BOOK REVIEWS

Gardening with Tulips

Michael King
Frances Lincoln
Distributed by Bookwise
$NZ75
Reviewed by Angela Donald

FOR 12 years English botanist, garden designer, writer and photographer Michael King has lived in Amsterdam, the world's tulip capital. Thus the author generously warns the reader that "an interest in growing tulips can very quickly turn into an obsession . only the size of your garden or your bank account are likely to assert any form of effective control".

King gets to grips with the tulip's origins and its botany, but the book's real impact comes with his lively writing and his 480 breathtaking photographs of various "stars" of the garden.

His advice on how best to use tulips in the contemporary garden, including putting them in pots and in the vegetable plot, stems directly from his experience of growing these spring beauties. King also calls for more sensitive use of tulips as a bedding plant and gives tips for their use in borders.

The last section of the book discusses tulips by colour. A stunning photo gallery of orange, toffee, yellow, red, violet and all the pastel tulips is an aid to choosing which of these beautiful bulbs to plant in your garden. This will enthral both the tulip maniac and the merely interested.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH