Books

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The Gardens Shop
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Birdwood Avenue,
South Yarra

Ph:
(613) 9252 2341
E-mail:
gardenshop@rbg.vic.gov.au

Shop Hours:
9.30am - 5.00pm Daily

Plant names

A guide to Botanical nomenclature

Botanists Roger Spencer, Rob Cross and Peter Lumley  

Botanists Roger Spencer, Rob Cross and Peter Lumley have just produced a plain English guide to the use of plant names.

Plant Names covers the naming of wild plants, plants modified by humans, why plant names change, their pronunciation and hints to help remember them. It also includes a detailed guide to web sites and published resources useful to people using plant names. There is no equivalent publication in the English speaking world, and it has been well received by botanists at the Royal Horticultural Society and at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, both in the UK.

The book is written in non-technical language and is an easy read for anyone with an interest in plants.

Plant Names is available from all good bookshops in Australia, including The Gardens Shop at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

It has been published by CSIRO Publishing and retails for $39.95.

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Seedheads

The story of botanical exploration

Noel Kingsbury, Jo Whitworth (photographer) 

"Imagine a garden that never has an off-season, one that brims with eye-catching plants in a captivating array of shapes and textures long after its flowering period has passed. Seedheads offer all this, bringing impact to late summer borders and lingering to provide interest for months afterwards. They look dramatic set against a backdrop of fading flowers, associate well with grasses and native plants, and make a major contribution to wildlife gardens." Important components in the naturalistic plant compositions of pioneering plantsmen like Piet Oudolf, seedheads are placed in historical context by Noel Kingsbury, who goes on to describe their botany and the role they play in the wider ecology of the garden. At the heart of Seedheads in the Garden is a plant directory in which the characteristics of each plant's seedheads are described and graded for value and persistence.

Noel Kingsbury, Jo Whitworth (illustrator), hardcover, 144 pages

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In search of paradise

Great gardens of the world
Penelope Hobhouse

From ancient gardens of the Near East to landscaped wonders of England's green and pleasant land, In Search of Paradise presents the world's most idyllic gardens as captured by renowned photographers including Jerry Harpur, Andrew Lawson, and Clive Nichols. This large-format pictorial pays lavish tribute to historic gardens, but it doesn't ignore the major contributions of great modern designers such as Roberto Burle Marx, Fernando Caruncho, Dan Kiley, John Brookes, and James van Sweden.

Penelope Hobhouse, hardcover, 240 pages

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Botanical illustration course

with the Eden Project

Meriel Thurstan, Rosie Martin

This is simply the best and most complete course in botanical illustration ever produced, with each chapter a perfectly constructed and self-contained class. Created in conjunction with the internationally renowned Eden Project-home of the only jungle in captivity-it's put together by two leading figures in the Project's famed art school, and uses many beautiful works from its students. Artists and plant lovers will find a wealth of practical information, with easy-to-follow exercises and case studies. The priceless advice encompasses everything from honing observational skills and plant dissection procedures to color mixing and applying watercolor. Adding highlights, producing a pleasing composition, and developing a personal style-all the building blocks for achieving excellence are here.

Meriel Thurstan, Rosie Martin, hardcover, 144 pages

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Botanical riches

The story of botanical exploration

Richard Aitken

This pictorial history of plant cultivation explores the systematic searches and scientific botanical discoveries that have been made in botany throughout the ages. Vividly showcasing the splendor and beauty of flora from around the globe, more than 300 lush color photographs, engravings, lithographs, and hand-colored illustrations-taken from Australia's State Library of Victoria's bountiful collection of herbals, botanical primers, and large format tomes-display a wealth of botanical riches, while accompanying captions discuss how cultivation methods have changed over the years.

Richard Aitken, hardcover, 256 pages

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The Governor’s Moment –
by Bruce Grant

Signed copies now available at The Gardens Shop - $18.95.

The latest book of Australian writer and diplomat Bruce Grant is a novel  The Governor's Moment  set in the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

It is the story of a former Governor of Victoria who, revisiting the gardens and musing on the twists and turns of his life, wonders why he took the job. He meets four young friends who come regularly to the gardens with their secret fears and ambitions.

Chloe attracts unwelcome male attention. She has features that "face the world in portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough, aloof, yet succulent". Jason is a lawyer troubled by the difference between truth and justice. He daydreams of a crushing moral victory in court. Elizabeth's old-fashioned integrity makes her an outsider in a fast-moving world; she observes the sprouting city of metal and glass from the Temple of the Winds and contemplates suicide. Patrick dreams of the theatre as a social experience, rejecting "the pettifoggery of post-modernism" and the new "virtual reality".

