A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A great little guide, 22 Nov 2008
This is a great book to give more detail on this sort of wild food for anyone learning survival skills or bushcraft. I recently bought it to accompany the new Trueways Survival Skills with John 'Lofty' Wiseman [Interactive DVD] - together they make a superb way to quickly get up to speed with living off the land and especially survival skills or bushcraft.

To summarise, this is a great little book.

Interesting and Informative, 10 Aug 2007
All the Collins Gem books are great for keeping in your pocket if you are out on a field trip for the day and this one is no exception. The photographs are first class and the descriptions of the individual fungi clear and concise. The book describes almost 240 different species of mushroom and toadstool (when you've read the book you will know the difference). Their habitats, size, appearance and also whether they are poisonous or not.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and with fungi it could be fatal. The book goes out of its way to show which fungi are edible and which are poisonous. Personally I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket.

A very compact source of good information, 09 Aug 2007
I went on a fungas foray with the author of this book last year and it was extremely interesting and great fun. This book, although small, is packed full of the stuff I learned and much more information that gives me the confidence to go hunting on my own. It's the perfect size to pop in your pocket or basket while out walking.

One of the great things about it is that it identifies other species that can be confused with what you might have found. This allows you to double check and should make any mushroom hunting a lot safer.

a good pocket-sized guide, well illustrated, 28 Nov 2002
This little guide identifies a wide selection of funghi by reference to excellent photographs - much better than many of the artists' representations in some of the larger, dearer and more scholarly books.
There are short,sharp details about habitat, season and something of each specimen's histology. The book errs on the side of caution when dealing with edibility - so this is a book which could be given to a keen young explorer without too much risk of poisoning!
We keep a copy in the foraging basket, and refer to the more heavyweight volumes when we get home. It has much to recommend it.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A great little guide, 22 Nov 2008
This is a great book to give more detail on this sort of wild food for anyone learning survival skills or bushcraft. I recently bought it to accompany the new Trueways Survival Skills with John 'Lofty' Wiseman [Interactive DVD] - together they make a superb way to quickly get up to speed with living off the land and especially survival skills or bushcraft.

To summarise, this is a great little book.

Interesting and Informative, 10 Aug 2007
All the Collins Gem books are great for keeping in your pocket if you are out on a field trip for the day and this one is no exception. The photographs are first class and the descriptions of the individual fungi clear and concise. The book describes almost 240 different species of mushroom and toadstool (when you've read the book you will know the difference). Their habitats, size, appearance and also whether they are poisonous or not.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and with fungi it could be fatal. The book goes out of its way to show which fungi are edible and which are poisonous. Personally I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket.

A very compact source of good information, 09 Aug 2007
I went on a fungas foray with the author of this book last year and it was extremely interesting and great fun. This book, although small, is packed full of the stuff I learned and much more information that gives me the confidence to go hunting on my own. It's the perfect size to pop in your pocket or basket while out walking.

One of the great things about it is that it identifies other species that can be confused with what you might have found. This allows you to double check and should make any mushroom hunting a lot safer.

a good pocket-sized guide, well illustrated, 28 Nov 2002
This little guide identifies a wide selection of funghi by reference to excellent photographs - much better than many of the artists' representations in some of the larger, dearer and more scholarly books.
There are short,sharp details about habitat, season and something of each specimen's histology. The book errs on the side of caution when dealing with edibility - so this is a book which could be given to a keen young explorer without too much risk of poisoning!
We keep a copy in the foraging basket, and refer to the more heavyweight volumes when we get home. It has much to recommend it.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

The Bold and Brilliant Garden is a stunningly beautiful book, crammed full of inspired ideas with glorious photography by Jon athan Buckley.Sarah Raven knows her plants and has a sure instinct for drama and daring. This is no-holds- barred gardening at its most exhilarating--few other gardeners would risk bright pink hyacinths amongst burnt orange wallflowers, punctuated by young rhubarb shoots, newly liberated from their forcing pots, in shades of pink and yellow; or suggest enhancing the effect of the almost black tulip Queen of the Night by scattering the gold and scarlet slashed Mickey Mouse amongst them. Her work as a flower grower and florist ensures that she has sought out the best varieties and many unusual colour variations.

One of the great strengths of this book is that although the brilliant flowers are undoubtedly the stars, the supporting cast is not neglected--foliage is used throughout as a backdrop, for structure and as a foil for the vivid colours of the flowers. Sarah Raven admits that her type of gardening is labour intensive, but at a time when too much gardening attempts to be "instant" it is refreshing to read a book which honestly states that effort is required to achieve stunning results. --Stephanie Donaldson

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A great little guide, 22 Nov 2008
This is a great book to give more detail on this sort of wild food for anyone learning survival skills or bushcraft. I recently bought it to accompany the new Trueways Survival Skills with John 'Lofty' Wiseman [Interactive DVD] - together they make a superb way to quickly get up to speed with living off the land and especially survival skills or bushcraft.

To summarise, this is a great little book.

Interesting and Informative, 10 Aug 2007
All the Collins Gem books are great for keeping in your pocket if you are out on a field trip for the day and this one is no exception. The photographs are first class and the descriptions of the individual fungi clear and concise. The book describes almost 240 different species of mushroom and toadstool (when you've read the book you will know the difference). Their habitats, size, appearance and also whether they are poisonous or not.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and with fungi it could be fatal. The book goes out of its way to show which fungi are edible and which are poisonous. Personally I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket.

