Customer Reviews

Jewel Box Garden

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Thomas Hobbs is, at least in the persona he presents in this book, an avant-gardist gardening snob. He sees gardening as a fashion-driven art, where trendy plants are to be discarded as soon as they become too popular with the petit bourgeoisie, for whom his contempt is made clear on almost every page of text. Some of this stuff can't be spoofed, because it's impossible to be more catty than Hobbs here (block quotes preceded by ** and italics presented as ALL CAPS):

** Some gardeners will never learn the art of plant assemblage... As I drive by their predictable efforts, I often wonder, "Is Life Easier?"

** Being a left-handed, Gemini breach-birth ALLOWS me to love tetraploid daylilies. It is WHO I AM BOTANICALLY.

** Bowling balls are appropriate in Marcia Donahue's garden/gallery in Berkeley, California, because SHE DID IT FIRST.

Hobbs is obsessed with rejection of the common and the cliched, but most of his featured gardens also look alike, in part because they're almost all small shaded urban gardens in the coastal Northwest, but more notably because they eschew flowers in favor of foliage plants - mostly bright or spiky - with color from kitschy cast-offs and outré sculpture, including flesh-colored ceramic penises.

In my (hardly original) opinion, a big problem with most people's enjoyment of the arts today is that the field has already done what is pretty or handsome, and since its current practitioners are jaded by their predecessors' work and aspire to being original, they must often produce what most nonspecialists consider ugly. This is notably a problem with architecture and oil painting (and classical music) by about World War I, and haute couture since the Kennedy Administration. So far horticulture has largely escaped the curse of avant-gardist ugliness, but not in this book. I wondered whether it was fair to Hobbs to say he has passed a step beyond "Shocking Beauty" to where much of this book is ugly, but then I came to his penultimate page of prose:

** I have noticed a switch in gardening, from "pretty" to what I call "the New Ugly." I find this fascinating and very, very attractive. In gardening, UGLY HAS BEEN REDEFINED by brilliant plantsmen and -women who get absolutely no thrill from trying to make a pretty picture. By increasing the dosage of all that is weird and unexpected, these thrillseekers are creating powerful, unforgettable experiences.

Umh, NO IT HASN'T! If we wanted "powerful, unforgettable experiences" of ugliness, we would just move into a junkyard next to an oil refinery! That said, if the book's title or dust-jacket reflected this decadent philosophy, I could rate it 4 stars [...]

Perhaps oddly, Hobbs' Vancouver garden is larger, far more colorful and floriferous, and far more beautiful, than the preceding gardens. Hobbs doesn't fail to add a campy dramatic element, however, to his discovery of the Vancouver house:

** I will never forget ringing the doorbell, expecting "Max," [from Sunset Boulevard] or at least Harvey Korman dressed as "Max," to open the door. Instead, a very short Alfred Hitchcock type greeted us, with a badly-wigged woman peering over his shoulder.

As you might have guessed, the text of this book is more about Hobbs' persona than about gardening. But it isn't until the very last page of prose that we learn exactly how, for Hobbs, the garden is therapy - about talking to plants, which most people can't do ("and it shows"!) - and about remembering gardeners who gave him plants and then died of AIDS. Life is a veil of tears, so maybe we should cut him some slack, even if we are not in love with ugliness.

Thomas Hobbs, who also wrote "Shocking Beauty, has written another exquisite book. In "Jewelbox", he elaborates more on his philosophy about gardening (actually, life). This book carries the thread of Shocking Beauty, but is in no way redundant. There are wonderful close-ups and elegant garden vignettes, as well as humorous and "shocking" images (from the gardens of people who are most likely his friends). Mr. Hobbs is gifted, articulate and knowledgeable about plants, and he is an extraordinary editor. The gardens in this book run the stylistic gamut, but each has something wonderful to say about personal style and about having the guts and the eye to make a garden so undeniably individual.
I can't imagine not loving this book.

A more appropriate name doesn't exist. Imagine opening a beautifully crafted jewelry box to find the most sparkling baubles and brightly colored gems. David McDonald's photographs create this effect with the most exquisite flowers and plants imaginable. Nature's beauty surpasses the traditional sparkling trinkets one might expect to find and Thomas Hobbs describes them in the manner they deserve. I found this book to be a work of art, a gallery of paintings that happened to be growing from the earth. A must have for every gardener, artist, or anyone who appreciates beauty.

The pictures in this book are beautiful. Photographer David McDonald revels in bold colors and dramatic textures and captures some wonderful gardens. I live in the arid high plains of Colorado while the gardens in this book are mostly of the green, wet Pacific Northwest, so this book doesn't provide much in the way of practical ideas for my garden. Nevertheless, the bold designs featured are inspirational and great fun to look at. Author Hobbs is the typical, obsessed plantsman, with a great eye for plant combinations and a house to die for. I found his text a bit fluffy, though, with all sorts of advice for embracing your inner gardener or somesuch. This is not a book I turn to for practical gardening information, but it's great for inspiration.

I agree with the review below. Hobbs is really condescending. He insults anyone who's ever bought a petunia. And he expects the reader to buy expensive, rare, and tender plants in order to be interesting. But then he insults the reader by saying that a banana in the garden is like "foliar graffitti." Well, which is it? I don't appreciate the mixed messages of encouraging creativity and then mocking those who do try to be creative. I did not like this book.

It's also assumed that readers have the money, time, and knowledge to stage their gardens. Not everyone owns a rare plant nursery! And has a whole staff to help them with their garden.

Hobbs made me realize why I saw so many gardens that I didn't appreciate, be they well tended, stocked with plants, and groomed to perfection. Such gardens were bursting with blooms or stuffed with woody or bushy growth but again and again I left them thinking they were all the same and the unsatisfied feeling they gave left me empty and wanting something different that I couldn't explain. I was unable to put into words why I felt that way. Suddenly, the answer came in Hobbs books. His exquisitely photographed book clarified what I'd been feeling about the sameness and lack of imagination in these gardens. I had an revelation about gardening after reading Shocking Beauty and immediately bought Jewel Box Garden. I couldn't believe he could write another book that was as good as his first but he did. In fact, it will take your breath away. I've read both books until they are dog eared, given several copies as gifts, and am completely tearing apart and redoing my garden because of them.

While the pictures in "The Jewel Box Garden" are great and may provide the reader with some inspiration, the author's condescending and judgemental text is pedestrian and fails to provide the reader with any original ideas regarding how to think about and plan a great place in a small space.

Beautiful picture, but really nothing you can use in a normal garden, should had read others reviews just a coffee table book is what it is.

I purchased this book after seeing it at my friend's house. I am a garden designer and love to look at the delicious photos. It is especially needed during the humid hot dog days of summer here in the South to remember how beautiful a garden can be. I'd recommend this book to all my gardening friends.

`The Jewel Box Garden' is not your average gardening book. You'll find no advice on composting or dealing with insects; this book is strictly about the aesthetics of gardening. Far more picture than text, it's a book of inspiration, not instruction. The book is filled with vignettes of plants that are jewels on their own, and are supported by being used in combo with other plants and with planters, statues and other hardscaping. His theme is that you want to create beauty in the garden, and not copy what everyone else is doing. I can't argue with that.

Hobbs lives, designs and gardens in Vancouver, B.C., so his palette of plants is much more extensive than what most of us have, and he's pushed the it even further by using hot weather plants that he takes inside every winter. That's more work than most of us want to do, but we can achieve the same effect with hardier plants. Hardy sedums and sempervivums can stand in for tender echevarias; there *are* hardy bamboos (and they are less apt to spread aggressively than the tropical varieties), hardy ferns, hardy variegated plants and hardy plants with dark, almost black foliage.

The photos are beautiful, but the text may be off-putting to some readers. Hobbs is snarky about the people whose gardens he doesn't like, and if you have that sort of garden you're apt to be insulted. Ignore those bits, though, and allow yourself to get caught up in his enthusiasm for what he's doing.