Noel Kingsbury Books

Piet Oudolf’s gardens—unique combinations of long-lived perennials and woody plants that are rich in texture and sophisticated in color—are breathtaking and have deep emotional resonance. With Planting, designers and home gardeners can recreate these plant-rich, beautiful gardens that support biodiversity and nourish the human spirit.An intimate knowledge of plants is essential to the success of modern landscape design, and Planting shares Oudolf’s considerable understanding of plant ecology, explaining how plants behave in different situations, what goes on underground, and which species make good neighbors. Extensive plant charts and planting plans will help you choose plants for their structure, color, and texture. A detailed directory shares details like each plant’s life expectancy, the persistence of its seedheads, and its propensity to self-seed.

Behind the cedar scent of fresh pencil shavings and the slightly bitter tang of orange in our marmalade are untold stories of human interactions with the natural world. Celebrating the human heritage of these and other natural phenomena, the new Hidden Natural Histories series offers fascinating insight into the cultivation and use of the bits of nature we take for granted in our daily lives. In Trees, noted garden writer Noel Kingsbury turns his pen—or pencil—to the leafy life-forms that have warmed our hearths, framed our boats for ocean voyaging, and provided us shade on summer afternoons. From the fortitude of the ancient ginkgo tree to artistic depictions of quince fruit in the ruins of Pompeii, Kingsbury explores the culinary, medicinal, cultural, and practical uses of a forest of tree species. Packed with informative and beautiful illustrations—both new and from historical archives—Trees will charm and enlighten anyone interested in our relationship with the natural world and will be a special delight for every gardener, chef, and climber of trees.

Throughout history flowers have been an integral part of human survival and culture - as food, for medicine, to express feelings, as symbols, to commemorate and celebrate, and to decorate. Their shapes, colors, scents and textures have always attracted us, as they do animals and insects. Flowers are used as luxury spices (saffron), and as coloring and flavoring agents - marigolds fed to chickens make eggs more yellow and lavender was Elizabeth I's favorite flavor of jam. Flowers are full of symbolic meaning: violets represent modesty, daises purity and daffodils unrequited love. And they have always played an important role in culture through myths and legends, literature and the decorative arts. This delightful new book brings together 100 of the world's flowers to tell their remarkable stories. Each flower is richly illustrated in color and accompanied by facts about each species and what role it has played in our culture and history.

This fascinating book takes a peek at the gardens of some of the world's most influential designers, investigating how they differ from their commissioned work, the design process, and how they reflect their owner's design philosophy.

Green roofs are a hot topic, and one that constitutes a trend extending well beyond the world of gardening. This sourcebook brings together a fascinating amount of data, covering the actual logistics of how to implement plantings on roofs and building facades

Quarto, 1996, PP.144, Bold Plants for The Landscape

Noel Kingsbury explores how the particularities of landscape, history and culture in the Netherlands have given rise to distinctive gardens and public spaces and demonstrates how a new generation of Dutch designers are reimagining outdoor space in such an revolutionary way.

A stunning exploration of one of the hottest trends in garden design, nature- based planting with an eco-aware approach, featuring the work of leading designers such as Sean Hogan, Piet Oudolf, and Dan Pearson

Jimi Blake has spent 25 years collecting the most interesting plants he could get his hands on. At Hunting Brook, these come together in a unique fusion of funky foliage, perennial, and woodland styles to make a flamboyant, surprising, experimental garden that is overflowing with ideas for enthusiastic gardeners. Exotic-leaved plants from the Far East and South America rub shoulders with temperate perennials to excite the eye. Trees are pollarded, salvias and dahlias are present in abundance, and borders are unconstrained. Jimi's eagle eye for flaws means plants that don't quite cut the mustard are ruthlessly dispatched and the garden is constantly being scrutinized and reinvented. A Beautiful Obsession inspires new garden projects, rewrites the rule book about combining plants, and will have plant enthusiasts reaching for specialist nursery catalogues.

The emphasis of this book is on designs with plants in the home, at work, in the conservatory or garden room.