. Many privately owned, rarely viewed gardens are featured as well, such as Brook Cottage Garden in Oxfordshire, England; Vico Morcote in Ticino, Switzerland; and Rustenberg Farm Gardens in Western Cape, South Africa. Whether one prefers modern sculpture gardens, formal flower gardens or Japanese Zen landscapes, Spencer-Jones's impressive team of 70 photographers, writers and horticulturists have captured them all in concise detail. While some readers might have preferred more and bigger photos (sadly, some entries don't come with pictures at all), most garden lovers will appreciate the comprehensive history, design and climate information that accompanies each entry. (Mar.)
    Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

    From Booklist

    This beautifully designed if hefty resource serves as the ultimate garden-based vacation-planning guide for lovers of paradise landscapes and flourishing green spaces. Editor Spencer-Jones, along with dozens of contributors, describes 1,001 world gardens in brief essays providing insights into the gardens' engaging history, enchanting stylistic elements, and seasonal spectacles, as well as profiling garden makers and designers from Indian rajahs and Moroccan sultans to Edith Wharton and Claude Monet. Organized by region, the survey brims with vivid anecdotes, useful information, and alluring images. The worldwide panoply of gardens encompasses every style and type of habitat from wet tropical to temperate to arid in naturalistic settings, formal estates, private havens, and botanical wonderlands, as well as examples of such innovations as France's fantastical Les Jardins de L'Imaginaire. Surely the best compendium to date for both the botanically inclined armchair traveler who likes to dream and the intrepid sojourner preparing for a tour. Alice Joyce
    Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

    Product Details

    • Hardcover: 960 pages
    • Publisher: Barron's Educational Series (February 1, 2007)
    • Language: English
    • ISBN-10: 0764160052
    • ISBN-13: 978-0764160059
    • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.7 x 2.4 inches
    • Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
    • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
    • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,827 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

     

    Customer Reviews

    17 Reviews
    5 star:
     (5)
    4 star:
     (5)
    3 star:
     (4)
    2 star:
     (2)
    1 star:
     (1)
     
     
     
     
     
    Average Customer Review
    3.6 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
     
     
     
     
    Share your thoughts with other customers:
    Most Helpful Customer Reviews

    25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
    3.0 out of 5 stars Long on Variety, Short on Details and Images, July 4, 2007
    By 
    Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   
    This review is from: 1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die (Hardcover)
    Before evaluating this book, I must say I'm stunned by the amount of work that must have gone on to identify 1001 excellent gardens around the world and to describe and illustrate them. Thank you, Rae Spencer-Jones, and your 70 contributors for this incredible effort.

    If you are like me, you'll be overwhelmed by the sheer number of gardens. As I looked in every area of the world I've ever visited, I saw or read about gardens that I wished I had known about on prior trips. As an example, the book describes a garden within 10 miles of my home that I've never visited because people have told me that it was nothing special. Since the book has both a fine description and an excellent photograph, I can see that I've been misinformed. I would undoubtedly love this garden and plan to visit it over the weekend.

    If you love gardens, you would be foolish not to buy and treasure this book as a resource if you ever travel. Why? You can start with the list of gardens in the areas where you are going and do more research from there to see which ones will be most satisfying to you. I don't know of another alternative place to start for those who want to take garden tours on their own while traveling.

    That said, any book that attempts to describe 1001 gardens is going to have a big drawback . . . not much detail about any one garden. In fact, although there are hundreds of images in the book, most gardens don't have any images.

    That weakness is compounded by the book being produced in a small page size that resembles Petit Larousse.

    Did they miss any good gardens? I don't know, but every garden I've ever visited and enjoyed was in the book. I was surprised, however, to see that the images for those gardens often understated the primary appeal of the gardens. But tastes do differ from person to person.

    In examining the photographs, I got the sense that the architecture, natural backdrop, and sculptures had a big influence on what gardens were selected. If that's true (and I wouldn't know unless I visited a few hundred more gardens than I've been to), perhaps this is more a book about outdoor splendor than about plants. That's an impression anyway that the images present. If you are a huge flower lover, please realize that not all of these gardens feature flowers as their main appeal.

    The gardens are grouped geographically, beginning in North America and moving east. Not surprisingly, the list is heavy with English and Scottish gardens. If you plan to go the United Kingdom, I suspect this book is even more of a treasure than if you plan to visit the United States. Nevertheless, I'm struck by how many countries are either not represented or barely represented. Clearly, people must garden almost everywhere. I'm not sure what the explanation is.

    I was left, however, dissatisfied with the book. I suspect that it would have worked better with some greater attempt to give comparable descriptions of the gardens so that those who have a particular taste in gardens could have sorted out just those of most interest. I also wonder if a project like this one shouldn't be done in electronic form instead of physical form so that size of the overall volume isn't so cost constrained.

    I plan to keep a copy, but I'll hope that another edition comes out that does more with the concept.

    But in the meantime, I will thank God that this work is available to me. I humbly thank all the contributors for their hard work.
    Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
    Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


    31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
    4.0 out of 5 stars If we had all the time in the world..., April 23, 2007
    Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
    This review is from: 1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die (Hardcover)
    I am puzzled by the previous one-star negative review - did the reviewer understand the intent of this book? It is a directory of beautiful gardens throughout the world, not necessarily meant to "inspire" although I am sure that would happen if you actually visited the gardens. As for the photos, I thought they were wonderful. Sure, some are smaller, but they are still outstanding and correctly illustrate the type of garden that it is. And there are plenty of full page photos, usually every 5 pages or so features one. True, not all gardens have photos but the majority of them do.

    Each garden profile features a three or four paragraph narrative description accompanied by an info box that identifies the garden designer, owner, garden style, size, climate and location. The gardens featured in this book are arranged geographically from west to east and north to south beginning with North America and ending with Austrailia and New Zealand.
    Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
    Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


    5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
    2.0 out of 5 stars Not great, April 18, 2008
    By 
    MartinP "MartinP" (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
    This review is from: 1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die (Hardcover)
    For garden-lovers a 1,000 page book crammed chockfull with gardens the world over is an enticing prospect - though the suggestion you must all see them before you die is a bit fanciful, and symptomatic of the depersonalized, random consumerism of today's "must-see", "must-have" and "must-do" lists. Unfortunately, the book itself is not quite what it could have been. Quantity decidedly triumphed over quality. Photographs are mostly small, often quite crude and grainy, and as often unnaturally, even luridly colored. Many hardly give an impression of a garden at all, but instead focus on detail or architecture. Descriptive entries are brief and superficial. Entries are arranged geographically, from north to south and from west to east, with remarkably confusing results. The accent is very strongly on Europe, the whole of China being despatched in less pages than the Netherlands. If you are looking for a gazetteer to guide you to interesting gardens while planning a travel itinerary, this book might just give you a useful handle. If you are looking for pleasing garden images or indepth information, look elsewhere.
    Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
    Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

    Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
     
     
     
    Most Recent Customer Reviews











    Only search this product's reviews



    Inside This Book (learn more)
    Browse Sample Pages:
    Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
    Search Inside This Book:

    What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


    Tags Customers Associate with This Product

     (What's this?)
    Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
     

    Your tags: Add your first tag
     

    Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

    If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

    Customer Discussions

    This product's forum
    Discussion Replies Latest Post
    No discussions yet

    Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
    Start a new discussion
    Topic:
    First post:
    Prompts for sign-in
     


    Active discussions in related forums
    Search Customer Discussions
    Search all Amazon discussions
       
    Related forums





    Look for Similar Items by Category


    Look for Similar Items by Subject