Product Description

This book successfully combines a most enjoyable and detailed account of the well-known author's many journeys through China. First and foremost, "Travels in China" provides a practical assessment of the plants that are either of ornamental merit or botanical interest to gardeners in the West. Roy Lancaster describes some 1,000 different plants in their natural habitat and provides an eminently readable account of a fascinating country, its people, and the plants that have enriched the gardens of Europe and North America. Hundreds of Lancaster's own attractive and colourful photographs are reproduced, interspersed with fascinating descriptions and anecdotes from his travels. This is a book about plants from a country so rich in variety that there are 50 per cent more species on one mountain in China than there are in the whole of the British Isles. Indeed, the wide range of climatic conditions in a country as vast as China makes this book relevant to all gardeners, be they from Norway or Spain, the United Kingdom or Canada.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150396 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 512 pages

About the Author
Roy Lancaster has had a long and distinguished career as a plantsman and is known internationally for his writing, lecturing, television work and as a regular panellist on Radio 4's 'Gardeners' Question Time'.

Customer Reviews

Lancaster, China
An enjoyable read, lots and lots of pictures. From a personal viewpoint I'd have liked more on trees and shrubs vs. flowers; and I'd hoped there'd be more on the more northern areas - but these two minor quibbles are because I grow trees, and live in Finland. Otherwise excellent - detailed descriptions of plants, habitats, areas covered. And enough 'personal adventure' content to make it a good read.

Lovely Book
This was a birthday present for myself based on a positive review from the Alpine Garden Society. I was very suprised when it arrived as it was a far more substantial book than the usually coffee table gardening book, more the scale of a reference volume.
It is comprehensive with many gorgeous photographs of both plants and plant hunters and the natural beauty of the country. Roys text is well written and contains much of great interest, a really sholarly tome.
If you are interested in plants, and their habitats, you wont be diaspointed.
Enjoy!

Only for the fanatic
An excellent and beautifully illustrated book in many ways, but impenetrable for the non-fanatical gardener. It is really travellogue, but with a lot of passages of the sort "as we rounded the bend, there was a fantasic vista of cantabulata majoricula..." (I made that up, but it's got the feel of the thing).