1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die
Monday, August 17th, 2009 | Author: Home and Garden
Price : $21.65
Product Description
Garden lovers and discriminating travelers will relish this armchair tour of the most beautiful and interesting gardens around the world. Succinct descriptions with stunning color photos showcase the creations of the worlds outstanding landscape gardeners, architects, and garden designers. From Spains famous gardens of the Moorish Alhambra at Granada to San Diegos Healing Garden, created for patients at the San Diego Childrens Hospital, this lavishly illustrated guide will delight both lovers of natural beauty and hands-on gardeners. Among the many gardens pictured and described in this beautiful volume are
- In the United States and Canada: Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, Boscobel in New Yorks Hudson Valley, Williamsburg Gardens in Virginia, Magnolia Plantation and its Gardens near Charleston, South Carolina, Frank Lloyd Wrights Taliesin in Wisconsin, the Toronto Botanical Garden, Pacific Undersea Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, and many more. . .
- In England: The Japanese Garden in Londons Holland Park, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, Shakespeares Garden in Stratford, Londons Victoria and Albert Museum Gardens, and many more. . .
- In France: The Gardens of Versailles outside Paris, the Garden of Claude Monet at Giverney, Chateau de Vauville in Cherbourg, and many more. . .
- The rest of the world: Boboli Gardens in Florence, Italy, Potsdam Gardens near Berlin, Germany, the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, Japan, and hundreds more.In addition to photos and a textual description, each entry cites special features such as fountains and architecture, the gardens size in acres, and the names of the gardens designers. The garden descriptions are organized geographically by country. More than 800 breathtaking color photos and illustrations.
Customer Reviews
Review date : 2008-11-18
This a great resource book. However DO NOT attempt to use this book as a travel guide…if you want to see the gardens in this book I urge you to do lots of advance planning before you leave home. I bought this book before a trip to Spain 1 1/2 years ago. I went to the tourist information centers in the cities I visited in order to find out where these gardens were. In many cases, these were private gardens not open to the public or the visiting hours were so limited that it was virtually impossible to visit them. One garden in Granada I was steered to correctly. However, when I got there, I discovered it was closed the entire month of August! (I did peer in through the gates). I wish the tourist information had told me that before I ventured out there.On a recent trip to Rio de Janeiro, I had a similar experience with one of the gardens listed. I did find someone who was familiar with it, but it wasn’t open to the casual visitor.
In conclusion, many of the gardens in this book are not open to the casual visitor, so use it with caution. If you do have your heart set on seeing some of these gardens, plan in advance before leaving home.
Review date : 2008-05-22
This was a great Mother’s Day gift any gardener would love. Beautiful pictures of gardens around the world.Review date : 2008-04-18
For garden-lovers a 1,000 page book crammed chockfull with gardens the world over is an enticing prospect - though the suggestion you must all see them before you die is a bit fanciful, and symptomatic of the depersonalized, random consumerism of today’s “must-see”, “must-have” and “must-do” lists. Unfortunately, the book itself is not quite what it could have been. Quantity decidedly triumphed over quality. Photographs are mostly small, often quite crude and grainy, and as often unnaturally, even luridly colored. Many hardly give an impression of a garden at all, but instead focus on detail or architecture. Descriptive entries are brief and superficial. Entries are arranged geographically, from north to south and from west to east, with remarkably confusing results. The accent is very strongly on Europe, the whole of China being despatched in less pages than the Netherlands. If you are looking for a gazetteer to guide you to interesting gardens while planning a travel itinerary, this book might just give you a useful handle. If you are looking for pleasing garden images or indepth information, look elsewhere.Review date : 2008-03-24
This very thick book has beautiful pictures that inspires one to plant a garden & travel the world.Review date : 2007-11-25
To cover 1001 Gardens in 960 pages is an almost impossible mission, yet Rae Spencer-Jones and his 70 contributors accomplished it.Every garden listed in “1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die” follows a standard listing format of designers, owners, garden style, size, climate, location and a brief description of the garden. Some of the gardens listed have half-page size color photographs. This book is very useful for you to gain a rough idea of the gardens nearby when you visit a city, it’ll let you know about the existence of a garden and help you decide whether to visit it or not. To this end, I think “1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die” is successful.
All the gardens are arranged by geographical locations, including North America, Europe, Asia, Central and South America, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. I find the “Climate Classification System,” “Useful Address,” “Garden Directory” at the end of the book very helpful.
“1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die” has 960 pages and color interior photographs and is a useful quick reference for garden tour!
Gang Chen, Author of “LEED AP Exam Guide” & “Planting Design Illustrated.” LEED AP, AIA
Category: Gardening Book | Leave a Comment
