The Gardener's Book of Color [Hardcover]

Andrew Lawson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 1996

Five hundred full-color photographs, charts, and planting plans highlight a complete guide to creating color effects in the garden, discussing types of plants and their textures, color schemes, and plant care and cultivation. 25,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lawson, whose photography earned him a Royal Horticultural Society gold medal in 1993, explores the power of color in the garden. Immensely worthwhile to both novice and accomplished gardeners, this volume explains how plants of various color, texture, bloom size and height can be arranged in the garden to expand or concentrate space and create a wide spectrum of moods, e.g., "soothing and tranquil" blues that give the illusion of abundant space. Lawson's beginning lesson utilizes a color wheel that bursts with poppies, petunias and fiddlehead ferns. Tone, texture, saturation, harmony and contrast are all demonstrated with lushly photographed blossoms. Such chapters as "Single Colors," "Harmonies," "Contrasts" and "Mixed Colors" focus on representative plantings and include lists of similarly hued plants arranged like a painter's palette. Lawson encourages gardeners to follow their own tastes and to experiment with such unorthodox color schemes as "Muted Reds and Gray-greens," "Scarlet, Pink, and Orange Shocks." The text is somewhat prim, but individual plant listings include the usual information and the photos are meticulously labeled. Diagrams are provided for major planting designs, which will be especially handy for readers who wish to plagiarize plans for entire beds from these pages.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Readers Digest (April 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0895778580
• ISBN-13: 978-0895778581
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 10 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,663,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars new ways to look at color, October 26, 1999

By 

J. Lacefield ([e-mail]) (Kansas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gardener's Book of Color (Hardcover)

Lawson does a better job of presenting and especially operationalizing color blending than any of ten books I looked at. He also consistently identifies what is in the glorious pictures. I am amazed by how many authors do not do this. It is an outstanding book for a beginner, that's me, to make a garden look like a pro did it, and for an experienced gardener to gain new perspectives and want to plant even more.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, May 19, 2001

By 

Susan Taylor (Northumberland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Gardener's Book of Color (Hardcover)

This is one of my all time favorite books, I return to it time and again for ideas, ispiration and information. Andrew Lawson has written the definitive book on using color in the garden, there are wonderful examples of single color gardens, as well as using contrasting and co-ordinating colors with plants. He gives great suggestions for plants to use. The photographs in this book, taken by Lawson himself are superb. Every gardener will get something from this brilliant book.