A very compact source of good information, 09 Aug 2007
I went on a fungas foray with the author of this book last year and it was extremely interesting and great fun. This book, although small, is packed full of the stuff I learned and much more information that gives me the confidence to go hunting on my own. It's the perfect size to pop in your pocket or basket while out walking.

One of the great things about it is that it identifies other species that can be confused with what you might have found. This allows you to double check and should make any mushroom hunting a lot safer.

a good pocket-sized guide, well illustrated, 28 Nov 2002
This little guide identifies a wide selection of funghi by reference to excellent photographs - much better than many of the artists' representations in some of the larger, dearer and more scholarly books.
There are short,sharp details about habitat, season and something of each specimen's histology. The book errs on the side of caution when dealing with edibility - so this is a book which could be given to a keen young explorer without too much risk of poisoning!
We keep a copy in the foraging basket, and refer to the more heavyweight volumes when we get home. It has much to recommend it.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

Bold and Borrowed, 13 Jan 2007
a good gardening book but somewhat misleading, in the small print it tells you that the plants and arrangements are not actually in Sarah Ravens own garden. I find this quite dissapointing.

A fantastic and inspirational book, 25 Nov 2001
Having borrowed this book from my local library several months ago and renewed it so many times I feel guilty, I've come to realise that I simply must buy this book. Having read it cover to cover and gazed at the gorgeous pictures, I now dip into it in on a regular basis for reference and ideas. This book is full of suggestions for filling your garden with a riot of colour and dramatic foliage with sections on suggestions for damp, dry, sunny and shady areas with helpful planting plans. Not a book for those who like their gardens sedate and pastel coloured but for everyone else it really is a must have book. Honestly one of the best gardening book I have ever read.

The best gardening book around, 18 Jul 2001
Too many garden books these days are blighted both by pockets of bad taste and by dreary colour schemes. You cannot accuse Sarah Raven of either of these. Her favoured flowers are stunning and her sense of colour does what all gardens should do-cheer you up. Her selection is quite tight, which prevents confusion-a great asset. In addition, the book is clearly set out, with simple guidance as to which plants are suitable for a)early and late flowering b)shady or sunny ground. Lastly, the photographs are superb so that, even if you are a novice (like me) the book is, quite simply, a beautiful read.

When your new gardening bible comes with chapters entitled Birth, Life, and Death, you know you're in trouble. But be brave, turn to those chapters, and in some very practical little essays on planting, you'll uncover the very down-to- earth principle from which Piet Oudolf's radical reinvention of gardening is based: plants die.

In the traditional mixed border, shrubs, climbers, perennials, bulbs and annuals defy mortality; when one plant passes its best, there's always another in the wings, waiting to grab the eye. But such borders have very little impact: there is too little at any one time to hold one's attention. Oudolf wonders why we fight the unavoidable. Why not create borders that bring out the beauty of plants throughout their natural cycles?

Our obsession with colour is another deadening influence on current gardening practice. Plants have form: leaves, flower heads and stems have beauty and variety too and last far longer than any bloom. Why not create gardens that use the whole plant, not just its genitals? This, as you've probably already guessed, is a recipe for perennials, and without any of that anxious autumn rush to cut down those perfectly lovely bare stems and seed heads.

With these versatile plants, Oudolf would have us all create gardens that change month by month, week by week, even day by day. It's a radical, beautiful vision that's absurdly easy to achieve. In Designing with Plants Noel Kingsbury has done a terrific job of bringing Oudolf's work within reach of the rest of us.--Simon Ings

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A great little guide, 22 Nov 2008
This is a great book to give more detail on this sort of wild food for anyone learning survival skills or bushcraft. I recently bought it to accompany the new Trueways Survival Skills with John 'Lofty' Wiseman [Interactive DVD] - together they make a superb way to quickly get up to speed with living off the land and especially survival skills or bushcraft.

To summarise, this is a great little book.

Interesting and Informative, 10 Aug 2007
All the Collins Gem books are great for keeping in your pocket if you are out on a field trip for the day and this one is no exception. The photographs are first class and the descriptions of the individual fungi clear and concise. The book describes almost 240 different species of mushroom and toadstool (when you've read the book you will know the difference). Their habitats, size, appearance and also whether they are poisonous or not.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and with fungi it could be fatal. The book goes out of its way to show which fungi are edible and which are poisonous. Personally I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket.

A very compact source of good information, 09 Aug 2007
I went on a fungas foray with the author of this book last year and it was extremely interesting and great fun. This book, although small, is packed full of the stuff I learned and much more information that gives me the confidence to go hunting on my own. It's the perfect size to pop in your pocket or basket while out walking.

One of the great things about it is that it identifies other species that can be confused with what you might have found. This allows you to double check and should make any mushroom hunting a lot safer.

a good pocket-sized guide, well illustrated, 28 Nov 2002
This little guide identifies a wide selection of funghi by reference to excellent photographs - much better than many of the artists' representations in some of the larger, dearer and more scholarly books.
There are short,sharp details about habitat, season and something of each specimen's histology. The book errs on the side of caution when dealing with edibility - so this is a book which could be given to a keen young explorer without too much risk of poisoning!
We keep a copy in the foraging basket, and refer to the more heavyweight volumes when we get home. It has much to recommend it.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

Bold and Borrowed, 13 Jan 2007
a good gardening book but somewhat misleading, in the small print it tells you that the plants and arrangements are not actually in Sarah Ravens own garden. I find this quite dissapointing.

A fantastic and inspirational book, 25 Nov 2001
Having borrowed this book from my local library several months ago and renewed it so many times I feel guilty, I've come to realise that I simply must buy this book. Having read it cover to cover and gazed at the gorgeous pictures, I now dip into it in on a regular basis for reference and ideas. This book is full of suggestions for filling your garden with a riot of colour and dramatic foliage with sections on suggestions for damp, dry, sunny and shady areas with helpful planting plans. Not a book for those who like their gardens sedate and pastel coloured but for everyone else it really is a must have book. Honestly one of the best gardening book I have ever read.

The best gardening book around, 18 Jul 2001
Too many garden books these days are blighted both by pockets of bad taste and by dreary colour schemes. You cannot accuse Sarah Raven of either of these. Her favoured flowers are stunning and her sense of colour does what all gardens should do-cheer you up. Her selection is quite tight, which prevents confusion-a great asset. In addition, the book is clearly set out, with simple guidance as to which plants are suitable for a)early and late flowering b)shady or sunny ground. Lastly, the photographs are superb so that, even if you are a novice (like me) the book is, quite simply, a beautiful read.

Simply Stunning, 04 Nov 2008
This is the book that I have waited years for! I fell in love with Piet Oudolf's planting schemes when I read an articel in the BBC magazine 'Gardens Illustrated'. The design was for a part of a large north-european park. The colours were incredible, the flowering season long, eco and wildlife-friendly, and the perennial planting meant that it was also low maintenance and required relatively little expense beyond the initial planting. His planting refects nature so seamlessly blends into the surrounding the landscape.

I have has the pleasure of visiting many of Piet's garden designs and I am always amazed at the diverse range of insects and birds that use the flower beds for nectar, habitat and seeds. I don't think I have ever seen so many butterflies!

This book provides all of the theories associated with Piet's designs and reasons why certain plant structures are repeated time and a gain in his designs. The photos are of a good enough quality to perfectly back up the text. It is a fabulous book that I will return to for years to come.

I want two new books from Piet:
1) A book showing some of his plantings for public gardens and parks, his recent work in America looks incredible
2) A comprehensive book about perennials, or maybe a series of 4 book of the as he seems to know more than anyone else about perennials. Possibly a joint collaboration with John Cushnie who wrote 'How to Propagate'?



A book to drool over, 14 Feb 2007
Piet Oudolf has rightly become a household name to many gardeners. His use of plants for year round interest has inspired many to try things they may not otherwise have done.

This book will help you to do likewise - it takes you through planting palettes (including form, leaves and colour); designing schemes (using combinations, plants to use for structure or fillers; assembling a planting; use of grasses); how to create moods in a garden; Year round planting, using the natural cycle of plants, through birth, life and glory even in death.

What a feast for the senses just looking through this book. Inspiration indeed.

If you love plants and gardening, this is it!, 20 Jul 2001
Glad I followed the advise: indeed this is the one gardening book! What a thrilling experience! What an inexhaustible source of new ideas! Besides, it is a pleasure being able to share Piet and Anja's love for planting. It will certainly make a difference to my garden.

If you buy only one garden book this year, this should be it, 17 Aug 2000
Oudolf has an approach to plant form and function that make other design books look strictly two dimensional. He creates moods, mysticism, and makes us re-think why we appreciate natural beauty. With no disrespect intended, this book makes most of the classic British garden designers look, well, like they lived in the 19th century.

I recently bought this for a friend and signed it: "the only garden book you really need"

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A great little guide, 22 Nov 2008
This is a great book to give more detail on this sort of wild food for anyone learning survival skills or bushcraft. I recently bought it to accompany the new Trueways Survival Skills with John 'Lofty' Wiseman [Interactive DVD] - together they make a superb way to quickly get up to speed with living off the land and especially survival skills or bushcraft.

To summarise, this is a great little book.

Interesting and Informative, 10 Aug 2007
All the Collins Gem books are great for keeping in your pocket if you are out on a field trip for the day and this one is no exception. The photographs are first class and the descriptions of the individual fungi clear and concise. The book describes almost 240 different species of mushroom and toadstool (when you've read the book you will know the difference). Their habitats, size, appearance and also whether they are poisonous or not.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and with fungi it could be fatal. The book goes out of its way to show which fungi are edible and which are poisonous. Personally I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket.

A very compact source of good information, 09 Aug 2007
I went on a fungas foray with the author of this book last year and it was extremely interesting and great fun. This book, although small, is packed full of the stuff I learned and much more information that gives me the confidence to go hunting on my own. It's the perfect size to pop in your pocket or basket while out walking.

One of the great things about it is that it identifies other species that can be confused with what you might have found. This allows you to double check and should make any mushroom hunting a lot safer.

a good pocket-sized guide, well illustrated, 28 Nov 2002
This little guide identifies a wide selection of funghi by reference to excellent photographs - much better than many of the artists' representations in some of the larger, dearer and more scholarly books.
There are short,sharp details about habitat, season and something of each specimen's histology. The book errs on the side of caution when dealing with edibility - so this is a book which could be given to a keen young explorer without too much risk of poisoning!
We keep a copy in the foraging basket, and refer to the more heavyweight volumes when we get home. It has much to recommend it.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

Bold and Borrowed, 13 Jan 2007
a good gardening book but somewhat misleading, in the small print it tells you that the plants and arrangements are not actually in Sarah Ravens own garden. I find this quite dissapointing.

A fantastic and inspirational book, 25 Nov 2001
Having borrowed this book from my local library several months ago and renewed it so many times I feel guilty, I've come to realise that I simply must buy this book. Having read it cover to cover and gazed at the gorgeous pictures, I now dip into it in on a regular basis for reference and ideas. This book is full of suggestions for filling your garden with a riot of colour and dramatic foliage with sections on suggestions for damp, dry, sunny and shady areas with helpful planting plans. Not a book for those who like their gardens sedate and pastel coloured but for everyone else it really is a must have book. Honestly one of the best gardening book I have ever read.

The best gardening book around, 18 Jul 2001
Too many garden books these days are blighted both by pockets of bad taste and by dreary colour schemes. You cannot accuse Sarah Raven of either of these. Her favoured flowers are stunning and her sense of colour does what all gardens should do-cheer you up. Her selection is quite tight, which prevents confusion-a great asset. In addition, the book is clearly set out, with simple guidance as to which plants are suitable for a)early and late flowering b)shady or sunny ground. Lastly, the photographs are superb so that, even if you are a novice (like me) the book is, quite simply, a beautiful read.

Simply Stunning, 04 Nov 2008
This is the book that I have waited years for! I fell in love with Piet Oudolf's planting schemes when I read an articel in the BBC magazine 'Gardens Illustrated'. The design was for a part of a large north-european park. The colours were incredible, the flowering season long, eco and wildlife-friendly, and the perennial planting meant that it was also low maintenance and required relatively little expense beyond the initial planting. His planting refects nature so seamlessly blends into the surrounding the landscape.

I have has the pleasure of visiting many of Piet's garden designs and I am always amazed at the diverse range of insects and birds that use the flower beds for nectar, habitat and seeds. I don't think I have ever seen so many butterflies!

This book provides all of the theories associated with Piet's designs and reasons why certain plant structures are repeated time and a gain in his designs. The photos are of a good enough quality to perfectly back up the text. It is a fabulous book that I will return to for years to come.

I want two new books from Piet:
1) A book showing some of his plantings for public gardens and parks, his recent work in America looks incredible
2) A comprehensive book about perennials, or maybe a series of 4 book of the as he seems to know more than anyone else about perennials. Possibly a joint collaboration with John Cushnie who wrote 'How to Propagate'?



A book to drool over, 14 Feb 2007
Piet Oudolf has rightly become a household name to many gardeners. His use of plants for year round interest has inspired many to try things they may not otherwise have done.

This book will help you to do likewise - it takes you through planting palettes (including form, leaves and colour); designing schemes (using combinations, plants to use for structure or fillers; assembling a planting; use of grasses); how to create moods in a garden; Year round planting, using the natural cycle of plants, through birth, life and glory even in death.

What a feast for the senses just looking through this book. Inspiration indeed.

If you love plants and gardening, this is it!, 20 Jul 2001
Glad I followed the advise: indeed this is the one gardening book! What a thrilling experience! What an inexhaustible source of new ideas! Besides, it is a pleasure being able to share Piet and Anja's love for planting. It will certainly make a difference to my garden.

If you buy only one garden book this year, this should be it, 17 Aug 2000
Oudolf has an approach to plant form and function that make other design books look strictly two dimensional. He creates moods, mysticism, and makes us re-think why we appreciate natural beauty. With no disrespect intended, this book makes most of the classic British garden designers look, well, like they lived in the 19th century.

I recently bought this for a friend and signed it: "the only garden book you really need"

Not the right book to buy!, 28 Jul 2008
I have been an organic gardener and garden designer for years. I bought this book out of curiosity to see what Ms Raven's insights might be. I was disappointed not to learn any 'tricks of the trade' from it and, in fact, was scandalised by some of its irresponsible, old-fashioned content. For example, Ms Raven suggests, when growing sweet peas, that it is essential to place mousetraps around them otherwise the seeds will be eaten by mice. I've been growing sweet peas since I was a child and nothing has ever eaten my seeds. Ms Raven also states it is essential to use slug pellets around the plants. This is also nonsense. I never use any pesticides or chemicals on mine and they are always fabulous and superior to neighbours who do use pellets (which can poison beneficial wildlife). My current crop - my best ever - has no slug damage at all. Her advice here is draconian and cruel; mousetraps are an appalling way to deal with mice and also kill other creatures like shrews, who are useful in the garden. Additionally, she says the long stemmed varieties don't smell as good as the short stemmed ones. Tell that to mine! Her comments about mildew are also incorrect in my experience. Ms Raven is very self-opinionated and has obviously not spoken enough to other gardeners about their own experiences with growing flowers for the house - especially 'green', progressive gardeners. Rather strangely, she then later gives 'organic' advice on how to deal with earwigs. This has very obviously been thrown in to please those who garden organically, which is rather condescending but easily seen through.

Sadly, Ms Raven speaks with great authority, which is rather disturbing given the sometimes poor and misguided advice being offered in this book.

