Hidcote: The Making of a Garden - Hardcover

"[W]ould please any English garden aficionado....this new, revised version includes much more info on Johnston's impact on landscape design in England." -- Garden Design Online "[A]n enjoyable read, sort of a gossipy tell-all but factual, and with a good bit of garden design history." -- The American Gardener "Ethne Clarke...has placed Hidcote in context, revealing the tastes of the time, the gardeners and plant collectors whom Major Johnston would have known and places he would have visited....Avid gardeners will savor the chapter titled `The Garden in Season' that highlights the plants in each garden at Hidcote and ends with an impressive list of plant introductions by Major Johnston. After reading Hidcote: The Making of a Garden, I find it is clearly time for me to make another visit to see the great strides that Britain's National Trust has made in restoring Major Johnston's fabulous garden creation." -- Charlotte Frieze - The Providence Journal "This is a beautiful book, full of life and a story well worth telling." -- Valerie Easton - The Seattle Times

Known internationally as the epitome of the classic English country garden, it is perhaps less well known that Hidcote's creator was an enigmatic American. Lawrence Johnston, an expatriate and one of the so-called "Henry James Americans," a pedigreed member of old New York, left no diaries or significant correspondence. What he did leave, however, is a garden that continues to inspire horticulturists, gardening enthusiasts, and everyone who appreciates the beauty of nature. First published in 1989, the book was the first biography of Johnston; for this revised and enlarged edition Clarke, the author of 15 books on landscape history and gardening, has collected much new, original material that illuminates the creation of the garden and presents Johnston's life in the context of the period that set the seal on England's preeminence in garden design and plantsmanship.