Price : $27.75

Product Description

Chosen and described by celebrated garden designer Penelope Hobhouse

Features stunning photographs by distinguished garden photographers including Jerry Harpur, Andrew Lawson, Clive Nichols

Published in association with an exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Great Gardens of the World is a survey of some of the greatest gardens of the world, presented through magnificent photographic images and the descriptions of legendary garden designer and writer Penelope Hobhouse. Here is shown the oases of the Middle East, the gardens of Chinese scholars, Japanese sages and Renaissance humanists, French baroque gardens, the English landscape garden of Capability Brown and his followers. Here too are the gardens of the great modern designers, among them Roberto Burle Marx, Fernando Caruncho, Dan Kiley, John Brookes and James van Sweden.

Penelope Hobhouse is internationally renowned as a gardener, writer and garden designer. The author of many classic works including Colour in your Garden, Garden Style, Penelope Hobhouse On Gardening , and Penelope Hobhouse’s Garden Designs (all published by Frances Lincoln), and Plants in Garden History, The Story of Gardening and Gardens of Persia

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-02-23
A wonderful book, with beautiful and inspiring pictures. Always a pleasure to go back again and again at its pages.

Review date : 2007-11-24
Gardens are meant to be paradise on earth. The idea of paradise as a garden has a long history, even before the Garden of Eden was presented in the Bible. What the paradise looks like, there is hardly specific description. The description of the Garden of Eden was not very specific either, yet it gave the garden designer some ideas.

In every culture, garden designers seek paradise through their own creative ways. Penelope Hobhouse, one of the most talented garden writers of our time, started her tour of paradise on earth in Asia: the serene naturalistic gardens and symbolism in China, and the Zen gardens and tea gardens in Japan. She then took us to continental Europe: the hilly regions of Italy where lavish gardens are balanced with the use of axes and symmetry, and gardens in Germany, Netherlands and Russia, as well as the climax of formal gardens, the French gardens.

Penelope Hobhouse’s next stop is England. She discussed in detail the naturalistic Landscape Gardens, the Cottage-style Gardens, and the Eclectic Gardens. She also explored Mediterranean gardens and gardens in America: European influences and naturalistic gardens.

Last but not least, Penelope Hobhouse discuss today’s gardens: water in gardens, gardens and nature, selecting right plants for right sites, reclaiming and revitalizing, and roof gardens, etc.

To Penelope, an ideal garden is "at the balance point between human control and untamed nature."

"Great Gardens of the World: In Search of Paradise" has 240 pages and many beautiful interior color photos. It is a fine garden book that every garden lovers should have.

Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA

Review date : 2006-12-06

The ideal garden we are given to understand is a paradise – "a haven of comfort, abundance, and beauty." Many of us try to achieve that paradigm in our own way, as have countless others before us. Now gathered in one gorgeous volume are the results of those endeavors gleaned from diverse cultures and climes.

We begin our armchair tour with "Gardens Through the Centuries," a journey covering four thousand years beginning with the earliest gardens alive in the deserts of the Middle East. The first Mughal Emperor Babur (1483 – 1530) had a number of gardens including the Garden of Fidelity which was divided into four parts with a central pool.

Of course, the gardens designed in China and Japan expressed a respect for nature, evidenced in vast areas where the placement of each stone had meaning. Places for contemplation, stroll and moss gardens were found in Japan.

For this reader what can compare with the gardens of Italy? Hadrian’s Villa near Tivoli boasts open porticoes, enclosed atriums, fountains, basins, statuary. It is a wonder. La Mortola on the Italian Riviera is a place for dreaming with a steep slope to the sea rich in agaves, aloes, white roses, salvias and citrus trees. A virtual Eden on earth.

Ms. Hobhouse continues our tour with a look at modern garden design as represented by such designers as Roberto Burle Marx, Fernando Caruncho, and Beth Chatto.

"In Search of Paradise" holds 240 pages and 200 illustrations all in glorious color contributed by the world’s foremost garden photographers.

The is a volume to be savored and returned to again and again.

- Gail Cooke

Price : $27.75

Product Description

Chosen and described by celebrated garden designer Penelope Hobhouse

Features stunning photographs by distinguished garden photographers including Jerry Harpur, Andrew Lawson, Clive Nichols

Published in association with an exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden

Great Gardens of the World is a survey of some of the greatest gardens of the world, presented through magnificent photographic images and the descriptions of legendary garden designer and writer Penelope Hobhouse. Here is shown the oases of the Middle East, the gardens of Chinese scholars, Japanese sages and Renaissance humanists, French baroque gardens, the English landscape garden of Capability Brown and his followers. Here too are the gardens of the great modern designers, among them Roberto Burle Marx, Fernando Caruncho, Dan Kiley, John Brookes and James van Sweden.

Penelope Hobhouse is internationally renowned as a gardener, writer and garden designer. The author of many classic works including Colour in your Garden, Garden Style, Penelope Hobhouse On Gardening , and Penelope Hobhouse’s Garden Designs (all published by Frances Lincoln), and Plants in Garden History, The Story of Gardening and Gardens of Persia

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-02-23
A wonderful book, with beautiful and inspiring pictures. Always a pleasure to go back again and again at its pages.

Review date : 2007-11-24
Gardens are meant to be paradise on earth. The idea of paradise as a garden has a long history, even before the Garden of Eden was presented in the Bible. What the paradise looks like, there is hardly specific description. The description of the Garden of Eden was not very specific either, yet it gave the garden designer some ideas.

In every culture, garden designers seek paradise through their own creative ways. Penelope Hobhouse, one of the most talented garden writers of our time, started her tour of paradise on earth in Asia: the serene naturalistic gardens and symbolism in China, and the Zen gardens and tea gardens in Japan. She then took us to continental Europe: the hilly regions of Italy where lavish gardens are balanced with the use of axes and symmetry, and gardens in Germany, Netherlands and Russia, as well as the climax of formal gardens, the French gardens.

Penelope Hobhouse’s next stop is England. She discussed in detail the naturalistic Landscape Gardens, the Cottage-style Gardens, and the Eclectic Gardens. She also explored Mediterranean gardens and gardens in America: European influences and naturalistic gardens.

Last but not least, Penelope Hobhouse discuss today’s gardens: water in gardens, gardens and nature, selecting right plants for right sites, reclaiming and revitalizing, and roof gardens, etc.

To Penelope, an ideal garden is "at the balance point between human control and untamed nature."

"Great Gardens of the World: In Search of Paradise" has 240 pages and many beautiful interior color photos. It is a fine garden book that every garden lovers should have.

Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA

Review date : 2006-12-06

The ideal garden we are given to understand is a paradise – "a haven of comfort, abundance, and beauty." Many of us try to achieve that paradigm in our own way, as have countless others before us. Now gathered in one gorgeous volume are the results of those endeavors gleaned from diverse cultures and climes.

We begin our armchair tour with "Gardens Through the Centuries," a journey covering four thousand years beginning with the earliest gardens alive in the deserts of the Middle East. The first Mughal Emperor Babur (1483 – 1530) had a number of gardens including the Garden of Fidelity which was divided into four parts with a central pool.

Of course, the gardens designed in China and Japan expressed a respect for nature, evidenced in vast areas where the placement of each stone had meaning. Places for contemplation, stroll and moss gardens were found in Japan.

For this reader what can compare with the gardens of Italy? Hadrian’s Villa near Tivoli boasts open porticoes, enclosed atriums, fountains, basins, statuary. It is a wonder. La Mortola on the Italian Riviera is a place for dreaming with a steep slope to the sea rich in agaves, aloes, white roses, salvias and citrus trees. A virtual Eden on earth.

Ms. Hobhouse continues our tour with a look at modern garden design as represented by such designers as Roberto Burle Marx, Fernando Caruncho, and Beth Chatto.

"In Search of Paradise" holds 240 pages and 200 illustrations all in glorious color contributed by the world’s foremost garden photographers.

The is a volume to be savored and returned to again and again.

- Gail Cooke

Price : $25.99

Product Description

Gardens are unique creations, reflecting not only the landscape, flora, and climate of their environments but also the heritage-the history, architectural styles, and influences-of the cultures that made them. From the fountain gardens of the Iranian desert to the whimsical Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Scotland, from the Zen gardens of Buddhist temples to the Impressionist gardens in Giverny, the huge variety of gardens around the globe is a testament to our age-old desire to tame and refashion nature.

In The Most Beautiful Gardens in the World photographer Alain Le Toquin celebrates the diversity of these manmade landscapes, capturing 31 of the greatest public and private gardens on five continents, including Majorelle in Morocco, the Versailles gardens outside Paris, the Keukenhof flower show park in The Netherlands, and the Huntington Gardens in California. With more than 150 images and 12 gatefolds featuring spectacular panoramic photographs, this gorgeous book will captivate travelers and garden admirers alike, and will inspire gardeners themselves with fresh ideas for design, horticulture, and use. AUTHOR BIO: Alain Le Toquin, a former specialist in ornithology and animal ecology at the Natural History Museum in Paris, has been a photographer specializing in both culture and nature for more than 20 years. Jacques Bosser, a writer and translator for design and photography books, was a contributor to Abrams’ The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World. Michel Baridon leads a history and research group for the French National Council of Parks and Gardens. He has published several books on gardens.

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-11-22
Absolutely gorgeous photography. This is a big, heavy coffee table book that gets oooh’d over far more than it gets actually read. There is text within it, talking about the various gardens/landscapes that have been chosen, but truth be told, that’s secondary to all the beautiful pictures.

Review date : 2007-11-23
I have just finished writing the ZEN OF WATERING YOUR GARDEN. Which some may consider a "coffee table book" but it is really a challenge to the reader to get out and garden. This book of private gardens is filled with beautiful grdens which i think are nice to look at but untenable for any gardener to achieve.

Review date : 2007-07-09
I got this as a gift, but I did scan through it and its full of beautiful garden pictures.

Review date : 2007-07-02
I did enjoy the book and many of the photographs were a pleasure — however, I was SO glad I bought it used from an Amazon reseller. I would have been really annoyed if I paid anything close to list price. I felt this book did a surface job both with pictures and narratives. It left me wanting more, but not in a good way. Also, it probably should be called "The Most Beautiful Garden STRUCTURES in the World" — because garden structures dominate the photographs. Criteria for choosing "the most beautiful" also unclear.

Review date : 2006-11-18
I’m not sure why the previous reviewer did not like this book. I thought the photographs were absolutely beautiful, vibrant, and clear. Each garden was photographed from several different angles. The photos take up entire pages and several are on fold-out pages for a panoramic view. The book is printed on quality paper and is quite heavy. I bought this book as a gift for my Mother but I enjoyed looking through it several times before I finally giftwrapped it.