The climax of the story is a dramatic incident in which the Governor seizes his long-awaited  "moment". But if he is the reluctant hero of the story, the enchanting heroine is the Royal Botanic Gardens herself.

Elaine Canty, Chairman of the Board of the Royal Botanic Gardens: "Bruce's words make the gardens come alive…Quite frankly, it's one of the best botanical gardens in the world. It's an absolute oasis, a retreat, an icon of serenity. "

Jane Sullivan, literary columnist of The Age: "Parks and gardens, with their paradoxical sense of tamed nature, have long been an inspiration in fiction…The Governor's Moment is a universal tale…It poses once more the great philosophical question: how are we to live…what is now worth dying for?"

The Governor's Moment has 135 pages, 11 line drawings by Diane Masters and a two-page foreword by Jane Sullivan. 

Remembered Gardens

Eight Women & Their Visions of an Australian Landscape

Holly Kerr Forsyth

Elizabeth Macarthur sailed into the fledgling settlement of New South Wales in 1790, after a horrific voyage from England. As a comfort and a way to evoke home in this distant and foreign land, Elizabeth set about to create her remembered garden, filling it with roses and oak trees. Edna Walling came to gardening in the 1920s, more than one hundred years after Elizabeth’s first encounter with the Australian ‘wilderness’ and was eventually captivated by the natural landscape and indigenous plants – she became a leading proponent of the Australian native garden. 

Remembered Gardens is the story of eight such women whose passion for their gardens and gardening has shaped our relationship with the Australian landscape.

Meticulously researched through personal records and public archives, Holly Kerr Forsyth brings to life these women’s experiences. Their challenging and sometimes tragic stories are set against the backdrop of their gardens, which provided them with sanctuary and a way to express themselves in this often hostile environment.

Beautifully illustrated, Remembered Gardens features more than two hundred photographs of some of Australia’s foremost gardens. It is a joyful commemoration of more than two centuries of gardening in Australia and of the role of women in establishing a rich gardening heritage.

Holly Kerr Forsyth is an Arts graduate from the University of Queensland, a graduate of Ryde Horticultural College, Sydney, and has a PhD in history from the University of New South Wales. As well as writing for a range of academic and mainstream publications, her work can be found each Saturday in The Weekend Australian.

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Flora of the Otway Plain and Ranges

Orchids, Irises, Lilies, Grass-trees, Mat-rushes and other petaloid monocotyledons

Enid Mayfield

‘This superb production sets a new standard in popular books on native flora’.

John Landy, AC, CVO, MDE, Governor of Victoria 2001-2006

This area of south-eastern Australia has a rich and exceptionally diverse flora with over 130 orchid species represented in this volume.

Amateurs and professionals will delight in this beautiful book both in the field and as an inspiration to learn more about the flora in this unique region.

• superb illustrations

• quick plant finder

• easy to access descriptions

• pollinators

• illustrated keys

• illustrated glossary     

Australian Fruit & Vegetable Garden

Growing your own food is the key to a healthy long life

Blazey & Varkulevicius

This complete guide is two books for the price of one – a totally new fruit book plus updated vegetable information. With expert advice on pollination, pruning, seed sowing and design. Over 240 vegetables and herbs, and 188 fruit, citrus, nuts and berries described with comprehensive cultivation and climatic suitability instructions.

Hardcover, 142 pages in colour with over 300 colour photographs. Retail $39.95

This book focus’ on those delectable apples, tomatoes and strawberries that are no longer grown so you can grow the tastiest fruit and vegetables you won't find even in the best restaurants.

They show you:

• How to grow avocados in every capital city.

• How to grow a year's supply of fruit and vegetables in an area no bigger than your front lawn (12m x 9m).

• Which fruits and vegetables are even healthier than broccoli or apples.

• How to grow food organically, free of chemicals and definitely not genetically modified.

Great gardens for kids

At last a great book to help create a garden for kids!

Great Gardens for Kids is a fantastic book with clear pictures that looks at simple projects which will transform even the smallest of gardens into a haven for children. Provides solutions to those impossible-to-answer questions such as 'why is grass green?' and 'how do flowers grow?’.

Projects include a fold away playhouse, mini-trampoline, zany garden furniture, a superb spider's web cargo net, sailboat sandpit, garden games as well as creative and imaginative ways to introduce children (both boys and girls) to gardening and nature without it looking boring!

The book gives simple instructions and material lists to create each project. Unlike other gardening books that dedicate only a few pages to children’s play in the garden, this book provides chapter after chapter and idea after idea on ways to make your garden more kid friendly. What more can we say other than if you have kids (or run a child-care facility) and want them to enjoy the outdoors (even if its only a window box) then buy this book!