In every issue of Gardens Illustrated, we ask leading garden writers, garden designers and horticulturists to review recently published books for gardeners and plant lovers. Here are the books that our reviewers have especially loved recently.
Why not treat yourself, or gift a book to someone else? For more gifts for gardeners, take a look at our gift guide.
The best gardening books to read in 2024
A Flower Garden for Pollinators
by Rachel de Thame Greenfinch, £25 ISBN 978-1529422146
Horticulturist and Gardeners’ World presenter Rachel de Thame suggests plants we can grow that are rich in nectar and pollen in every season, but also highlights the importance of including plants that provide shelter and places to lay eggs. “By adopting a holistic, year-round approach, one can really make a difference,” she says. “I believe having a beautiful garden can go hand in hand with creating a space that delivers equally for the pollinators and other beneficial insects so vital to a healthy and vibrant ecosystem.” Veronica Peerless
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One Garden against the World: In Search of Hope in a Changing Climate
by Kate Bradbury Bloomsbury Wildlife, £18.99 ISBN 978-1399408868
One Garden Against the World is part nature love story, part call to arms. It won’t fix climate change or the threat of biodiversity collapse on its own, but it will help us gardeners focus on the things we can do in our own backyards and allotments to give life forms the best chance of survival, and us a real sense of purpose in what we can do to help. The overriding take from this book is that the custodians of the UK’s 30 million gardens can make a difference. Cleve West
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A Year Full of Pots: Container Flowers for All Seasons
by Sarah Raven Bloomsbury Publishing, £27 ISBN 978-1526667472
Following on from her two previous books
in this seasonal series – A Year Full of Flowers and A Year Full of Veg – Sarah Raven shows how to grow flowers all year round in pots. It’s packed full of practical and clever ideas on creating beautiful pots throughout the year, including how to combine flower colours using a ‘bride’ flower (the star of the show), a ‘bridesmaid’ (smaller and less conspicuous) and a ‘gatecrasher’ (the colour contrast that brings the whole thing to life). VP
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Pastoral Gardens
by Clare Foster and Andrew Montgomery Montgomery Press, £55 ISBN 978-1399992565
Regular photographer for Gardens Illustrated Andrew Montgomery and garden editor Clare Foster explore the idea of the pastoral garden and what it means today. Featuring 20 notable gardens, including Knepp Walled Garden, The Barbican Gardens and Sarah Price’s own garden near Abergavenny in Wales, it looks at the themes of informality, sanctuary, landscape and habitat, and includes essays from Jinny Blom, Nigel Dunnett, Kim Wilkie and Tom Stuart-Smith. VP
Hortobiography: A Gritty Woman’s Tale of People, Places and Plants
by Carol Klein Witness Books, £22 ISBN 978-1529144246
A memoir about the horticulturist’s
life ‘from the word go, up to the
present day and a bit into the future’.
