Gardening Across the Pond: Anglo-American Exchanges from the Settlers in Virginia to Prairie Gardens in England - Hardcover

"Minutely researched, this readable work reflects a lifetime's study and passion for the world's greatest gardens." * The English Garden * "I was completely riveted from the very first page by the interwoven and complex horticultural history of the Anglo-American relationship. A fascinating read...thoroughly illuminating." * Gardens Illustrated * "Lovely...a fascinating and informative read." * Image Interiors and Living * "Full of surprises." -- Stephen Anderton * The Times Gardening Books of the Year * "An accessible account of the special gardening relationship between the USA and the UK that extends back over four centuries. Earns its place on the bookshelves of enthusiastic garden historians and gardeners interested in where plants come from." -- Ruth Chivers * Daily Telegraph Gardening Books of the Year * "A fascinating, scholarly work." * The Irish Garden *

For four hundred years there has been a special relationship between Britain and what is now the United States of America in many aspects of life, not least in gardening. From the early settlers taking their familiar English plants to the New World and early plant-hunters bringing back exciting new plants for English gardens to the twenty-first-century English infatuation with `prairie gardening', ideas and plants have been crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic. In Gardening Across the Pond, Richard Bisgrove explores four centuries of translantic influences, from the Tradescants, plant-hunting in seventeenth century Virginia, to the prairie landscapes of the 2012 London Olympic Park, and attempts to answer that thorny question - is the English cottage garden an American invention?