100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names

by Diana Wells, Ippy Patterson (Illustrator)

Overview

From Baby Blue Eyes to Silver Bells, from Abelia to Zinnia, every flower tells a story. Gardening writer Diana Wells knows them all. Here she presents one hundred well-known garden favorites and the not-so-well-known stories behind their names. Not for gardeners only, this is a book for anyone interested not just in the blossoms, but in the roots, too. Illustrations by Ippy Patterson.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781616206826
Publisher:	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date:	01/01/1997
Pages:	276
Sales rank:	274,132
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Diana Wells is the author of 100 Birds and How They Got Their Names and 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names, has written for Friends Journal, and is contributing editor of the journal Greenprints. Born in Jerusalem, she has lived in England and Italy and holds an honors degree in history from Oxford University. She now lives with her husband on a farm in Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

The title of this book is somewhat misleading, as Wells (contributing editor of the gardening magazine Greenprints) does not focus strictly on the simple derivation of plant names. (Another recent book on plant names, Martha Barnette's A Garden of Words, Times Bks., 1992, provides much more etymological detail.) Wells instead describes the mythology and history behind 100 favorite garden plants, emphasizing the exploits of botanists and plant explorers who brought them out of their native habitats. Their exploits make for engrossing reading, though it is sobering to learn how many of them suffered from disease and assault, lost their hard-earned collections, or were killed outright just trying to bring back plants for our gardens. Not an essential purchase but definitely worth a place in most horticultural or botanical collections.-Beth Clewis Crim, Prince William P.L., Va.

Library Journal