Via her childhood in Manchester,
training as an artist and a teacher, her
first experiments in plantswomanship
at Glebe Cottage, finding an unexpected career as a television presenter, and her recent experience of cancer, Carol tells the
story of the people, places and plants that have shaped her life. VP
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The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise
by Olivia Laing Picador, £20 ISBN 978-1529066678
In the summer of 2020, just as the first lockdown of the Covid pandemic started to lift, writer Olivia Laing and their husband, the poet Ian Patterson, moved into the former home in Suffolk of Mark Rumary, director of landscaping for many years at Notcutts. Mr Rumary’s cobwebbed apron still hung on the potting shed door, and the overgrown garden was packed with unusual delights. As Olivia set about restoring it, they found themselves considering the idea of paradise and gardens, both real and imagined. VP
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Compost: Transform waste into new life
by Charles Dowding DK, £14.99 ISBN 978-0241661543
A companion to Charles Dowding’s guide
to his signature growing method No Dig (DK, 2022). While there have been chapters on compost in most of the books the no-dig guru has written, he has never majored in the subject. “My aim with the book was to set composting out in clear terms – I don’t want to give readers a recipe, I want them to understand what they’re doing so that they can find a method that works for them,” he says. VP
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The English Landscape Garden: Dreaming of Arcadia
by Tim Richardson Frances Lincoln, £40 ISBN 978-0711290921
This sumptuous book claims to be the
‘first ever large-format book to be published on the 18th-century landscape garden’ – but is there anything new to say about this quintessentially British creation, with rolling hills, forest clumps, mirror-flat lakes, grazing Longhorn cows and eye-catching monoliths and temples, so typically created by ‘Capability’ Brown and William Kent? There is. This book has reignited my interest in the gardens of the 18th century and it will do the same for you. Stephen Parker
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Mien Ruys: The Mother of Modernist Gardens
by Julia Crawford Lund Humphries, £39.95 ISBN 978-1848225640
This book – the first comprehensive study in English about the life and work of Mien Ruys – should be on every gardener’s book list, offering a thorough insight into the work of an extraordinary woman whose influence lives on through the work of many designers, including Piet Oudolf. Crawford writes: “Whether it’s a name we are aware of or not, many of us will have a little bit of Mien in our gardens, be it a railway sleeper, a diagonal line, a Phlomis russeliana or a water ball.” Annie Guilfoyle
The Plant Society Design Handbook: A Plant Stylist’s Guide to Creating Beautiful Living Spaces
by Jason Chongue Murdoch Books, £25 ISBN 978-1922616791
The designer and plant curator shows how to combine a love of houseplants with an interest in interior design. Chongue’s easy-to-follow blueprints take a design-first approach, focusing on how plants relate to the surrounding architecture, materials and environment. The advice on analysing your space, suggested room layouts and style fundamentals, including colour, texture, shape and scale, is complemented by care advice for more than 80 favourite plants, and inspiring photography. Veronica Peerless
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The Tulip Garden: Growing and Collecting Species, Rare and Annual Varieties
by Polly Nicholson and Andrew Montgomery Phaidon, £29.95 ISBN 978-1838667689
As an organic flower grower and florist, Nicholson has a reputation for discerning cuttings and arrangements. In her Wiltshire garden at Blackland House, she is indulging a passion for tulips with a thoughtful and methodical approach, all of which has been distilled in this, her debut book. Starting with their cultural and historical influence, Nicholson goes on to feature wild, species, heritage, English Florists and indeed those questionable annual tulips, giving us inspiration and tips for each type. Sorrel Everton
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The Accidental Garden: Gardens, Wilderness,and the Space in Between
by Richard Mabey Profile Books, £12.99 ISBN 978-1805220701
Over ten chapters, Mabey explores what it means to plant things, vegetations, ideas, people and places. These are wide-ranging debates that cover the gender-fluid nature of plants, decolonisation, migration, native/non-native, reparations for nature through the lens of the wood, the lawn, the pond and the flowerbed. There are times in these discussions where you feel he might not negotiate the hot coals of such topics. But don’t be fooled. By the end of each chapter he has succinctly, neatly wrapped up the deal. Alys Fowler
Read the full review
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Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Planting inspired by Shrublands
by Kevin Philip Williams and Michael Guidi Filbert Press, £40 ISBN 978-1739903954
Every now and again, maybe once in a decade, a genuinely revolutionary garden book comes along. This is one. It is not about individual shrubs (garden centre-type things, with big, plastic labels) but shrubs collectively.
A lot of us are commenting on how we
need to re-engage with woody plants, largely ignored by the ‘New Perennial’ movement. This is an important book that looks at shrub communities around the world, and how we might interpret them for garden and landscape use. Noel Kingsbury
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Outside In: A Year of Growing and Displaying
by Sean A Pritchard Mitchell Beazley, £30ISBN 978-1784728854
Featuring ideas that are inventive and charming and don’t require oodles of blooms, garden designer Pritchard shares how he grows, harvests and artfully arranges flowers and foliage from the garden of his bohemian Somerset cottage all year round. Organised by season, the book shows you how to plan a garden so that every month of the year there’s something to bring indoors and display,
no matter the size of your plot or your
level of horticultural experience. Veronica Peerless
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A Year full of Veg: A Harvest for All Seasons by Sarah Raven, photographs by Jonathan Buckley, Bloomsbury, £27 ISBN 978-1526639349
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Sarah Raven is known for her love of flowers but is also a vegetable gardener and cook. She shares 30 year of learnings from growing ‘for abundance, flavour and ease’. The growing year is divided into two rather than the traditional four seasons, given how the climate is changing and many crops do well sown at different times. I also like the idea of ‘unbuyables’ – crops that are difficult to find in the shops.
Reviewer Aaron Bertelsen is a vegetable gardener and author.
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American Roots: Lessons and Inspiration from the Designers Reimagining our Home Gardens by Nick McCullough, Allison McCullough and Teresa Woodard, Timber Press, £30 ISBN 978-1643261164
The collaborators travelled the length and breadth of the USA discovering remarkable gardens. The gardens all have one thing in common – they have been created by designers and gardeners for their own homes. If one thing unites the gardens, it has to be the bold, pioneering spirit when it comes to planting design. I urge you to read and enjoy it.
Reviewer Annie Guilfoyle is a garden designer.
The Cut Flower Sourcebook: Exceptional Perennials and Woody Plants for Cutting
by Rachel Siegfried, Filbert Press, £35 ISBN 978-1739903923
With her extensive experience as a gardener, flower grower and florist, Rachel Siegfried has brought together 128 woody plants and perennials, including bulbs and climbers, that give colour and interest for arrangements for each season. These plants return each year so they require much less work than annuals, and, as Siegfried observes, seem more able to cope with the changing climate. Watch our masterclass on growing your own cut flowers with Rachel Siegfried.
Reviewer Louise Curley is a freelance garden and nature writer.
The Cottage Garden by Claus Dalby, Cool Springs Press, £28 ISBN 978-0760379714
Claus Dalby is a household name in his native Denmark as a TV gardener, author, publisher and floral designer. In this second book published in English, he seeks out modern-day cottage gardens in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, England and the USA. Each garden has a short description, plus extended captions for the images – more than 700 beautiful photographs taken by Dalby himself. I found the European takes on the cottage garden fascinating.
Reviewer Louise Curley is a freelance garden and nature writer.
Resilient Garden: Sustainable Gardening for a Changing Climate by Tom Massey
Dorling Kindersley, £27 ISBN 978-0241575833
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Garden designer Tom Massey’s celebrated gardens at RHS shows have often held a socio-political message and it seems right that he would continue to push for change with his first book. There is no issue more pressing than the threat of climate breakdown and Massey has produced a call to action for all gardeners to consider ways to increase the resilience and boost the biodiversity of even the smallest gardens.
Reviewer Jonny Bruce is a plantsman and writer.
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Garden: Exploring the Horticultural World by Phaidon Editors, Phaidon, £44.95 ISBN 978-1838665975
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This book is a horticultural treasure hunt. A single spread can cover centuries or even millennia – a Florentine Herbal from 1577 sits alongside an Australian First Nation artist’s 2019 painting of bush medicine plants, while a 2017 Fergus Garrett mind map from Great Dixter faces a Letts Gardener’s Notebook from 1890. But this is not just a book filled with great pictures; the writing is an essential component, and and it is an engaging and informative read.
Reviewer Stephanie Donaldson is a freelance garden writer.
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To Stand and Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing by Andrew Timothy O’Brien, Dorling Kindersley, £16.99 ISBN 978-0241544013
Andrew Timothy O’Brien has made his name online through thoughtful garden musings and gorgeously moody photographs. This, his first book, feels fresh and gently radical. The central argument is the promotion of a low-intervention, thoughtful way of gardening that aims to create a beautiful place while also relieving the gardener of the guilt and (some of the) effort associated with gardening.
Reviewer Lia Leendertz is a garden writer.
Not Another Jungle: Comprehensive Care for Extraordinary Houseplants by Tony Le-Britton, Dorling Kindersley, £16.99 ISBN 978-0241572351
Thigmomorphogenesis, thermogenesis and phototropism may not be immediately associated with house plants, but Tony Le-Britton wants to change that. If science wasn’t your strong point at school, fear not; the information is clear and digestible, inspiring an appreciation of the plant world and promising greater growing success.
Reviewer Sarah Gerrard-Jones is an author who rescues ailing house plants.
Cold-Hardy Fruit and Nuts: 50 Easy-to-Grow Plants for the Organic Home Garden or Landscape by Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, Chelsea Green Publishing, £30 ISBN 978-1645020455
A well-curated guide to 50 easy-to-grow fruits and nuts. The majority are naturally resilient, making it an excellent choice for those new to gardening and/or looking to grow using organic principles. It is a delight to see a handful of surprises – such as Himalayan chocolate berry, Korean stone pine and spikenard – in the mix.
Reviewer Mark Diacono is a food and garden writer.
The Essential Tree Selection Guide: For Climate Resilience, Carbon Storage, Species Diversity and Other Ecosystem Benefits by Henrik Sjöman and Arit Anderson, Filbert Press, £50 ISBN 978-1739903947
A much-needed and in-depth guide to choosing trees based not only on their appearance but also their resilience to climate change. Above all, it is the authors’ considerable combined experience that enables us to look at these complex organisms in a rather different way from how we have approached them in the past.
Reviewer Joe Perkins is a garden and landscape designer.
The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants by Neil Diboll and Hilary Cox, University of Chicago Press, £27.45 ISBN 978-0226805931
A book for makers of prairies and all lovers of the exuberant North American grassland flora that dominates our late-season borders. Core to its success is the thorough plant directory - there are headings for Life Expectancy, Root Type Aggressiveness and Deer Palatability. There are also photographs of the plants emerging in spring and, often, seedlings as well. I cannot think of any other book that provides this level of information.
Reviewer Noel Kingsbury is a planting designer, writer and educator.
Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival by Alice Vincent, Canongate, £16.99 ISBN 978-1838855437
Alice Vincent weaves her own gardening journey through women’s narratives of change, connection and how we move into new ways of living. These are powerful and intimate tales of migration, recovery, identity, motherhood, loss and grief, set within growing spaces that are shared, private, public and institutional. The courage it takes for women to break ground both literally and figuratively is a strand that weaves through the book.
Reviewer Charlotte Harris is a garden designer.
Grasses for Gardens and Landscapes: Design, Selection, Cultivation by Neil Lucas, Timber Press, £40 ISBN 978-1643261157
Neil Lucas is a tremendously well-respected authority on growing and designing with grasses. He makes the subject accessible for amateur gardeners, with chapters on how to create rhythm and designing for seasonality, alongside helpful, concise and practical guidance. Within the same pages, however, Lucas also manages to provide useful and eye-opening information for the professional gardener or designer.
Reviewer Joe Perkins is a garden and landscape designer.
An Almost Impossible Thing: The Radical Lives of Britain’s Pioneering Women Gardeners by Fiona Davison, Little Toller, £20 ISBN 978-1915068217
Fiona Davison, head of libraries and exhibitions at the Royal Horticultural Society, attempts to discover what became of some of the 500 women who sat an RHS exam between its launch in the late 1800s and the outbreak of the First World War. Focusing on six women from very different backgrounds, and with very different hopes attached to a gardening career, she uncovers crushing and persistent prejudice.
Reviewer Ambra Edwards is a writer and garden historian.
RHS How to Garden when you Rent by Matthew Pottage, Dorling Kindersley Ltd, £14.99, ISBN 978-0241459744
One of the biggest barriers to growing in rented properties is the feeling that you are only there temporarily and a garden is, surely, a more permanent investment in time, money and emotion. Author Matthew Pottage, who has rented the same flat in London for more than seven years (which is shown throughout the book) convincingly buries this assumption with useful guidance and step-by-step projects for instant results.
