BOOK
REVIEWS
Gardening
with Tulips
Michael King
Frances Lincoln
Distributed by Bookwise
$NZ75
Reviewed by Angela Donald
FOR 12 years English
botanist, garden designer, writer and photographer Michael King
has lived in Amsterdam, the world's tulip capital. Thus the author
generously warns the reader that "an interest in growing tulips
can very quickly turn into an obsession . only the size of your
garden or your bank account are likely to assert any form of effective
control".
King gets to grips with
the tulip's origins and its botany, but the book's real impact comes
with his lively writing and his 480 breathtaking photographs of
various "stars" of the garden.
His advice on how best
to use tulips in the contemporary garden, including putting them
in pots and in the vegetable plot, stems directly from his experience
of growing these spring beauties. King also calls for more sensitive
use of tulips as a bedding plant and gives tips for their use in
borders.
The last section of the
book discusses tulips by colour. A stunning photo gallery of orange,
toffee, yellow, red, violet and all the pastel tulips is an aid
to choosing which of these beautiful bulbs to plant in your garden.
This will enthral both the tulip maniac and the merely interested.
Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH
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