The heat-of-summer-doldrums sent me to the bookshelf, where I found three very different books about gardens waiting to be discussed. The first is “Gardenlust: A Botanical Tour of the World’s Best New Gardens” by Christopher Woods (Timber Press, $40).
“Gardenlust: A Botanical Tour of the World’s Best New Gardens” is a beautiful book with stunning photographs of amazing gardens. Woods has very specifically chosen 50 gardens created in the past 20 years. There are gardens from North America, mostly the United States, and the other Americas, Europe, Africa, India, Asia and Australia and New Zealand. Needless to say, the approach to gardening and plants in each area are very different.
As it happens, I visited the Chinese Garden of Flowing Fragrance at the Huntington Botanical Garden in San Marino, Calif. a couple of years ago. The Huntington also has a Japanese garden but this classical Chinese garden is very new.
The lake of Reflected Fragrance is in the center of the garden. In this shan shui landscape with its plants, eroded limestone boulders and lake, the visitor can see mountains, water and balance.
Obviously, this garden is not located in a Chinese climate. However, California plants like sago palms, California incense cedar and others have found their place in this peaceful garden.
The importance of trees is often discussed as we consider climate change. The Tree Museum in Rapperswil, Switzerland is a small garden. Its two-and-a-half acres is home to owner Enzo Enea’s collection of rescued trees. When he found trees about to be bulldozed and discarded, he brought them to his garden. Among the plants is an allee of bald cypress, and others including a fragrant azealea in large pots. Sinuous clipped shrubs balance the strict geometry of hedges.
The Aloe Farm in Hartsbeespoort, South Africa is something of a display garden, a nursery and botanical garden. I am never likely to walk among the 400 to 500 species of aloe that grow in South Africa, but it is a delight to see their color and many forms in this wonderful book.
One Central Park in Sydney, Australia (1,000 square meters) is made of two buildings, 16 and 33 stories high. The buildings are draped with hydroponic gardens which are comprised of 35,000 plants. There is also bougainvillea, and many other vines, and various grasses that have been planted on the roof. This garden and art installation attracted so many visitors that an artificial lawn had to be installed around the buildings.
I hope I have tempted you to pick up this extraordinary book and continue exploring other wonderful gardens.
Another, “The Posy Book: Garden Inspired Bouquets That Tell a Story” by Teresa H. Sabankaya (Countryman Press $24.95), is a delightful book about the messages you can send to friends and loved ones. A “posy” is a small bouquet and the message is created by the language of flowers.
There are other books that translate the language of flowers like Kate Greenaway’s “Language of Flowers” and Mandy Kirkby’s “Victorian Flower Dictionary,” but Sabankaya gives us a much larger vocabulary, as well as suggestions for specific flowers for arrangements.
The book suggests the flowers for many messages and gives specific instruction on how to create a posy. Clear photographs make the process easy to understand.
Beyond that, she also suggests creating pretty sentiment tags the recipient can keep, a reminder of the sentiments expressed.
The posy book is not just a how-to. There is a history of the way flowers were used as symbols from ancient times. It is certainly easy to understand the appeal flowers have had over the centuries. Today, flowers remain an important part of funerals, as well as weddings and other important occasions.
The final third of the book includes a large floral dictionary. In addition, there are suggestions of particular flowers for specific occasions like goldenrod (encouragement), freesias (trust and thoughtfulness), dock (patience) and elderberry for kindness and compassion to be sent to a mother-to-be.
Flowers, plant and tree foliage, herbs, all can be used in a posy with its tender message.
“The Green Giant” by Katie Cottle (Pavilion $16.95) is a picture book intended for children, but there is always something all of us can enjoy and learn. Bea and her dog are finding summer on grandpa’s farm boring until Bea chases the dog, who in turn chases a cat. Bea finds herself in a greenhouse filled with plants. There, she meets the Green Giant. At first, she is frightened. But the Green Giant is friendly and tells her how he grew up in a gray city until he ran away to the country.
All summer long, Bea, her dog and the Green Giant play among the plants on the farm. When it is time to leave, the Green Giant gives her seeds to bring back to the city. She spreads those seeds and the city becomes greener.
While different, all three books can inspire us about ways we can find to make our back yards, our home towns, and cities greener in every sense, and more beautiful.
Pat Leuchtman has been writing and gardening since 1980. Readers can leave comments at her website: commonweeder.com.