The Garden Plants of China

London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1999. Very well illustrated, quarto, pp 400, cloth very slightly bowed, otherwise very good in a very slightly rubbed dustwrapper. [This is a comprehensive reference on the ornamental plants traditionally grown by the Chinese. It brings together information about the history, occurance, and use of more than 400 plants grown in Chinese gardens. It is hard to imagine gardens without peonies, flowering peaches, camellias, gardenias, azaleas, wisteria, forsythia, crabapples, and the host of other ornamentals that were introduced first in Chinese gardens. And the development of the modern repeat-flowering roses would not have occurred had the so-called monthly roses not been brought to Europe from China. In spite of the romance and excitement generated by the discoveries of the famous plant hunters in the wilds of China, the Chinese plants with the greatest impact on the gardens of the world have actually come from Chinese gardens and nurseries.]. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Very Slightly Worn.