Gardening book recommendations please

I've a colleague due to retire shortly who has expressed his intention to take up gardening 'seriously'. He's not a complete novice, but has grown mostly veg., in his small garden, now he and his wife will be moving to somewhere with a (very) much larger garden where they want to cultivate a flower garden.

We've already purchased garden vouchers to the value of £250 and have a further £40 available to spend (well ... £37.39 to be precise) and he has expressly asked for ' ... a general flower type gardening book ...'.

'The ... Expert' series are OK but £10 is hardly retirement present level and he already has the RHS 'Gardening Throughout the Year', so any suggestions up to about £50 would be most welcome.

 

Hi Fidgetsmum

I have a lot of books, but the one I find myself turning to again and again is the Reader's Digest Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants and Flowers. The RHS has produced a series of much flashier tomes, but I find them a bit unwieldy and not as useful for finding the important information quickly. I suppose this is just my personal taste, but I find you need a crane to lift the RHS A-Z of Garden Plants and it seems to take up a lot of space to say relatively little.

Unfortunately it seems to be quite difficult to get hold of the Reader's Digest book now, although WH Smith still lists it:-

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAnd...oductId=9780276421914&shop=10004&type=Froogle

It also has the more expensive RHS book:-

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/CatalogAndSearch/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=9781405332965

For sheer pleasure of reading and inspiration, rather than encyclopaedic information, you couldn't do better than one of Christopher Lloyd's books. I have Christopher Lloyd's Flower Garden (Dorling Kindersley, 1993) which has some stunning photos of Great Dixter and lots of fascinating information.

 

For general gardening advice, look no further than the RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening. It's got advice and info on everything - the most comprehensive book out there by a mile.

For plant choice / identification I use the Reader's Digest book Clare mentioned.

For garden writing / inspiration etc, Christopher Lloyd's books are good, but my personal favourite is My Roots by Monty Don.

 

Just to clarify, the RHS has produced a whole series of books. I have several of them - the A-Z Encyclopaedia of Garden Plants (not recommended for anyone who shouldn't be lifting heavy weights) and the Encyclopaedia of Gardening which Andrew has mentioned. The latter will tell you everything you need to know about lawn care, rock gardens, greenhouses, soil types, propagating etc etc etc but not much about individual plants, although there are entries on climbers, perennials, annuals and so on. I also have an RHS book called The Gardeners' Encyclopaedia of Plants and Flowers. I don't know whether it's still in print, but I suspect not. It groups plants by size and colour. Nice idea, heap big pain in the backside in practice.

 

One of my favorite books is Best Borders by Tony Lord. Best Borders: Amazon.co.uk: Tony Lord: Books

This shows inspirational pictures of 12 of the most famous flower gardens in the country. It tells their methods of how they do it. And also give some of their planting plans with the names of the plants they use. My attitude is that if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me.

 

I have a large collection of RHS Journals, that go back to the 80s.

Not exactly gardening books, but informative if you like a good read.

Free to anyone who wants them.

 

Pete - thats a very generous offer - I wish I lived closer.

 

I think the 'expert' books are fantastic, if you think they are too cheap, the how about 3 or 4 around a common theme?

 

How about membership to the RHS (around £44 but worth every penny). Beautiful gardens to visit for free and a monthly magazine packed with informative articles and inspiring features.

 

I think that I would second Alana's suggestion especially if your colleague lives near one of the RHS garden locations.
My own favourite 'flower garden' book must be Christopher Lloyd's 'Well Tempered Garden' which is a mine of information about plants and propagation/etc......

 

I think you wouldn't go far wrong with Alan Titchmarsh's books "How to be a gardener".

 

If your friend likes a good read as well then any of the Christopher Lloyd books would do-very funny man as well.

 

Ever asked a question then wish you hadn't? I've had a look for information on the books suggested and now I want them .... all!

Thank you everyone.

 

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

 

Now you know Fidgetsmum, you only have to ask.