Lovely pictures, yes. But for those I could have bought a book on flower arranging. One thing this book did do was inspire me! Yes, it has inspired me to develop my own website about organic gardening where no chemicals or cruel traps are used and the wildlife does all the pest control. Many people have been doing it that way for years with as good, if not better results than Ms Raven, and we have the photos to prove it!

Not what I thought, 18 Dec 2003
I just thought I would write a review for this book incase anyone makes the same mistake as me. I bought this book thinking that it would be a comprehensive guide to growing cut flowers with detailed information on lots of plants, cultivation, disease, storage, etc. For someone who wants specialst advice, has gardening knowledge and who wants more detail and information on producing cut flowers this is not the book for you. However although a lovely book,this is more a book for someone who likes to look at nice pictures, wants a brief idea of how to lay out their back garden to grow a few detailed flowers for their kitchen table. The idea is great but if you are passionate and wnat more than a browsing book I think this one may let you down - if you have average gardening knowledge, an idea of flowers you like and know how to continually cut flowers so they keep producing over a long season, then this book won't give you any more useful information. It would be good for someone who has never contemplated cutting a flower before and needs to be tempted to do so.

Fantastic book - highly recommended, 06 Dec 2003
This is a great book for anyone interested in growing their own cut flowers or for anyone wishing to learn the basics of flower arranging. The book takes you, step by step, through the basics of both so you do not need any prior knowledge. The photographs are fantastic and the ideas can be adapted to any size of garden. This is a very inspirational book - well worth buying.

Refreshing, modern and inspirational, 07 Mar 2002
I picked up this book because of the vivid colours on the front and was not disappointed with the insides. This is a brilliant and stylish guide to growing flowers, in your garden and even in windowboxes, and to cutting and arranging them for the house and for friends. The plant lists are particularly good, with tips and recommendations from Sarah Raven, who has such a warm, personal writing style, and pictures of every one mentioned. The book focuses on the simple aesthetics of flowers - colour, smell and texture - with stunning pictures, many of them taken from Sarah's own garden. All in all this is a highly original book, full of ideas and practical information, but a joy to look at as well.

"practical as well as inspirational", 25 Feb 2002
This is a follow on to 'The Cutting Garden', not an alternative version. It reflects Sarah Raven's concentration on growing bulbs, annuals and biennials to give cut and come again flowers for the house. As well as beautiful and inspirational photographs there are masses of practical tips, clear instructions and an honesty about what Sarah Raven has learned from experience. Her views on planting distances, feeding plants and siting bulbs have changed during since writing 'The Cutting Garden' and the results of her experiments appear here.
An enjoyable and encouraging book to read while dreaming of harvesting armfuls of flowers.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A great little guide, 22 Nov 2008
This is a great book to give more detail on this sort of wild food for anyone learning survival skills or bushcraft. I recently bought it to accompany the new Trueways Survival Skills with John 'Lofty' Wiseman [Interactive DVD] - together they make a superb way to quickly get up to speed with living off the land and especially survival skills or bushcraft.

To summarise, this is a great little book.

Interesting and Informative, 10 Aug 2007
All the Collins Gem books are great for keeping in your pocket if you are out on a field trip for the day and this one is no exception. The photographs are first class and the descriptions of the individual fungi clear and concise. The book describes almost 240 different species of mushroom and toadstool (when you've read the book you will know the difference). Their habitats, size, appearance and also whether they are poisonous or not.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and with fungi it could be fatal. The book goes out of its way to show which fungi are edible and which are poisonous. Personally I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket.

A very compact source of good information, 09 Aug 2007
I went on a fungas foray with the author of this book last year and it was extremely interesting and great fun. This book, although small, is packed full of the stuff I learned and much more information that gives me the confidence to go hunting on my own. It's the perfect size to pop in your pocket or basket while out walking.

One of the great things about it is that it identifies other species that can be confused with what you might have found. This allows you to double check and should make any mushroom hunting a lot safer.

a good pocket-sized guide, well illustrated, 28 Nov 2002
This little guide identifies a wide selection of funghi by reference to excellent photographs - much better than many of the artists' representations in some of the larger, dearer and more scholarly books.
There are short,sharp details about habitat, season and something of each specimen's histology. The book errs on the side of caution when dealing with edibility - so this is a book which could be given to a keen young explorer without too much risk of poisoning!
We keep a copy in the foraging basket, and refer to the more heavyweight volumes when we get home. It has much to recommend it.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for people who have just got into trees and want to find them and has some good facts

Recommended for tree spotting beginners, 22 Nov 2007
I lead tree courses and often recommend this little book for beginners. It has all the information and illustrations you need to get started, with, in my opinion, excellent pictures of leaves, flowers, fruit, winter twigs, bark and, best of all, the tree. Tree shapes in this book are truer than in many more ambitious works.

Compact, That is its Beauty, 13 Jul 2007

No, this is not the best book ever written about trees, but it is handy to have in your pocket. and on a walk or in the countryside you will not see many trees that are not in this book.

As one reviewer has already said the drawings could be better, but they are adequate for the casual 'tree spotter' The information given about each tree is also adequate. There are many more advanced books that can be purchased for the real tree enthusiast (if there is such a term) and these can be used at home after you have made an identification from the Collins gem.

Easy, simple and fun, 27 Jan 2007
Bought this book when we moved into a new house in '06. We now have five trees in our garden and plenty more in the surrounding area. Being an inquisitive sort of person I wanted to know what they were and decided on this little book from some reviews on Amazon. I was not dissapointed, really easy to use and in no time I had found out what I wanted. Clear and easy instructions and illustrations too. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

Bold and Borrowed, 13 Jan 2007
a good gardening book but somewhat misleading, in the small print it tells you that the plants and arrangements are not actually in Sarah Ravens own garden. I find this quite dissapointing.

A fantastic and inspirational book, 25 Nov 2001
Having borrowed this book from my local library several months ago and renewed it so many times I feel guilty, I've come to realise that I simply must buy this book. Having read it cover to cover and gazed at the gorgeous pictures, I now dip into it in on a regular basis for reference and ideas. This book is full of suggestions for filling your garden with a riot of colour and dramatic foliage with sections on suggestions for damp, dry, sunny and shady areas with helpful planting plans. Not a book for those who like their gardens sedate and pastel coloured but for everyone else it really is a must have book. Honestly one of the best gardening book I have ever read.

The best gardening book around, 18 Jul 2001
Too many garden books these days are blighted both by pockets of bad taste and by dreary colour schemes. You cannot accuse Sarah Raven of either of these. Her favoured flowers are stunning and her sense of colour does what all gardens should do-cheer you up. Her selection is quite tight, which prevents confusion-a great asset. In addition, the book is clearly set out, with simple guidance as to which plants are suitable for a)early and late flowering b)shady or sunny ground. Lastly, the photographs are superb so that, even if you are a novice (like me) the book is, quite simply, a beautiful read.

Simply Stunning, 04 Nov 2008
This is the book that I have waited years for! I fell in love with Piet Oudolf's planting schemes when I read an articel in the BBC magazine 'Gardens Illustrated'. The design was for a part of a large north-european park. The colours were incredible, the flowering season long, eco and wildlife-friendly, and the perennial planting meant that it was also low maintenance and required relatively little expense beyond the initial planting. His planting refects nature so seamlessly blends into the surrounding the landscape.

I have has the pleasure of visiting many of Piet's garden designs and I am always amazed at the diverse range of insects and birds that use the flower beds for nectar, habitat and seeds. I don't think I have ever seen so many butterflies!

This book provides all of the theories associated with Piet's designs and reasons why certain plant structures are repeated time and a gain in his designs. The photos are of a good enough quality to perfectly back up the text. It is a fabulous book that I will return to for years to come.

I want two new books from Piet:
1) A book showing some of his plantings for public gardens and parks, his recent work in America looks incredible
2) A comprehensive book about perennials, or maybe a series of 4 book of the as he seems to know more than anyone else about perennials. Possibly a joint collaboration with John Cushnie who wrote 'How to Propagate'?



A book to drool over, 14 Feb 2007
Piet Oudolf has rightly become a household name to many gardeners. His use of plants for year round interest has inspired many to try things they may not otherwise have done.

This book will help you to do likewise - it takes you through planting palettes (including form, leaves and colour); designing schemes (using combinations, plants to use for structure or fillers; assembling a planting; use of grasses); how to create moods in a garden; Year round planting, using the natural cycle of plants, through birth, life and glory even in death.

What a feast for the senses just looking through this book. Inspiration indeed.

If you love plants and gardening, this is it!, 20 Jul 2001
Glad I followed the advise: indeed this is the one gardening book! What a thrilling experience! What an inexhaustible source of new ideas! Besides, it is a pleasure being able to share Piet and Anja's love for planting. It will certainly make a difference to my garden.

If you buy only one garden book this year, this should be it, 17 Aug 2000
Oudolf has an approach to plant form and function that make other design books look strictly two dimensional. He creates moods, mysticism, and makes us re-think why we appreciate natural beauty. With no disrespect intended, this book makes most of the classic British garden designers look, well, like they lived in the 19th century.

I recently bought this for a friend and signed it: "the only garden book you really need"

Not the right book to buy!, 28 Jul 2008
I have been an organic gardener and garden designer for years. I bought this book out of curiosity to see what Ms Raven's insights might be. I was disappointed not to learn any 'tricks of the trade' from it and, in fact, was scandalised by some of its irresponsible, old-fashioned content. For example, Ms Raven suggests, when growing sweet peas, that it is essential to place mousetraps around them otherwise the seeds will be eaten by mice. I've been growing sweet peas since I was a child and nothing has ever eaten my seeds. Ms Raven also states it is essential to use slug pellets around the plants. This is also nonsense. I never use any pesticides or chemicals on mine and they are always fabulous and superior to neighbours who do use pellets (which can poison beneficial wildlife). My current crop - my best ever - has no slug damage at all. Her advice here is draconian and cruel; mousetraps are an appalling way to deal with mice and also kill other creatures like shrews, who are useful in the garden. Additionally, she says the long stemmed varieties don't smell as good as the short stemmed ones. Tell that to mine! Her comments about mildew are also incorrect in my experience. Ms Raven is very self-opinionated and has obviously not spoken enough to other gardeners about their own experiences with growing flowers for the house - especially 'green', progressive gardeners. Rather strangely, she then later gives 'organic' advice on how to deal with earwigs. This has very obviously been thrown in to please those who garden organically, which is rather condescending but easily seen through.

Sadly, Ms Raven speaks with great authority, which is rather disturbing given the sometimes poor and misguided advice being offered in this book.

