Plants from the Edge of the World

Description

In October 1987, a great storm devastated the historic tree collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Wakehurst Place in West Sussex. The tragic losses sparked a realisation: the collections at Kew and Wakehurst Place lacked key representatives of the world's temperate woodlands. The Royal Botanic Gardens commissioned the enterprising Mark Flanagan and Tony Kirkham to fill out the gaps. Flanagan and Kirkham travelled to the hidden corners of the Far East - specifically to the species-rich temperate forests of Korea, Taiwan, eastern Russia and Japan. This book vividly describes their myriad adventures in search of new plants. This entertaining travelogue will appeal to travellers, plant-lovers and anyone interested in learning the stories behind many of the plants featured at England's finest botanic gardens.

Mark Flanagan is Keeper of the Gardens in Windsor Great Park, where he is responsible for the world-renowned Savill and Valley Gardens as well as the gardens at Frogmore (the resting place of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert) and Royal Lodge. He has traveled extensively in search of hardy plants, with visits to Turkey, eastern Asia, western Canada and the western United States. He lectures widely and contributes regularly to horticultural journals. Mark is married and has two children; they all live in a house in the woods in Windsor Great Park. Tony Kirkham is the Head of the Arboretum and Horticultural Services at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, where he cares for and develops 10,000 woody trees in the collection. Tony began working with trees as a forestry apprentice in Surrey, and then as a commercial tree surgeon in West Germany. He earned a diploma in horticulture from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and then proceeded to spend the next 30 years of his life working at the gardens. Now he lectures internationally, runs workshops, and publishes papers on a wide range of subjects. He has taken numerous plant-collecting trips across Asia, and many trees now growing in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew originated from seeds obtained on those trips. In his spare time, Tony enjoys fly fishing and hunting. He is married with two children and lives in London.

A wildly entertaining, vividly illustrated travelogue describing the exciting hunt for rare tree specimens. ... Their book details, with illustrations, their many exciting adventures and discoveries in some very distant corners of the world. Publishing News 20050225 Kirkham and Flanagan's skillfully worded narrative is the next-best thing to being there. -- Suzanne Hively Cleveland Plain Dealer 20050512 Simply stated, a good book... The value of [Flanagan and Kirkham's] travels cannot be overestimated. -- John E. Bryan Gardening Newsletter 20050620 Written in a most delightful way... should be read by all those who have an abiding love of plants and those who are not as familiar with them as they would like to be. -- John E. Bryan Gardening Newsletter 20050729 These journeys are engagingly described and beautifully photographed. I have yet to come across a description of any plant-hunting excursion so well-written and encompassing as much history, geography, climate, culture and botany as this one. -- Patricia A. Taylor Trenton Times 20050711 A rare and wonderful trove of plants encountered along the way is described enthusiastically amid the breathtaking scenery of panoramic gorges, pristine mountainsides, and monolithic trees. Armchair botanists will enjoy each fascinating journey to the outer reaches of distant continents and the authors' accounts of successful plant cultivation back in England. -- Alice Joyce Booklist 20050722 A wonderful travelogue, this book will transport you into the rich and diverse flora of the Far East. This is plant-hunting writing at its best. -- Madeleine Wilde Kirkland Courier 20050801 The story they tell in Plants from the Edge of the World is fascinating. -- William Grant Pacific Horticulture 20050805 Well written, never dry, often exciting, sometimes hilarious, the book allows the reader to experience events in an immediate way through the use of first-person narrative. -- Penny McCook Sida, Contributions to Botany 20050923 The narratives are full of detail, yet go at a good pace, as Mark and Tony brave wild strangers, snakes, swamps, swarms of mosquitoes, swollen rivers, and foul food to collect their seeds. -- Martyn Rix International Dendrology Society Yearbook 20040101 Marvelous photographs and wonderful maps; I recommend this book to any and all plant lovers. -- Peter Kendall American Rhododendron Society Journal 20051001 Anyone who loves to travel, loves plants, and has a yen for all things Asian will love Plants From the Edge of the World, a travelogue with a lot of heart. Biology Digest 20051001 The authors set the scene in the exotic and remote places they explore, making the reader feel the tension, the cold, the fatigue, but most of all the adventure of the places they are exploring. -- Margaret Norem Desert Plants 20070101