The Garden Plants of China
The Garden Plants of China
Illustrated reference on 400 of the best-loved plants grown in Chinese gardens
Author: Peter Valder
This major reference book carries on from where Siren's The Gardens of China left off 50 years ago. It documents in typical Valder-style 400 of the best-loved plants grown in Chinese gardens, as well as having introductory chapters on Chinese horticulture, and the spread of Chinese plants to the West.
It is hard to imagine gardens without peonies, flowering peaches, camellias, gardenias, azaleas, wisteria, forsythia, crabapples, and the host of other ornamentals that were introduced first in Chinese gardens. And the development of the modern repeat-flowering roses would not have occurred had the so-called monthly roses not been brought to Europe from China. In spite of the romance and excitement generated by the discoveries of the famous plant hunters in the wilds of China, the Chinese plants with the greatest impact on the gardens of the world have actually come from Chinese gardens and nurseries.