The Times A Century In Photographs – Gardening: 1900–2000 - Tapa dura

This book combines two of this century’s best loved passions, Gardening and Photography. In a unique and remarkable pictorial survey, the author tells the story of gardening in the twentieth century, with special emphasis on British, North American, Western European, Chinese and Japanese gardens.

The Times: A Century of Photographs – Gardening combines two of this century’s best loved passions – Gardening and Photography. Over 300 photographs – a mixture of b/w and colour – have been chosen for their humour, charm, aesthetic, curiosity and historical value. Some are hauntingly beautiful, others remarkably rare. Others still depict not only garden history, but social history in the making – snapshots, for example, of gardens in the Second World War when every spare yard of soil (castle moats, royal parks and polo grounds included) was devoted to vegetable production. Arranged chronologically, the photographs are each accompanied by an explanatory caption.

Drawing on the photographic archives of the Royal Horticultural Society, The Times and the Hulton Getty Picture Library, this is the story of gardening’s triumph at the century’s end as the most popular and multi-faceted pastime of all.

After leaving Oxford University, Mark Griffiths worked at Oxford University’s Department of Plant Sciences and Botanic Garden before moving to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society aged twenty-three. His published works include The New Royal Horticultural Dictionary of Gardening (1992), Index of Garden Plants (1994), The Royal Horticultural Society Manuals (1996), The RHS Shortr Dictionary of Gardening (1998). He serves on committees of the RHS and the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens.