Customer Reviews

Bold and Exotic Plants: Using Form and Shape to Create Visual Impact in the Garden

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Bold and Exotic Plants is a practical, no-nonsense, garden design book focused on foliage that makes a statement. Every page contains beautiful photos that provide inspiration and visually demonstrate the author's design concepts.

Unlike some garden design books that are fixated on color combination and maintaining constant color in the garden, this book focuses more on variation in foliage form and texture, and maintaining interest in the garden all year long. The interplay of foliage colors is just one element of design, and often subtle. The crisp photography is particularly good at capturing the play of light off different shades of green in the various leaves, and showing how different textures respond with shimmering reflection or near absorbtion.

Despite the title, most of the plants featured are not as exotic as you might think and shouldn't be difficult to find. (Suppliers are listed at the end of the book). Characteristics that fit the author's notion of exotic are plants that impress by their sheer size or because their leaves are out of scale with the rest of the plant. This definition lends new respect to some rather common plants. For instance, the author shows how every day ferns can have a bold and exotic effect when sited properly or planted en masse.

Many of the gardens featured are a bit too naturalistic for my taste, but the concepts are readily adaptable to formal or informal gardens. The book illustrates how even a few exotics, carefully incorporated, can provide structure and a focal point that will enhance an otherwise conservative flower bed.

This is a fine book, full of ideas that will make you reconsider your garden - planted or planned. So many unusual plants, such limited space and time!
However, the type the publishers chose for the captions - and there are 250! - is tiny. And against an otherwise attractive mottled background they are very difficult to read - even for good eyes. One has to read this book as one would study a text -under good light at a table. Forget the soft light and easy chair. The total experience is much less than it should be given Noël Kingsbury's expertise, pleasant writing style and excellent assortment of photos.