The Potting-Shed Papers: On Gardens, Gardeners, and Garden History - Hardcover

Elliott, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585745405 ISBN 13: 9781585745401

Publisher: Lyons Pr, 2002

Synopsis

A collection of delightful essays on gardening by America's favorite expatriate author.

About this title

From the Back Cover

A lush collection of essays from the fertile pen of the Horticulture columnist whose work the New York Times called "delectable."Praise for Charles Elliott's The Transplanted Gardener:"Charles Elliott's endlessly curious, wry, and engaging essays dig cheerfully deep into the soil while opening up horizons as broad as the Atlantic."-Pico Iyer"One of the most delightful books of any type I have read all year."-Bill BrysonIn a fresh crop of funny, pungent, and unpredictable essays, American Charles Elliott shifts his gaze beyond his adopted home of Britain, "the world's largest potting shed," to observe the gardens and gardening habits of some of the rest of the world. From the Japanese craze for the Ingurishu Gaaden-the English Garden-to the Dutch facility for cultivating myriad plant species to the American mania for mulberry trees in the eighteenth century, Elliott, with his trademark style and wit brings life to these episodes in horticultural history. He'll introduce you to great plant hunters such as the intrepid Père Delavay and great plant planters such as the oddball John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman. He'll take you to places as diverse as Cincinnati, Ohio-at one time the wine capital of America-to the jungle-choked gorges and valleys of the eastern flank of the Andes in search of the Fever Bark Tree. No other human pursuit can lead you into as many strange byways of history, science, and art as gardening can, and The Potting-Shed Papers is the perfect guide. (6 1/4 x 9 1/4, 228 pages)Charles Elliott is an American editor and writer who now lives and gardens in England. He has written The Transplanted Gardener and A Gap in the Hedge for The Lyons Press as well as edited The Quotable Gardener, The Quotable Cat Lover, and The Greatest Cat Stories Ever Told.

Reviews

Devotees of Horticulture magazine will recognize many of Elliott's essays from his column, "The Transplanted Gardener," an often-irreverent look at the idiosyncratic differences between gardening in his adopted Britain versus his native America. The uninitiated will delight in Elliott's take on the fine, and not so fine, art of gardening, no matter where it occurs. From the Andean rainforest, home to the erstwhile Fever Bark Tree, to Boskoop, Holland, home of prodigious plant-producing nurseries, Elliott is both travel guide and garden guru, while piquant profiles of such legendary horticulturists as Roy Lancaster earn him the title of "botanical biographer." Although his pursuit of decidedly offbeat gardening stories is his stock-in-trade, nowhere is his talent more impressive than in the collection's introductory section, "Personal Considerations," in which Elliott regales with his own impressions of everything from British lawn-mowing habits to plant taxonomy. A witty raconteur, learned plantsman, and stylish essayist, Elliott's unbridled curiosity about all things horticultural takes the reader on an intriguing journey down often unexpected yet always entertaining garden paths. Carol Haggas
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Edition details

• Publisher: Lyons Pr
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1585745405
• ISBN 13: 9781585745401
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 228