Secret Gardens

by Claire Masset

Collected here are stunning photographs of the National Trust’s idiosyncratic gardens, accompanied by a light text meditating on the magic of the secret garden, and bringing in fascinating historical and botanical details. This book includes secret mazes, hidden corners, walled gardens, lost gardens, gardens that are only open one day a year, follies, orchards, dens, memorials, strange statues, stumperies, huts, ice houses, wendy houses, fairy gates, and pixie houses. The gardens featured include the palm-filled Overbeck’s in Devon; Peckover House in Cambridgeshire, which bursts with exotic specimens found on Victorian plant-hunting expeditions; and Monk’s House in East Sussex, where the garden proved a refuge for Virginia Woolf.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference, Photography

208 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2017

Reviews

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A picture book of heaven for garden lovers! Gorgeous photography that transports you to these magical garden as well as a nice little blurb working as a mini tour guide to each. Ugh....if only teleportation was a thing. I'd spend my days in these beautiful refuges.

[Ray's Artshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradise behind old walls. Luckily individual varieties are mentioned where appropriate, so that you can, for example, track down a dreamy rosa 'Gloire Lyonnaise' like that in the garden at Fenton House.

I could look at the picture on p.107, of roses in a fifteenth-century courtyard in Wiltshire, until the proverbial cows come home.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful photos and stories about some of the gardens in England ! I now want to travel to see these beautiful gardens! I enjoyed reading the stories behind the development of the homes and gardens and how designs were chosen to enhance the settings.

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful photographs. Enough detail and photographs on each garden discussed that you can picture it.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book about gardens.