Lovely pictures, yes. But for those I could have bought a book on flower arranging. One thing this book did do was inspire me! Yes, it has inspired me to develop my own website about organic gardening where no chemicals or cruel traps are used and the wildlife does all the pest control. Many people have been doing it that way for years with as good, if not better results than Ms Raven, and we have the photos to prove it!

Not what I thought, 18 Dec 2003
I just thought I would write a review for this book incase anyone makes the same mistake as me. I bought this book thinking that it would be a comprehensive guide to growing cut flowers with detailed information on lots of plants, cultivation, disease, storage, etc. For someone who wants specialst advice, has gardening knowledge and who wants more detail and information on producing cut flowers this is not the book for you. However although a lovely book,this is more a book for someone who likes to look at nice pictures, wants a brief idea of how to lay out their back garden to grow a few detailed flowers for their kitchen table. The idea is great but if you are passionate and wnat more than a browsing book I think this one may let you down - if you have average gardening knowledge, an idea of flowers you like and know how to continually cut flowers so they keep producing over a long season, then this book won't give you any more useful information. It would be good for someone who has never contemplated cutting a flower before and needs to be tempted to do so.

Fantastic book - highly recommended, 06 Dec 2003
This is a great book for anyone interested in growing their own cut flowers or for anyone wishing to learn the basics of flower arranging. The book takes you, step by step, through the basics of both so you do not need any prior knowledge. The photographs are fantastic and the ideas can be adapted to any size of garden. This is a very inspirational book - well worth buying.

Refreshing, modern and inspirational, 07 Mar 2002
I picked up this book because of the vivid colours on the front and was not disappointed with the insides. This is a brilliant and stylish guide to growing flowers, in your garden and even in windowboxes, and to cutting and arranging them for the house and for friends. The plant lists are particularly good, with tips and recommendations from Sarah Raven, who has such a warm, personal writing style, and pictures of every one mentioned. The book focuses on the simple aesthetics of flowers - colour, smell and texture - with stunning pictures, many of them taken from Sarah's own garden. All in all this is a highly original book, full of ideas and practical information, but a joy to look at as well.

"practical as well as inspirational", 25 Feb 2002
This is a follow on to 'The Cutting Garden', not an alternative version. It reflects Sarah Raven's concentration on growing bulbs, annuals and biennials to give cut and come again flowers for the house. As well as beautiful and inspirational photographs there are masses of practical tips, clear instructions and an honesty about what Sarah Raven has learned from experience. Her views on planting distances, feeding plants and siting bulbs have changed during since writing 'The Cutting Garden' and the results of her experiments appear here.
An enjoyable and encouraging book to read while dreaming of harvesting armfuls of flowers.

Excellent, 29 Mar 2008
As always Oliver Rackham's readable style of writing comes to the fore, whether you are a student, expert or layman you'll always find something interesting in this and all his other books. I feel that his criticisms and "biased" opinions all add to his charm, something that is lacking in the more dry and fusty scientific texts. Also Dr Rackham's passion and enthusiasm shine through in every sentence!!

Favourite, 11 Mar 2008
Oliver Rackham has been a favourite writer of mine for some time and this is amongst his most accessible. It is of course full of his prejudices and narrow view, very much based in eastern England. Much of what he says is hardly recognisable in my part of the country and woods that aren't ancient don't really figure. The study of Blackmore Vale in Dorset is of great interest though, and is something of a departure for Rackham. His discussion of the ' Vera ' thesis is also very good.
Perhaps this does not sound like a five star review, the reason is, Rackham is so good a writer and great a scholar that little criticisms take the place of condemnation. I also reccomend 'Ancient Woodland', 'Hatfield; The Last Forest', 'Hayley Wood', 'History of the Countryside', also his collaborative studies of the Mediterranean and more technical, George Peterken 'Natural Woodland'.
We could do with a one or two competitors in this field, for I would not reccommend Richard Muir or the type of book by Roger Deakin if you want sound information.

A magnificent volume, 12 Nov 2007
Oliver Rackham is both an engaging and crafty writer. His well known History of the English Landscape is available in several guises and so he has rather cornered the market so to speak. What cannot be denied is that his books are a delight to read and this volume can save you the trouble of buying all his others...It is astonishing. It is humbling to be told just how little we know about the woodland history of Britain and a fascinating historical journey. I am studying woodland history at college and I cannot imagine a better text to prepare a student of ecology or landscape history for this vast subject. I have spent the past few weeks utterly engrossed. Tremendous , magnificent. Another great book in the New Naturalist series and a marvellous record of our current knowledge by a great natural history writer. Buy it and your perception of landscape will be changed forever.

Not what I was expecting - It was much better than that!, 31 Aug 2007
What I thought would be a ramble through a wood turned out to be a fascinating and enlightening guided walk through both time and nature, lead by a knowledgeable and entertaining guide. This book takes the reader through the history and ecology of woodlands in Great Britain and Ireland, showing how woods have been managed (and mismanaged) over the centuries. A must for anyone interested in the countryside and how it came about.


Great Book, 21 Jan 2007
Anyone who has a deep interest in the history of our woodlands and landscape would have read at least a couple of Dr Rackham's excellent books. His most famous is the History of the Countryside (Dent 1986) which gives the reader a real insight to just how our landscape came to be. His work Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape (Dent 1976) is long accepted as the best work on the subject, Rackham's book being both a comprehensive history of Britain's woodlands and a fieldwork guide that presents tree individually and as part of the landscape.

