Judith B. Tankard

A beautifully illustrated and unique history of the rose—the “queen of flowers”—in art, medicine, cuisine, and more"From noted rosarian Peter Kukielski comes this unique and handsome book that traces the many ways that roses have captured human imagination throughout the history of civilization."—Meghan Shinn, Horticulture"I would recommend Rosa as a gift for anyone who loves flowers, although once purchased you would find it hard to pass on!"—Judith Blacklock, Flora Magazine Few flowers have quite the same allure or as significant a place in history as the rose. A symbol of love, power, royalty, beauty, and joy, the rose has played many roles, both literal and symbolic, in poetry, art, literature, music, fashion, medicine, perfume, decoration, cuisine, and more. In this beautifully illustrated guide, award-winning horticulturist Peter E. Kukielski and his coauthor, Charles Phillips, tell the fascinating and many-layered history of this “queen of flowers.” The book explores many stories from the long association of roses with human societies, from their first cultivation—likely in China some five thousand years ago—to their modern genetic cultivars. It shows how roses have been prominent across time and many cultures, including ancient Greece and Rome, Christianity, Islam, and Sufism. The book, with more than 140 color illustrations, offers a unique look at the essential contributions that roses have made throughout human history.

'Absorbing and readable ... a genuine classic.' The Lady 'A must for understanding the woman, her work and her time.' American Gardener '[A] delicious volume by two leading experts ... explains the processes and the very human side of a garden designer whose legacy endures.' Country Life Gertrude Jekyll, one of the most influential garden designers of the early twentieth century has had a lasting impact on modern gardening. In this classic work, Judith Tankard and Martin Wood explore Jekyll's life and work at Munstead Wood, the Arts and Crafts style house in Surrey, designed for her by Edwin Lutyens, where she lived and gardened from 1897 until her death in 1932. Featuring Jekyll's own photographs, scrapbooks and notebooks, and the recollections of contemporaries from Edith Wharton and Vita Sackville-West to William Robinson and Henry Francis Du Pont, the authors' carefully researched volume, beautifully illustrated throughout, provides an unparalleled portrait of the doyenne of garden design through the study of her greatest inspiration.

Named a Best Book of 2022 by the American Society of Landscape Architects Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes presents the life and work of one of the foremost landscape designers of the early 1900s. Born into a prominent New York family (she was the niece of Edith Wharton), Farrand eschewed the traditional social life of the Gilded Age to pursue her passion for landscape and plants. Many of her clients were members of the highest echelon of society with estates in Newport, the Berkshires, and Maine, but Farrand ultimately became a consultant for university campuses, including Yale and Princeton, and for public gardens, including the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the Rose Garden at The New York Botanical Garden. Perhaps her best-known work is the extensive garden at Dumbarton Oaks, originally a private residence and now a research institute of Harvard University. Deeply influenced by the English landscape designer Gertrude Jekyll, Farrand was known for broad expanses of lawn with deep swaths of borders planted in a subtle palette of foliage and flowers. Her gardens have been photographed at their peak especially for this book, and these lush illustrations are complemented by beautiful watercolor wash renderings of her designs, now preserved at the library of the University of California at Berkeley.

Everything for the Garden is for anyone who enjoys gardening at home, visiting historic landscapes, or admiring plants and flowers in art and culture. Colorfully illustrated by material from Historic New England's extensive collection, the book celebrates the objects and literature that people used to make and enjoy gardens from the mid-nineteenth century to today. Essays by well-known experts include Virginia Lopez Begg on garden clubs and horticultural societies, Alan Emmet on garden portraits, Richard Nylander on a cornucopia of catalogs and on garden architecture and ornament, and Judith Tankard on designing and making the garden.

“The ever-alluring Arts and Crafts garden…is profoundly relevant to our 21st-century needs.” —Sam Watters, author of Gardens for a Beautiful America In Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement, landscape scholar Judith B. Tankard surveys the inspirations, characteristics, and development of garden design during this iconic movement. Tankard presents a selection of houses and gardens of the era from Great Britain and North America. With almost 300 illustrations and photographs, and an emphasis on the diversity of designers who helped forge the movement, Gardens of the Arts and Crafts Movement is an essential resource for this truly distinct approach to garden design.

Between 1914 and 1950, Ellen Shipman (1869–1950) designed more than 600 gardens in the United States, from Long Island's Gold Coast to the state of Washington. Her secluded, lush formal gardens attracted a clientele that included Fords, Edisons, Astors, and du Ponts. Shipman’s imaginative approach merged elements of the Colonial Revival and Arts and Crafts movements with a unique planting style enlivened by Impressionistic washes of color. In Ellen Shipman and the American Garden author Judith B. Tankard describes Shipman’s remarkable life and discusses her major works, including the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida; Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Ohio; Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, and Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University. Richly illustrated with plans and photographs, the book explores Shipman’s ability to create intimate spaces through dense plantings, evocative water features, and classical ornament. Tankard also examines Shipman's unusual life, which was enriched by her years in the artists' colony of Cornish, New Hampshire, and her association with the architect Charles A. Platt. Shipman was notable for establishing a thriving New York City practice and mentoring women in the profession. Many of the assistants she trained in her all-female office went on to become successful designers in other parts of the country.