Imaginative pruning and shaping of living plants can create landscapes,
evoke far off places and memories, . . . surprise and even shock, with
interconnected species resulting not in defined categories but rather a
family tree, or a map of a river system of endless tributaries, flood
plains . . . or . . . some vast web of interconnected strands. In
smoothly flowing, evocative text, Hobson introduces recent approaches to
topiary, ranging from an amateur's gravity-free South Carolina garden
to the professionally developed, extraordinary topiary in the French
Marqueyssac Garden, captured poetically in the early morning fog.
Deciduous hedges segue from screens to architecture: arches forming
gateways, buttresses creating seating bays, crenelated battlements
defining fortifications, and sophisticated, bare-trunked, raised hedges
elegantly lining a garden thoroughfare. Hobson presents examples of
Asian aesthetics that involved microcosms of nature created without
removing plants from their natural state, as with Western pruning, but
instead manipulating and enhancing that natural state. A love affair
with living sculpture, this coffee-table book exceeds expectations with
how-to diagrams, tips on maintenance and tools, and a list of references
accompanying genuinely breathtaking full-color photos.
(Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)
Request
The Art of Creative Pruning from the catalog.
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