After many years we now have Woodlands. It's been quite a wait for Rackham fans but worth every minute. This new work focuses on new historical discoveries and theories. It puts woodlands within today's context. In previous books the then current issues of inappropriate management by bodies, such the Forestry Commission and the National Trust, and the threat of acid rain are mentioned. We now have Climate Change and the ongoing march of over-development. The carbon neutral con-trick is highlighted by Dr Rackham. He points out that planning trees cannot stop Climate Change, as they can't live long enough. He continues to point out the dangers of inappropriate tree planting and the need to manage and sustain our woodland heritage. The ongoing menace of grey squirrels also gets a mention.

This book, aimed at the non-specialist, investigates what woods are and how they function. In lively style, Rackham takes us through how woods evolved and how they are managed. Basic botany such as understanding roots, longevity and tree-rings are covered. The outline of woodland history, pollen analysis and wildwood, archives of woodland and how to study them, different types of woodland, the rise and fall of modern forestry. The book is illustrated with colour photographs.

A real gem, 25 Apr 2008
This book is fascinating for any tree enthusiast.
It is the perfect tool you can use to identify different tree types.
The writing style is concise and in-depth.
A sheer masterpiece.
Picture quality is high definition. Images are portrayed in vivid detail.
This book is fantastic.
If you are even slightly interested in trees or want to expand your knowledge of trees buy this book.



A dream publication - Sheer quality, 10 Apr 2008
This publication just oozes quality from the high definition colour photography to the research and layout. I have several reference books relating to British trees and this one stands tall above all the others. The number of quality colour photographs is staggering.

If you are seeking a complete reference this book does exactly what it says on the cover, if I could have given it six stars I would have.

A good stocking filler for a keen gardener, 18 Dec 2008
This is a neat and compact little book full of hints and tips from 25 National Trust Head Gardeners, plus staff from the Parks and Gardens Department at the Trust's headquarters in Swindon. Between them all there must be decades, if not centuries of gardening expertise at our disposal.

The National Trust looks after 200 historically important gardens of varying sizes and types, including internationally important ones such as Stourhead and Hidcote. All are managed on a shoestring of permanent staff, aided and abetted by an army of volunteers. So whilst the scale of the gardens on the whole are the stuff of our dreams, the day to day problems and garden care they face are the same as any of us have.

The book is divided into 3 key sections - Planting and Maintenance, Fruit and Vegetables and Green Gardening. Each contributor takes a specialist topic, usually of particular relevance to the garden they look after, within these sections. Care has been taken to ensure the advice and expertise is relevant to any garden.

Each mini-section is a just few pages long, but is packed with information and has a highlighted Tips section at the end. Unfortunately there are no illustrations, but the short-section approach goes a little way to overcome this drawback.

A pocket sized book that not only has a lot of information, but also provides an insight in the role of the National Trust in looking after those gardens we love to visit.

A great little guide, 22 Nov 2008
This is a great book to give more detail on this sort of wild food for anyone learning survival skills or bushcraft. I recently bought it to accompany the new Trueways Survival Skills with John 'Lofty' Wiseman [Interactive DVD] - together they make a superb way to quickly get up to speed with living off the land and especially survival skills or bushcraft.

To summarise, this is a great little book.

Interesting and Informative, 10 Aug 2007
All the Collins Gem books are great for keeping in your pocket if you are out on a field trip for the day and this one is no exception. The photographs are first class and the descriptions of the individual fungi clear and concise. The book describes almost 240 different species of mushroom and toadstool (when you've read the book you will know the difference). Their habitats, size, appearance and also whether they are poisonous or not.

They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and with fungi it could be fatal. The book goes out of its way to show which fungi are edible and which are poisonous. Personally I prefer to err on the side of caution and buy mine from the supermarket.

A very compact source of good information, 09 Aug 2007
I went on a fungas foray with the author of this book last year and it was extremely interesting and great fun. This book, although small, is packed full of the stuff I learned and much more information that gives me the confidence to go hunting on my own. It's the perfect size to pop in your pocket or basket while out walking.

One of the great things about it is that it identifies other species that can be confused with what you might have found. This allows you to double check and should make any mushroom hunting a lot safer.

a good pocket-sized guide, well illustrated, 28 Nov 2002
This little guide identifies a wide selection of funghi by reference to excellent photographs - much better than many of the artists' representations in some of the larger, dearer and more scholarly books.
There are short,sharp details about habitat, season and something of each specimen's histology. The book errs on the side of caution when dealing with edibility - so this is a book which could be given to a keen young explorer without too much risk of poisoning!
We keep a copy in the foraging basket, and refer to the more heavyweight volumes when we get home. It has much to recommend it.

A good little book, but with it problems, read below!, 21 Apr 2008
this book is exactly what you would expect from a little Collin's gem, it has good material through out, and a pretty good selection of the most common trees....but, i would have preferred to see real photographs rather than artists drawings, which, sometimes are not as good a reference as an image of the real thing. Furthermore i would have liked to see bigger images of the type of bark from each tree since half the year the trees have no leaves, and the bark, leafless shape, and habitat is all you have to go on.
this is however a good introduction read for summer time tree hunting, wouldn't recommend it for winter though. if you are up for a better book i recommend:-
Collins Complete Guide to British Trees: A Photographic Guide to Every Common Species

great little book, 02 Apr 2008
this book is great for peop