Product Description

Tropical gardens are some of the most spectacular to be found anywhere. The rich diversity of tropical flora and climates allows for an astonishing variety of forms, both native and introduced. Modern tropical gardens afford a display of striking plants from all over the world, in arrangements that blend the traditions of many countries and cultures. This highly successful compendium presents a selection of the most beautiful gardens of Hawaii, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, including Bali. Traditional and modern types are considered, and the origins and individual features of each example are discussed in full. With a special section giving information on garden features, the book will be a source of ideas and inspiration to gardeners both in the tropics and in temperate regions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #273274 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Library Journal
Oversized and lavishly illustrated with 365 color photos, this book opens with an essay tracing the historical interest in tropical plants and in conservatories and glass houses. Royal and religious, private and public tropical gardens are discussed. A chapter on "Contemporary Gardens" profiles 14 gardens in Hawaii, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka. A chapter on garden features shows walks, statuary, lighting, and pools; a chapter on tropical plants gives botanical and common names plus color photos for approximately 100 plants. Not a guide to gardening like Myles Challis's The Exotic Garden (Trafalgar Square, 1989), this title is for special collections.
- Laura Lipton, Miller Horticulture Lib., Seattle
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The Washington Post
In these magnificent tropical gardens we find a flamboyant exuberance that says in effect that the world is not a harsh wilderness to retreat from, but a luxuriant garden of endless extent, rich beyond even dreams, to be explored and reveled in.

Review
Spectacular photographs . . . this handsome book can only inspire the wanderlust to leave immediately for Bali or Malaysia. -- New York Times

Customer Reviews

Just a plain decoration book ... with an attractive topic
You will find in this books the kind of articles you read in decoration magazines. Pictures are big but don't expect any artistic originality. A useful book if you plan to plant a tropical garden in your backyard.

The Tropical Garden
Warren and Tettoni pair up again with luscious footage in The Tropical Garden. For those world travelers in whom Bali has inspired a love of tropical flowers, plants, and gardens, this book will bring back the warmth and splendor of the perpetual latitudes of summer. It contains 291 full-color illustrations of the flamboyant diversity of tropical flora in hotel, royal, religious, botanical, museum, palace, water, presidential, and colonial gardens from Bali to Java to Hawaii, Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore, and Malaysia. Warren's text and Tettoni's photographs show us a paradise of fruitful blooms and eternal abundance, with delightful coverage of well-styled Balinese gardens in Sanur and the posh Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay. Brilliant, rebellious, downtrodden French artist Paul Gaugin described an equivalent utopia in an 1890 letter penned from Tahiti: "Out there at least, with winterless skies overhead and wonderfully fertile ground underfoot, Tahitians only have to lift their arms to gather their food. . . . Whereas in Europe men and women satisfy their needs only after ceaseless toil, contending all the while with convulsions of cold and hunger, prey to poverty. The Tahitians, blessed inhabitants of Oceania's unknown paradise, know only the sweet things life has to offer. For them, life is singing and loving." Gaugin could just as well have been describing the tropical treasure that is Bali--lying succulent and verdant under the benevolent, life-giving equatorial sun.

Inspiration, Not Instruction
I have read this book and own it. It is one I revisit for its lush photographs and to remind me of my vision for my own garden. The work is rich with history and inspiring photos, however the subject tends to be large grounds and commercial developments. It is not intended to be instructional, nor does it really explain the design process when creating a tropical landscape. Some photos label plant materials used, while others just focus on landscape structures. It is worth owning, but is limited in its utility.