Quotable Gardener - Hardcover

"The tulips are too excitable" - Sylvia Plath "African marigolds have about as much freshness as the leather of a new football, without the quality of being easily kicked out of the way" - Christopher Lloyd "The garden that is finished is dead" - H.E. Bates "When Wordsworth's heart filled with pleasure at a crowd of golden daffodils, it's a safe bet he didn't see them two weeks later" - Geoff Hamilton These are just a few of over 400 quotations featured in this book on the endless fascination of gardening. As well as witty one-liners, the book contains stanzas of verse and full paragraphs of narrative. It includes sections on gardening wisdom, planting and design, the seasons, enthusiasms, and the edible and inedible, all introduced by acclaimed gardening star Charles Elliott. Gardening writers past and present are represented, but the selections also range through a variety of recorded literature, from the Bible, through Chaucer and Dickens, to Prince Charles. Other featured authors include Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse, Gertrude Jekyll, Ted Hughes, Russell Page, Vita Sackville-West and Oscar Wilde.

Charles Elliott, American-born, lives in London and gardens on the Welsh border near Monmouth. He is the author of the essay collections The Gap in the Hedge and The Transplanted Gardener, and a regular contributor to Horticulture magazine.Whereabouts: Chiswick, London