Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #678171 in Books
• Published on: 1998-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 329 pages

From Amazon.com
This anthology edited by novelist Jamaica Kincaid is a fascinatingly quirky compilation of writings about plants by the people who love them. Some are exceedingly practical--Ken Druse's essay "Desire Under the Jacks" gives you all the information you need to grow Arisaema triphyllum from seed--while others are more lyrical, such as Colette's writings on lilies and hellebores, and the poetry scattered among the essays.

Like a magazine, there are pages you may skip over because you find the subject or style doesn't appeal to you, only to find yourself riveted by the next piece of writing, which awakens in you a lust to own a plant, the existence of which you were unaware of a few minutes earlier. The very best writing opens your eyes to something new: an experience, an object, a place, or in this instance, a plant. Every type of gardener, novice, expert, or dreamer will find such writings within these pages.

With its compact format, this is a book that can be slipped into the pocket and dipped into in those moments that become available between life's many activities, or put next to a guest bed for the enjoyment of visitors. The idiosyncratic typeface may not appeal at first, but you will get used to it. --Stephanie Donaldson

From Publishers Weekly
Author and gardener Kincaid believes that "[m]emory is a gardener's real palette... as it summons up the past... shapes the present... [and] dictates the future." For many, specific plants evoke specific memories; gathering 35 brief essays and poems that have been written throughout this century, Kincaid has compiled a bouquet of these plants and their corresponding memories. In "Lily," Colette remembers placing the eponymous white flowers around a statue of Mary, who "would be brushing, with the tips of her dangling fingers, the long, half-open cayman jaws of a lily at her feet." Czech writer Karol Capek writes in "Buds," published in 1929, that for him, even if he went out into the country, he would "see less of the spring than if I sat in my little garden" in Prague. Poet Maxine Kumin shares her appreciation of non-flowering plants and confesses that "nothing looks prettier to me than a well-tended flourishing vegetable garden." Ian Frazier, in "Memories of a Press-Gang Gardener," divulges how, after years of weeding gardens in his suburban childhood, he came to appreciate the activity, and when visiting "gardening friends... ask[s] what weeding needs to be done." In one of the strongest entries, "Marigold," Hilton Als admits hating that flower. During one childhood summer when his mother was ill, he recalls, he ate dirt from the marigold bed, to which his father devoted all his attention, and developed ringworm. Kincaid hopes that readers will draw some satisfaction from this collection, because a "garden, no matter how good it is, must never completely satisfy." In this she has succeeded, by presenting a book that is often beautiful, though some of its parts are not as radiant as others, and a few have yet to blossom.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
It seems like everyone is gardening these days. After reading Kincaid's introduction to this enchanting anthology, it is readily apparent that the celebrated writer, for one, is utterly fascinated by the exhilarating enterprise of cultivating her own special landscape. Kincaid's fascinating compilation gives readers insight into which plants have stirred feelings of accomplishment, yearning, or sweet contentment in the hearts and minds of such notables as Colette, D. H. Lawrence, and William Carlos Williams, revealing their poetic ruminations on lilies, purple anemones, and Queen Anne's lace. In a more contemporary vein, Kincaid includes the delightfully entertaining musings of eminent individuals currently associated with the gardening world. Michael Pollan, Daniel Hinkley, and Nancy Goodwin are represented among the engaging essays and poems matching historical figures of some renown and today's gardening greats with their favorite flora. Alice Joyce

Customer Reviews

Ringworm? And gardening? Not quite getting this!
I was very pleased with this book, which is why I went out and bought the other Jamaica Kincaid gardening related book.

This would be a lovely gift for a keen gardener, particularly in winter, when one can only dream about the garden. The essays were mainly interesting and informative - some were funny and poignant. The ones that wrote about their actual favourite plant were the best - the ones that went off on 'frolics of their own' just didnt cut it, but these were few, and probably added for unecessary 'colour' and 'arty-fartyness'! The paeony and meconopsis ones are my favourites.

A glowing "diary" by famous authors and prominent gardeners.
Every gardener has a favorite plant and is anxious to share plants and stories with others. Some of these essays are filled with technical information, others are lyrical musings on the esthetic of plants. Either way, this is a book to cuddle up with and to cherish. It's also a perfect special occasion gift for other gardeners.

uneven in level of interest to the average gardener
Overall, the gardeners who wrote about their favorite plants were more interesting to read than most of the other authors. The selection that dealt with ringworm was especially out of place (what on earth did THAT have to do with plants?). The essay on plant collecting was great, though, and Tony Avent's short essay on hostas almost makes me like them. Almost. And you have to like a book that has an essay on Meconopsis. I liked exactly 50% of this book.