Customer Reviews

The Garden Plants of China

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2 star:		(1)
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This is a fabulous, beautifully photographed, survey of the decorative plants native to China. The book opens with details of China's rich horticultural heritage and the role of plants in Chinese culture.

Further chapters are broken down by type of plant. These include bamboos, fruit trees, orchids, roses, chrysanthemums, aquatic plants and more. Items both familiar and exotic to the western gardener will be found here.

Many specific varieties are described in each chapter, with Latin, Chinese and common names. History, native habitat, and uses for each plant are described.

The photography is outstanding with several close-up color photos on each page. There is also a nice smattering of old botanical illustrations and Chinese art. I highly recommend this book.

This is a beautifully produced and immensely readable work of considerable scholarship . Its subject matter is intriguing and the author writes in a style where one finds oneself going quickly from one section to another. The wonderful photography certainly enhances the text. My views would seem to have been borne out by the recent decision of the British Gardens Writers Guild who have just awarded it the Reference Garden Book of the Year. I'm sure this will become the standard reference work for this engrossing subject for many years to come. I highly recommend it.

400 pages and over four hundred color photos pack an in-depth examination of plants used in Chinese gardens for ornamental purposes. Listings appear using both Latin and common names and Chinese names, presenting the history, myths, horticultural information and uses of the plants. A beautiful presentation recommended for horticulture collections.

Very disappointed with this book. There is no information you can use for your garden or in your future work. There is no info in hardiness, preferences, usage of the plants in landscape etc. Yes, good photos , but this is all.

A beautiful gardener's book of the plants from China that have influenced gardens the world over, very well organised by category of plant and well documented - including Chinese and western names, horticultural Latin names, pin yin versions and the names in simplified (but not original) Chinese characters. It begins with a reasonable account of the gardens generally and has, scattered throughout, an incidental iconographical analysis of various flowers and plants in paintings or gardens and their symbolism - entailing puns and rebuses that I have not seen anywhere else.

This book has just been awarded the Reference Garden Book of the Year by the British Garden Writers Guild on the 25th November 1999. An award richly deserved for this superb work of scholarship and book production . It is likely to stand as a major reference work for this intriguing subject for some time. I think that says it all.