Reviewer Jack Wallington is a garden designer and author.
Read our full review of How to Garden When You Rent
Wild: The Naturalistic Garden by Noel Kingsbury, photographs by Claire Takacs, Phaidon, £39.95 ISBN 978-1838661052
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This book showcases gardens across the globe that, when viewed together, form an inspirational picture of ‘wild’, ecologically informed gardening. What’s special
about this compilation is that there is consistency in vision and voice. Each location has its own take on the wild gardening aesthetic, thanks to the photographer, Claire Takacs, and insightful descriptions from writer Noel Kingsbury.
Reviewer Sarah Price is an award-winning garden designer.
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Read our full review of Wild: The Naturalistic Garden
A Greener Life by Jack Wallington , Laurence King Publishing, £19.99, ISBN 978-0857828934
This packed book covers creating a garden from scratch; growing herbs, edibles and house plants; and the final chapter discusses how to connect with the environment beyond the garden gate. Practical know-how is explained in an approachable way, which makes it a good introduction for those new to gardening. I liked that Wallington doesn’t subscribe to the idea of sticking to a limited planting palette. Instead he includes tips on how to combine a wide range of plants in a naturalistic style.
Reviewer Louise Curley is a freelance garden and nature writer.
Read our full review of A Greener Life
The Plant Rescuer by Sarah Gerrard-Jones, Bloomsbury Publishing, £16.99, ISBN 978-1526638137
A refreshingly different approach to house plant care. Individual plant profiles are organised not according to plant names, but by their light requirements – the defining factor for success or failure when gardening indoors. There are ‘decision tree’ diagrams that take typical problems, such as yellowing leaves or mouldy soil, and allow you to work your way through the questions to diagnose what’s gone wrong. From watering to air layering, there is clear advice for beginners and more experienced growers.
Reviewer Jane Perrone is a houseplant expert.
Read our full review of The Plant Rescuer.
The Modern Gardener by Frances Tophill, Octopus Publishing Group, £22, ISBN 978-0857839435
A valiant attempt by gardener and presenter Frances Tophill to explore what a modern gardener should aspire to be. Passionate, environmental debate runs through the book, especially when stressing our collective need to discard a historic over-reliance on chemicals. The argument is countered with positive, sustainable approaches applicable to all gardens, irrespective of size. A personal, energised book filled with thought-provoking ideas.
Reviewer Tom Attwood is a nursery owner.
Read our full review of The Modern Gardener
RHS Roses by Michael Marriott, Dorling Kindersley, £24.99, ISBN 978-0241543894
Michael Marriott, one of the world’s leading rosarians, has produced a practical guide for gardeners. It’s a far cry from traditional rose encyclopaedias where roses are catalogued according to their parentage or classification. Instead we have comprehensive information on how roses might best be used in the garden, such as at the front of the border, in containers, tight spaces and wild areas, plus roses for cutting. It’s beautifully illustrated throughout, well presented, and is written in an easy-to-follow style.
Reviewer Mat Reese is head gardener at Malverleys.
Read our full review of RHS Roses
Cut Flowers by Celestina Robertson, Frances Lincoln, £12.99, ISBN 978-0711269958
Cut Flowers is an almost pocket-sized title that contains a surprising amount of hard-working information. It begins by setting the context for why we should grow our own cut flowers, spotlighting the mass-market flower industry. Beyond the ethics, it delivers advice on how to prepare the ground, sow seed, nurture, harvest and fill your vases. There is guidance on growing for floral design, then there is the nitty-gritty of planning your space. There is much to know and cut flower grower Celestina Robertson packs it in.
Reviewer Rae Spencer-Jones is a garden writer.
