Product Description

Plants that leap out from the rest by virtue of their striking forms, vivid hues, large leaves, or dramatic spikes star in this glorious guide to designing exotic, award-winning gardens. This author's imaginative design schemes feature exotic plants that seem to have wandered into the garden from another climate. Page after page of inspiring photographs show how such plants can suggest a tropical atmosphere, capturing the admiration of anyone whose eye sweeps over them. The book includes a discussion of the characteristics of bold plants and the settings most hospitable to them; a directory of the best exotics, such as tree ferns, agaves, and eryngiums, to name just a few of the one hundred examples listed; as well as practical tips on plant care, propagation, and maintenance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2250483 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-15
• Released on: 2000-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Garden Design Guide Emphasizing Striking Foliage
Bold and Exotic Plants is a practical, no-nonsense, garden design book focused on foliage that makes a statement. Every page contains beautiful photos that provide inspiration and visually demonstrate the author's design concepts.

Unlike some garden design books that are fixated on color combination and maintaining constant color in the garden, this book focuses more on variation in foliage form and texture, and maintaining interest in the garden all year long. The interplay of foliage colors is just one element of design, and often subtle. The crisp photography is particularly good at capturing the play of light off different shades of green in the various leaves, and showing how different textures respond with shimmering reflection or near absorbtion.

Despite the title, most of the plants featured are not as exotic as you might think and shouldn't be difficult to find. (Suppliers are listed at the end of the book). Characteristics that fit the author's notion of exotic are plants that impress by their sheer size or because their leaves are out of scale with the rest of the plant. This definition lends new respect to some rather common plants. For instance, the author shows how every day ferns can have a bold and exotic effect when sited properly or planted en masse.

Many of the gardens featured are a bit too naturalistic for my taste, but the concepts are readily adaptable to formal or informal gardens. The book illustrates how even a few exotics, carefully incorporated, can provide structure and a focal point that will enhance an otherwise conservative flower bed.

Wonderful Book, Poor Typeset
This is a fine book, full of ideas that will make you reconsider your garden - planted or planned. So many unusual plants, such limited space and time!
However, the type the publishers chose for the captions - and there are 250! - is tiny. And against an otherwise attractive mottled background they are very difficult to read - even for good eyes. One has to read this book as one would study a text -under good light at a table. Forget the soft light and easy chair. The total experience is much less than it should be given Noël Kingsbury's expertise, pleasant writing style and excellent assortment of photos.