Graham Stuart Thomas' Three Gardens: The Personal Odyssey of a Great Plantsman and Gardener [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Graham Stuart Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2001

Originally published in 1983 and long unavailable, this book provides a fascinating perspective on Thomas's life and development as a gardener, beginning with the garden at his father's home in Cambridge.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As a youth, renowned rose expert Graham Stuart Thomas was considered a little daft by peers and teachers. Obsessed with gardening, the boy never applied himself in school--all his dreams centered on the flowers he'd planted in his father's small yard. He'd rush home from school to gaze at the blooms. His father's was the first of three gardens that defined Thomas's life up until 1983, when this volume was originally published. After his father's house came a large mansion, then a small bungalow, both bought for the potential of the surrounding land. Describing the creation of three gardens at three different phases of life, Thomas's book lies somewhere between memoir and garden journal.

His prose style is an interesting hybrid of casual, chatty memories interspersed with lists of Latin plant names. Although he's a winner of the Royal Horticultural Society's Veitch Memorial Medal, Thomas doesn't write like an anointed expert. Rather, he's humble and open about his own mistakes--one year planting rhododendrons under an oak where they "drooped sadly every summer," or planting ivy near a down pipe where it "thickened and forced the pipes off the wall." Thomas has faith that such small disasters are necessary events in any garden's evolution. --Emily White

From Booklist

Thomas gives shape to a delightful memoir by reflecting back on the hundreds of plants he selected for his own gardens. Over decades spanning an illustrious career encompassing garden writing, botanical illustration, and restoration work on gardens of the National Trust, Thomas found time to create three distinctive gardens of his own. Calling upon the fascinating details contained in gardening diaries, Thomas graciously shares the wisdom gleaned from a concentrated involvement with designing, planting, and maintaining his personal gardens. A wealth of insights into winning plant combinations and elements essential to planning the layout of a garden will prove appealing to keen gardeners who wish to be inspired by a master horticulturist. For all his accomplishments and honors received, however, Thomas is refreshingly modest and a charming companion and a brilliant guide. He concludes with musings on the beauty of flowers and, on the practical side, an informative plant index. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 221 pages
• Publisher: Sagapress, Incorporated; Sagapress Edition edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898310784
• ISBN-13: 978-0898310788
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,245,371 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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