The Well-Tempered Garden

“I was just glancing at this book again this afternoon, and what I like about it is that it is full of information and no waffle. I know for a fact that he used to be holding the thing that he was describing in his hands. It could be a flower, leaf or fruit, and he would be describing it just as he saw it, rather than looking it up anywhere else.” Read more...

The best books on Gardening

Helen Dillon, Gardeners & Gardening Expert

“Christopher Lloyd was a life-long gentleman gardener, who wrote a column for The Observer. He was a flamboyant agent provocateur. Not only was he incredibly knowledgeable, he enjoyed winding people up and he knew exactly what he was doing. His garden at Great Dixter was a monument to his gardening skills and sometimes outrageous ideas. Any time someone said, ‘You should colour-coordinate,’ he would do the opposite: ‘I’m going to put orange with purple.’ The title of his book is slightly ironic, I think – The Well-Tempered Garden – because he was rather more interested in making bold and daring statements. He also had the courage to say, ‘This plant is a waste of space.’ I don’t always agree with him but I like the way he says it.” Read more...

The best books on Plants and Plant Hunting

Kenneth Cox, Biologist

“When I first met Christopher Lloyd and read him – he wrote so extraordinarily well and he was so knowledgeable – his work, and The Well-Tempered Garden in particular, had a profound impact on me. He was ahead of a lot of people in doing things – to take just one example, he experimented with wild gardening in grass.” Read more...

The best books on Horticultural Inspiration

Penelope Hobhouse, Gardeners & Gardening Expert