Description and condition: Maroon boards hardback, dustcover, folio, 160pp, index, bibliography, glossary, decorated Eps, colour illustrations. Very good with marker-pen mark to the outer front page edge, otherwise very good with nice bright clean pages throughout. Tiny triangular tear to the dustcover, now protected.
Contents: This book is a collection of the rhododendron species paintings, executed with great delicacy and skill, and reflecting an informed passion for the subject that only a lifetime's study could bring. Each painting illustrates the eight-month growing cycle and includes the flowering branch, bud, flower division and profile, new leaf growth and seedhead. Accompanying the paintings, over 50 of the world's leading rhododendron experts describe their favourite plant in the collection, in each case providing details of its discovery in the wild, the aspect which make it particularly appealing or garden-worthy and, occasionally, a personal note on the author's acquaintance with the plant. Where appropriate, valuable advice is given on growing and caring for the plant, often drawn from a lifetime's work with rhododendrons. In addition, the book provides in-depth illustrative and textural studies of the leaf and flower forms of the individual sub-genera, a full species list, a list of the world's greatest rhododendron gardens and a glossary of terms. |
