Book Review: A Passion for Plants

A Passion for Plants is a book about the RHS to accompany the television series that aired in 2007. I haven't seen the TV series, as 2007 was a busy year for me. I moved a couple of hundred miles South from North Lincolnshire to Wiltshire, to live with my partner, the lovely Lucy.

Luckily the book is packed with lots of colour photographs, so I don't feel that I missed out too much by not seeing the series. Carolyn Fry has a captivating writing style, a mix of conversational quotes from the people in the series and background information that builds up a picture of life throughout the RHS.

The book begins with a chapter on 'The green revolution' that talks about working with nature and watering wisely. Something that is made clear in the tour of Harlow Carr, where we find that the beds that display naturalistic perennials haven't been watered since they were planted.

In the next chapter, we read about the RHS history of 'Gardening the globe', of their success with sending plant hunters out into the world. This is followed by a tour of Wisley, before moving on to a chapter about 'entertaining with plants', which is about the RHS flower shows and has some interesting case studies about some entrants at the time of filming the series.

This is followed by a brilliant chapter about 'the plant doctors' and the important work they do not only identifying and research new threats to our gardens, but also answering the questions of the many members of the RHS. This is followed by a tour of Harlow Carr, the most Northerly of the four RHS gardens.

The chapter that follows is about 'young gardeners' and the wonderful story of the school gardening club, where orchids are grown, tended and even sold. Teaching the kids that gardening is not only fun and productive, but also that it's a place for entrepreneurs. This followed by 'plants on trial' a chapter regarding the work that the RHS do trialling plants for the AGM (Award of Garden Merit). This is a process of selecting the best plants for our gardens, therefore plants are not only added to the list, but can be re-trialled to ensure that it still has the qualities required. We then visit Rosemore, situated in Devon, gifted to the RHS in 1988 as a 8 acre garden. Rosemore has been gradually extended to 130 acres, showing the wonderful diversity that can be grown in Devon.

'Flower power' is a chapter devoted to the Britain in Bloom campaign and shows some of the wonderful displays that participants tend. Including some photos of Sidmouth and its jungle-based display - including a box dinosaur!

The last chapter is about the work that went into creating the new glasshouse at Wisley, in the photo below. Before we have our last visit, this time at Hyde Hall. This garden inspires visitors with its Dry Garden, containing around 5500 plants from every continent apart from Antarctica.

This is a wonderful book if you're interested in the RHS, or even if you're planning a visit to one of their gardens. This book is one of the reasons that I got so inspired by the RHS and have since visited RHS Wisley and have become a member (thanks again to Lucy!). So I'll close this review with a quote that we can all ponder on in these times of drought and hosepipe bans:

'The Dry Garden is an amazingly effective garden, with no rainfall and no fertilizer applications. It's an example of what can be achieved if you understand the soil, the climate and the types of plants that will succeed under those conditions' Ian  Le Gros, Curator RHS Hyde Hall.

   

Own or Loan:         Loan
Read Again:           No
Recommend:         Yes
Overall out of Five:3