The Tropical Garden [Hardcover]

William Warren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1991

A photographic exploration of a selection of tropical gardens in Hawaii, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Includes traditional and modern-style gardens with a special section featuring details of garden features, flora and fauna.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Oversized and lavishly illustrated with 365 color photos, this book opens with an essay tracing the historical interest in tropical plants and in conservatories and glass houses. Royal and religious, private and public tropical gardens are discussed. A chapter on "Contemporary Gardens" profiles 14 gardens in Hawaii, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka. A chapter on garden features shows walks, statuary, lighting, and pools; a chapter on tropical plants gives botanical and common names plus color photos for approximately 100 plants. Not a guide to gardening like Myles Challis's The Exotic Garden (Trafalgar Square, 1989), this title is for special collections.
- Laura Lipton, Miller Horticulture Lib., Seattle
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Spectacular photographs . . . this handsome book can only inspire the wanderlust to leave immediately for Bali or Malaysia. -- New York Times --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 1St Edition edition (September 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500015120
• ISBN-13: 978-0500015124
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,828,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just a plain decoration book ... with an attractive topic, May 14, 2000

By 

www.delalonde.com "www.chateauresidence.com" (Chateau-Bois-Briand, Nantes,Loire-Valley,France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tropical Garden (Hardcover)

You will find in this books the kind of articles you read in decoration magazines. Pictures are big but don't expect any artistic originality. A useful book if you plan to plant a tropical garden in your backyard.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration, Not Instruction, February 25, 2009

By 

Alain Moreau "cineaste3765" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tropical Garden (Paperback)

I have read this book and own it. It is one I revisit for its lush photographs and to remind me of my vision for my own garden. The work is rich with history and inspiring photos, however the subject tends to be large grounds and commercial developments. It is not intended to be instructional, nor does it really explain the design process when creating a tropical landscape. Some photos label plant materials used, while others just focus on landscape structures. It is worth owning, but is limited in its utility.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tropical Garden, October 23, 2003

By 

Dr. Vivienne Kruger (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tropical Garden (Hardcover)

Warren and Tettoni pair up again with luscious footage in The Tropical Garden. For those world travelers in whom Bali has inspired a love of tropical flowers, plants, and gardens, this book will bring back the warmth and splendor of the perpetual latitudes of summer. It contains 291 full-color illustrations of the flamboyant diversity of tropical flora in hotel, royal, religious, botanical, museum, palace, water, presidential, and colonial gardens from Bali to Java to Hawaii, Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore, and Malaysia. Warren's text and Tettoni's photographs show us a paradise of fruitful blooms and eternal abundance, with delightful coverage of well-styled Balinese gardens in Sanur and the posh Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay. Brilliant, rebellious, downtrodden French artist Paul Gaugin described an equivalent utopia in an 1890 letter penned from Tahiti: "Out there at least, with winterless skies overhead and wonderfully fertile ground underfoot, Tahitians only have to lift their arms to gather their food. . . . Whereas in Europe men and women satisfy their needs only after ceaseless toil, contending all the while with convulsions of cold and hunger, prey to poverty. The Tahitians, blessed inhabitants of Oceania's unknown paradise, know only the sweet things life has to offer. For them, life is singing and loving." Gaugin could just as well have been describing the tropical treasure that is Bali--lying succulent and verdant under the benevolent, life-giving equatorial sun.