Penelope Hobhouse's Gardening Through the Ages: An Illustrated History of Plants and Their Influence on Garden Styles-From Ancient Egypt to the Pres

Rating:
Summary: More of a text book than a coffee table book
Review: Every page is packed with color plates and useful (fun) information on gardening.
Contents:
* The origins of Gardening in the West
* The Gardens of Islam
* The Medieval Gardens of Christendom
* Botanists, Plantsmen and Gardens of Renaissance Europe
* The Gardens of the Italian Renaissance
* The Origin and Development of French Formality
* The Eighteenth-century English Landscape
* Expansion and Experiment in the Nineteenth Century
* The twentieth Century: Conservation of Plants in Gardening

If you are a Brother Cadfael fan you will appreciate the section on "Medieval Gardens of Christendom."