Afternoon tea in the garden... (books)

[Tara]

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Hi,

I saw the reply from Holly (ano...@aol.com) on Tuesday, May 14 to
Diane Graber's request on Tuesday, May 14, 1996 (diane-...@uiowa.ed)
for a book about British gardens to read with a cup of tea. I didn't see
the original request since a lot of postings never are received by the
newsgroup service I have access to.

Just in case your newsgroup service is a erratic as mine is, Holly
recommended "The English Cottage Garden" by Jane Taylor and Andrew
Lawson which is in a series of books by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, the
Orion Publishing Group, LOndon. Two other titles in the series
she mentions but has not seen are "English Country Gardens" and
"English Herb Gardens".

I have two more garden books to recommend on the topic. I have also
included a third book about an American Victorian summer garden. Sorry
for the delay.

"Flower Gardens of Victorian England" by Andrew Clayton-Paine and Brent
Elliot (Rizzoli, New York, 1988) (published in Great Britain under the title
"Victorian Flower Gardens") is illustrated in color with over 100 Victorian
watercolors of gardens. The gardens range from country cottage gardens
to the gardens of country estates. Many of the watercolors include people
and animals to add even more charm. The text describes the flowers shown
in the watercolors and gives biographic information about the artists.

Also listed on the book jacket are two more books published by Rizzoli that
sound enticing -- "English Herb Gardens" by Guy Cooper and Gordon Taylor
and "Traditional English Gardens" by Arabella Lenox-Boyd, Clay Perry and
Graham Stewart Thomas. I have not seen either of these but if they are
similar to the first one, they would be lovely. Graham Stewart Thomas was
a famous gardener (he has a David Austin rose named after him) and is an
excellent and knowledgeable writer. These books may be part of the same
series that Holly recommended in her earlier posting. The text to
"Flower Gardens of Victorian England" was copyrighted by Weidenfeld
and Nicolson which is the same publisher as the book Holly recommends.

"The Fragrant Garden" -- edited by Sheila Pickles (Penhaligon's Scented
Treasury of Verse and Prose, London, 1992) is more literary. It contains
poems and short excerpts from books on gardening. Each poem or quotation is
accompanied by a painting that compliments the text. I saw this book
as a remainder at Border's Books (for $6.98) this past weekend :-).

"An Island Garden" by Celia Thaxter with pictures and illuminations by
Childe Hassam (Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, originally published 1894,
republished 1988) is about an American Victorian garden and has more text
than pictures but is charmingly Victorian and delightful. Celia Thaxter
was a Victorian poet who is now remembered for her garden book rather than
her poetry. Her book is about her summer garden on Appledore Island in
the Isle of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire. The republished hard
cover edition by Houghton Mifflin is a reproduction of the original book
with the illustrations (rather than just the text) and the original cover
and it is a lovely book. It has also been reprinted in paperback. Celia
Thaxter was a lighthouse keeper's daughter and spent her childhood in the
Isle of Shoals. Childe Hassam was an American impressionist painter.

Floricultural regards,
Tara