The story of rhododendrons and azaleas in a very readable book.

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Product Description

From the towering Burmese magnificum, with its three-foot-diameter trunk and its masses of sweet-smelling purple flowers, to the potted pink azalea, glowing like a burning bush on the backyard garden patio, Rhododendron is a genus of infinite variety and beauty.

There are 1,025 known species: it is a native of the snows of the Himalayas and the swamps of the Carolinas, the jungles of Borneo and the island inlets of Japan. It is also one of the oldest of plants - many believe the dove that returned to Noah's ark was carrying a rhododendron sprig - although it has been known to western horticulture for only 300 years. The curious history of Westerners and rhododendrons is full of swashbuckling plant collectors and visionary gardeners, colonial violence and ecological destruction, stunning botanical successes and bitter business disappointments. And it is here related with consummate skill by Jane Brown, an English garden writer clearly besotted by these "glorious and scented strangers, with their mouth-watering candy colors, their cascades of way bells or iridescent globes proffered in ruffs of green leaves."

From its origins fifty million years ago to its arrival in England in the early 1600s; from its export from America by John Bartram in the 1760s to its vigorous collection by Harvard's Arnold Arboretum in the 1870s; from the foundation of the British Rhododendron Society in 1915 to the genetically engineered hybridizations of the early 21st century: this is the sweeping and exciting botanical epic that Jane Brown provides in this remarkable book. She achieves exactly what she sets out to do - "to construct a history of the genus Rhododendron that pays tribute to the mystery and majesty of these plants" - and does so with a scholar's thoroughness and the anecdotal skill of an enthralling entertainer.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #670630 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-30
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 308 pages

From Booklist
Brown's entertaining homage to the majestic rhododendron provides a voluminous exploration of the development and significance of this lusciously romantic and elegantly exotic garden gem. With a color palette ranging from dramatic purples to ethereal pastels, these denizens of American swamps and African jungles are equally at home clinging to remote Himalayan mountaintops and craggy Asian coastlines. Encompassing more than a thousand species, rhododendrons exude an undeniable mystique that has historically captivated both commoners and kings, whose desire for increasingly impressive examples initiated voyages of plant discovery that provided the foundation for some of the world's most renowned arboretums. In many ways, the evolution of the rhododendron from alien specimen to garden center staple mirrors the arc of Western civilization itself. Brimming with lively anecdotes involving many of horticulture's most revered individuals and institutions, Brown's history of the genus rhododendron is ecumenical in approach yet accessible in style. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
A quick dash through Jane Brown's chatty book will make you feel like royalty. --Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History Magazine

Brown's entertaining homage to the majestic rhododendron provides a voluminous exploration of the development and significance of this luciously romantic and elegantly exotic garden gem. --Booklist

Painstakingly, she tracks the rhododendron through history, myth, art, literature. --Dana Goodyear, New York Times Book Review

From the Inside Flap
From the towering Burmese magnificum, with its three-foot-diameter trunk and its masses of sweet-smelling purple flowers, to the potted pink azalea, glowing like a burning bush on the backyard garden patio, Rhododendron is a genus of infinite variety and beauty.

There are 1,025 known species: it is a native of the snows of the Himalayas and the swamps of the Carolinas, the jungles of Borneo and the island inlets of Japan. It is also one of the oldest of plants -- many believe the dove that returned to Noah's ark was carrying a rhododendron sprig -- although it has been known to western horticulture for only 300 years. The curious history of Westerners and rhododendrons is full of swashbuckling plant collectors and visionary gardeners, colonial violence and ecological destruction, stunning botanical successes and bitter business disappointments. And it is here related with consummate skill by Jane Brown, an English garden writer clearly besotted by these "glorious and scented strangers, with their mouth-watering candy colors, their cascades of way bells or iridescent globes proffered in ruffs of green leaves."

From its origins fifty million years ago to its arrival in England in the early 1600s; from its export from America by John Bartram in the 1760s to its vigorous collection by Harvard's Arnold Arboretum in the 1870s; from the foundation of the British Rhododendron Society in 1915 to the genetically engineered hybridizations of the early 21st century: this is the sweeping and exciting botanical epic that Jane Brown provides in this remarkable book. She achieves exactly what she sets out to do -- "to construct a history of the genus Rhododendron that pays tribute to the mystery and majesty of these plants" -- and does so with a scholar's thoroughness and the anecdotal skill of an enthralling entertainer.

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Customer Reviews

Learn about what's in your back yard
Considering how many of us have rhododendrons in our back yards, it is amazing how little we know about them. This book fills the gap in our knowledge. It is a first-class history of the plant and the early efforts to bring it to and publicize it in England. It then traces the efforts to propogate the plant around the world. If you like learning about your plants , you will like this book. Well-researched and very well written I unreservedly give it five stars.

You may find other rhododendron specialty books on the market; but none as lively and packed with human history as this.
TALES OF THE ROSE TREE: RAVISHING RHODODENDRONS AND THEIR TRAVELS AROUND THE WORLD goes beyond competing gardener's guides which focus on cultivation and natural history to provide a lively historical survey of the history of rhododendrons and their movements around the world. The plant's discovery, early cultivation and collection, and its fascination to botanists makes for a lively set of vignettes and reflections which pairs natural history with human endeavors. You may find other rhododendron specialty books on the market; but none as lively and packed with human history as this.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch