Southern California Gardens: An Illustrated History

Santa Barbara, CA: Alfred A. Knoll, Publishers, 1994. Cloth, 359 pages, illustrations (some colour); 28 cm. Limited Edition. Numbered 143/1000 copies. Firm binding, clean inside copy. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. "For more than three decades, Victoria Padilla's Southern California Gardens has been the prime sourcebook for the horticulture historians and landscape preservationists of a singular geoclimatic region. The only work of its kind, this book is a comprehensive and engaging overview of more than two centuries of horticulture and the plants, people, nurseries, parks and gardens that contributed to the greening of a mild-climate coastal desert. Appreciation for the value of this book has continued to grow during the last three decades, as enthusiasm for preserving private gardens and public parks has escalated. Southern California Gardens has served as a regional beacon during the emergence of a new discipline of scholarship: garden history. In recent years, the book has continued to guide intensive research and further garden documentation of a horticulturally fascinating place on the planet. In Southern California Gardens, Padilla details the evolution of a regional landscape during the Spanish-mission. She continues her well-researched narrative through the twentieth-century development of estate gardens, city parks and commercial nurseries, describing the often-colorful people who pioneered the planning and planting of communities from Santa Barbara to San Diego. This treasury of information has become an item of historic interest in its own right, and today it is even more sought after and needed than when it was first published" - Publisher. . Hardcover. Fine/Fine. 4to. Collectible.