Read our full review of Cut Flowers
English Garden Eccentrics by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, Yale University Press, £30, ISBN 978-1913107260
To whom would you bequeath your gold pheasants and ‘other feathered prisoners’? A dilemma faced by Lady Reade whose ‘avian zeal’ and remarkable garden made her a reluctant celebrity. Longstaffe-Gowan introduces us to a cast of unconventional characters and their passions and obsessions. The stories are amusing, at times tinged with sadness, but always informative and very entertaining. I loved this book; I want to invite them all to take tea with me. Reviewer Advolly Richmond is a researcher in garden history.
Read our full review of English Garden Eccentrics
Flowers Forever by Bex Partridge , Hardie Grant Books, £20, ISBN 978-1784884345
My sister once threw out a vase of dried flowers I’d grown, dried and artfully arranged, declaring categorically that they were dead. In this book, Partridge argues convincingly that most flowers, ornamental grasses, foliage and seedheads can, and should, have a life beyond the freshly picked, and many of them develop a deeper character when they are dried and displayed with imagination. There are clear What, When and How to Dry sections on everything from traditional flowers for drying, to wild grasses.
Reviewer Caroline Beck is a writer and flower farmer.
Read our full review of Flowers Forever
Unearthed by Claire Ratinon, Chatto & Windus (Vintage), £16.99, ISBN 978-1784744472
This book documents the twists and turns in Ratinon’s life that led her to find an identity through gardening as a Black woman. Her lyrical descriptions of nature and the pleasures of growing vegetables are a joyous counterbalance to her hard-hitting personal experiences of racism and the troubling colonial history of her homeland, Mauritius. This is an outstanding work of storytelling and nature writing. It’s also a hard-hitting and educational read.
Reviewer Matthew Biggs is a plant expert, writer and broadcaster.
The Magic of Mushrooms by Sandra Lawrence, Welbeck, £14.99, ISBN 978-1787399068
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This is such a fun book about a fascinating topic. Lawrence approaches every new chapter as a storyteller addressing a rapt audience. The vast amount of research that must have gone into the writing is apparent on every page, but it never feels dense or inaccessible. It is a real feast for the eyes, crammed with examples of the way mushrooms have been depicted in art, but it is the writing that really makes the book shine. Fungi are fascinating, and Lawrence really enjoys reminding us of that fact.
Reviewer Lia Leendertz is the author of The Almanac: a Seasonal Guide.
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Read our full review of The Magic of Mushrooms
No Dig by Charles Dowding, Dorling Kindersley, £30, ISBN 978-0241541814
This is described as the no-dig guru Charles Dowding's ultimate no-dig bible. The first third of the book gives a practical overview of how to get started on your no-dig vegetable-growing journey, while the remainder focuses on the cultivation of individual crops. It’s a comprehensive handbook for someone at the start of their growing journey or for those who have been growing for a while but who want to transition to a no-dig, ecological approach.
Reviewer Alison Jenkins is a designer specialising in edible gardens.
Read our full review of No Dig
Gardening in a Changing World by Darryl Moore, Pimpernel Press, £20, ISBN 978-1910258286
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If there were a prize for ‘most timely publication’ of the year, this would be a contender. Having experienced the highest-ever recorded temperatures and drought in the UK this summer, is this our wake-up call? Moore explores how we have reached this position and suggests how we might find a way, through designing and gardening more sustainably, to improve the situation. This must-read book is divided into digestible sections that are jam-packed with vital information.
Reviewer Annie Guilfoyle is a garden designer and lecturer.
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Read our full review of Gardening in a Changing World.
Wild Edens by Toby Musgrave and Chris Gardner, Octopus Books, £40, ISBN 978-1914239250
The authors of this valuable addition to the ‘armchair travel’ genre are two high-profile plant geeks well-versed in leading and documenting specialist botanical exploration. They have written a carefully crafted book that skilfully weaves together historical horticultural details, memoir and botanical overview. Nine chapters explore biodiversity hotspots; for each region there is a summary of the prolific genera as well as best locations and times to visit.
Hannah Gardner is a horticultural consultant and botanical writer.
Read our full review of Wild Edens
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