'From whom did you steal that beauty? The rose laughs softly out of shame, but how should she tell?' - Rumi. Acclaimed horticultural historian Jennifer Potter shows that this most fragrant flower, the rose, has potency in societies around the world. She begins her story in the Greek and Roman empires and travels across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas to unravel its evolution from a simple briar of the northern hemisphere to the height of cultivated perfection found in rose gardens today. She lays bare the flower's long association with sexuality and secret societies, questioning the Crusaders' role in bringing roses back from the Holy Land, or hunting for its elusive blooms in the gardens of the Empress Josephine at Malmaison. An exquisitely beautiful heavyweight tome printed on quality paper and with hundreds of full page colour plates not only of roses but of archive paintings and historical artifacts and illuminated manuscripts, the book challenges many cherished beliefs about the rose and this thick tome looks to establish itself as the definitive history of the Queen of Flowers. Celebrated as a sacred symbol and as a token of womanhood, the rose unites Venus with the Virgin Mary, the blood of Christ with the sweat of Muhammad, the sacred and the profane, life and death, the white rose of chastity and the red rose of consummation. Not forgetting the delicate petals in different hues in the exquisite perfumes, we learn about roses which came to Europe from Turkey and Bulgaria and the Balkan mountains, rosemania and Redouté's exquisite portraits of their best creations which further inflamed passions. We have a 21st century view of cultivated roses be they old garden roses from Alba to tea and climbing tea, or modern roses like Floribunda to Polyantha. Chinese Whispers, American Beauties, the Housewife's Friend and its uses, here is trade and travel and sex and sorcery. 521 magnificent pages with approximately 100 colour illus. 16.5 x 24.1cm.
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Buttercup, honeysuckle, carrot, bellflower, gentian, daphne, ivy, valerian, nettle, hemp, mignonette, pondweed, daffodil, potato, teasel, rose, saxifrage, pink, pea, mallow, daisy, lily, orchid, poppy, there are grasses, shrubs, aquatic plants, cacti, weeds, herbs, balsams and more in an authoritative guide to more than 750 wild flowers of the world. Beautifully illustrated with more than 1,700 specially commissioned botanical illustrations, colour photographs and maps, and organised by families, it is all presented on glossy white paper and 256 huge pages, 10" x 12" approx. Among the prettiest are from the mallow family like the blue hibiscus, lily of the valley tree and from the grasses the blue tinsel lily which takes its name from its shiny blue flowers and is native to Western and South Australia. Christmas Pride, Golden Shrimp Plant and Mosaic Plant feature in the Acanthus family which in itself comprises about 250 genera and 2,500 species of herbaceous perennials, shrubs or twining vines. This is an absolutely superb reference for every gardener and nature lover.

Publishers Taschen have chosen to combine reproductions of Redouté's masterpieces of botanical painting with a text by two devoted experts. French flower painter Pierre-Joseph Redouté is often viewed as one of the last and the best of these painters and engravers. Commissioned by among others, Napoleon's Josephine, Redouté studied with the finest flower painters in France and Amsterdam. His illustrations of the botanical alphabets of D. M. Guillamain were a landmark in flower painting for their accuracy and beauty. He was also an innovator in the techniques of printing, introducing "stipple-engraving" to France. The revered tradition of botanical illustration dates back to the Renaissance. It emerged from the desire to catalogue nature in its unpredictable splendour, and the process demanded the most precise and talented of artists. Working from live plants rather than from the herbarium specimens gave Redoute's watercolours unusual subtlety and freshness. His impressive collection comprises over 2,000 paintings of plants rendered with great accuracy and strict adherence to nature. In this exquisite edition of Les Roses, Redouté turns his attention to the most romantic, desirable, and evocative flower. Originally published in three volumes between 1817 and 1824, it remains his most famous and celebrated work. 14 x 19.5 cm, 192 pages. Colour, new from Taschen.

An easy guide to growing wild food at home, foraging is now a common hobby for culinary enthusiasts, with wild garlic and mushrooms making their way onto many a plate. But you have to know what you are doing. Eating fresh wild food can be dictated by geographic position, and be limited by the forager's knowledge of how to identify the plants. This first-of-a-kind book shows you how to grow 30 edible wild plants at home, care for it, with advice on how to eat it and the types of wildlife that are likely to be attracted to each plant. There are some recipes for each to showcase the culinary potential including Borage Borek, Pink Clover Lemonade, Nettle Tagliatelle, Sea Kale with a Date and Yoghurt Dressing, Quick-Pickled Samphire and Summer Veg, Juniper-Crusted Pork Chops with Mustardy Cannellini Beans, Pork and Wild Fennel Burgers, Gin and Lime Granita with a Sweet Violet Syrup, Crushed Roasted New Potatoes with a Watercress Dressing, Perennial Wall Rocket and Chaard Lettuce Picada, Water Mint Pesto, Dandelion Salad and Horseradish Pickled Cucumbers among them. From dandelions and sugar beet, hops and chickweed, common elder, water mint, lesser burdock, wild marjoram to wood sorrel, common lime and fennel, the introduction covers safety and the law, environmental considerations to getting started using a pot or container and how small-scale gathering will help us all venture back out into the wild. Beautifully decorated and designed and packed with colour photos, 158pp.

A new way to accept the return to the old way of looking at our gardens as natural and wild spaces and allowing nature to reclaim them a little. Divided into mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates and plants, the book begins with foxes and badgers, often seen in gardens, one relying on scraps and the other finding room for digging a sett. Stoats, hedgehogs, shrews, squirrels, bats and rats, crows, thrushes and starlings, tree sparrows with their noisy chirruping call and chestnut coloured crown, ducks and geese before we move on to a very brief section on the common grass snake, frogs and toads and then fish like the minnow, the quintessential stream fish and the eel which travels out to sea for several years before returning to our rivers having reached adulthood. Finally, beetles, ants, wasps and bees, dragonflies and damselflies and all manner of moths and beautifully coloured butterflies displayed in a gallery of colour photographs. Worms and centipedes and a note on plants like algae and mosses, these hundreds of colour photographs and text are printed on glossy quality paper. Large softback. 136pp.