The Winter Garden

The Winter Garden
The Winter Garden
Author: Val Bourne
Published by: Cassell Illustrated
Published October 2006
RRP: £16.99
Winter has always been one of Val's favourite times of the year. It's when low winter sunshine picks up the detail and texture of bark and branch, berry and seed head and this book encourages gardeners to plant with winter in mind by using evergreens, choice trees and fragrant, winter-flowering plants.

But winter also features the beginning of the new gardening year and, as the days lengthen, fresh buds begin to unfurl at ground level. Snowdrops, aconites and crocus hold their own race of the year to be the first flower of the new gardening year.

Val also contributed to Wildlife for Everyone campaign, a joint initiative between the RHS and the Wildflife Trusts and the book, "Wildlife for Everyone" published in summer 2006, contains an article by her.

Reviews

Review From Daily Telegraph Saturday December 2nd 2006

by Tim Richardson

The gorgeous image on the jacket of this book - rosehips in ice, like rubies encased in melted diamonds - is a taste of the delights to come, for this is a book that has been written, edited and designed with panache.

There have been other books on winter gardening but this one is different because Val Bourne writes with sensitivity and directness about the characteristics of different plants. It gives a sense of genuine, first-hand experience of everything she describes - indeed, it often seems as if you are there at her shoulder in the garden.

Chapters are given evocative conceptual titles, such as "Jewels Against Bare Earth", and the focus is on the delightful effects plants can create, rather than their problem-solving capabilities (which is often how winter plants are described). There is a great deal of excellent advice throughout about specific varieties and cultivars. For me, this is the horticultural book of the year. Truly a cut above.