BOOK REVIEWS

Adventures of a Gardener

By Sir Peter Smithers
Published by Harvill Press with the Royal Horticultural Society
$NZ99.95

Reviewed by Mike Oates

This autobiography was written at the prompting of the RHS and covers Sir Peter Smithers career (he once worked in MI6 with Peter Fleming), and the five gardens he created. Now aged 83, Smithers has established a famous garden at Villa Mocote in Switzerland where he specialises in magnolias, tree peonies, camellias, rhododendrons and nerines. In all, he is growing more than 10, 000 species and cultivars gathered from all over the world.

He has been supplied with plants by the Jury's of new Plymouth, Peter Cave of Hamilton, and Os Blumhardt of Whangarei. All are mentioned in the book.

There are 60 pages of colour photos, all taken by the author who has received eight gold medals from the RHS for his plant photography.

New Zealand Garden Journal: Journal of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture 1996 1(2): 24

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