Product Description

"Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners" is about the most exciting plants grown by Christopher Lloyd in his garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex. The great plantsman tells the story of his Exotic Garden, which has delighted, and sometimes shocked, summer visitors since it replaced the Edwardian rose garden nearly fifteen years ago. The rose garden, designed by Edward Lutyens, had remained unchanged for nearly eighty years. Then, in 1993, much to the horror of many establishment figures, Lloyd asked his newly appointed head gardener Fergus Garrett to eliminate the roses.'The noise of tearing old rose roots as they were being exhumed', he writes, 'was music to my ears.' And then the fun began: the bold foliage of palms was combined with handsome cut-leaved sumach and arching New Zealand flax; statuesque cannas and bright dahlias, threaded with mauve verbena and infilled with annual climbers, added dazzling colour from June until the first frosts, and the whole feeling created was one of being wrapped in a voluptuous living community. For everyone who loves reading Christopher Lloyd, "Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners" is an unexpected bonus.His last and most adventurous work was almost complete at the time of his death in 2006 and, having lived a long life helping other people, a handful of his gardening friends gladly picked up the reigns. Among them are the novelist Frank Ronan who has taken overall responsibility for completing the text, and Anna Pavord who contributes an opening chapter on exotic gardens in history. Illustrated with hundreds of photographs by Jonathan Buckley, "Exotic Planting for Adventurous Gardeners" both inspires and instructs. Few gardeners will be able to resist Lloyd's call to 'do something outlandish, to splash out, and be freer than ever'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23350 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From the Publisher
Britain's most outspoken and adventurous gardener returns with
the third and final installment in his series for those passionate about
their gardens.

About the Author
Christopher Lloyd OBE VMH devoted his life to creating, and writing about, his garden at Great Dixter, which is one of the most exciting and constantly changing gardens of our time. He always captivated readers and audiences with his adventurous and witty approach to his subject. He was the subject of a BBC documentary entitled 'Gardener Provocateur', made after his death in 2006. His best-selling books include Succession Planting for Adventurous Gardeners, as well as a string of other gardening classics such as The Well-Tempered Garden and a tour de force of Meadows. He wrote regularly for magazines and newspapers, including Country Life, American Horticulture and the Guardian.

Customer Reviews

Good introduction for the novice exotic gardener
This is a very handsome book, and what it lacks in substance and wit from the absence of Christopher Lloyd in many of the sections, it makes up with Jonathan Buckley's wonderful photography and the occasional radical insight. It's not a terribly cohesive book due to the number of contributors and some of the subjects covered, but Lloyd's sections and those by Roy Lancaster and Helen Dillon are sage and full of their enthusiasm for a different kind of planting. I can't say that this is a book for the truly adventurous garden, as such a gardener is well beyond the plants suggested in this book, and some of the advice on hardiness of certain plants is as woefully cautious and unadventurous as the advice given in RHS tomes. Quibbles aside, it is a nice addition to the exotic garden canon, but it would be nice to have a book that really did push the boundaries of exotic planting and garden design.

Disappointing when compared with other books from the same author
In his later years Christopher Lloyd was famous for his exotic borders at Great Dixter. Created out of the ashes of Edward Lutyens' rose garden, much to the horror to the gardeneing establishment, Christopher Lloyd revelled in challenging in what he saw as the detested 'garden preservation' movement in Britain.

This book in some ways forms the final third of a trilogy. 'Colour for Adventurous Gardeners' and 'Succession Planting for Adventurous Gardeners' are books I return to often when seeking inspiration for my garden. However, whilst this book tackles an increasingly popular trend (due in no small part to Christopher Lloyd himself), it fails to fire the imagination and enthusiasm like the others do. I suspect this may be partly because the Lloyd died before he completed his final opus. Whilst the people who completed this book are a distinguished author, plus Christopher Lloyd's head gardener at Great Dixter, it doesn't quite hang together in the final analysis.

A book to borrow rather than to keep.

Be Inspired
What a beautiful book.
Although Christopher Lloyd's text is tempered by contributions from other gardeners whose writing cannot compare with his - insightful, warm humorous, this is still an inspiring & informative read. The photographs are superb AND well-annotated.
Few of us have a garden or the resources of time & labour available at Great Dixter, yet there is something here for every gardener, even if you have just a few pots on a patio.