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The Virago Book of Women Gardeners
From diggers and weeders to artists and colorists, from writers and dreamers to trend-setters, and from plantswomen to landscape designers, women have contributed much to the world of gardening and gardens. Here Deborah Kellaway, author of The Making of an English Country Garden and Favourite Flowers, has collected extracts from the 18th century to the present day, to create a book that is replete with anecdotes and good-humored advice. Colette, Margery Fish, Germaine Greer, Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, Vita Sackville-West, Rosemary Verey, Edith Wharton, and Dorothy Wordsworth are some of the writers represented in this book.
274 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
May 26, 2015
A collection of extracts about gardening, written by different women – from Germaine Greer getting angsty about rabbits, to Sylvia Plath on the joys of setting up bee hives, to Clare Leighton on the pleasures of digging up potatoes.
I was given this book a few weeks back, and it couldn’t have been more fortuitous. It is spring, and I desperately need to fall in love with gardening again.
Many of the woman writing in this anthology do so with a delicious sensuality. Gertrude Jekyll devotes a long paragraph of one sentence to the delights of the fig
“To pass the hand among the leaves of the Fig tree, noting they are a little harsh upon the upper surface and yet soft beneath; to be aware of their faint dusky scent; to see the cracking of the coat of the fruit and the yellowing of the neck where it joins the branch - the two indication of ripeness - sometimes made clearer by the drop of honeyed moisture at the eye; then the handling of the fruit itself, which must needs be gentle because the tender coat is so readily bruised and torn; at the same time observing the slight greyish bloom and the colouring - low-toned transitions of purple and green...
Elizabeth von Arnim is another who makes gardens light up
“And over there, how hot the poppies were already beginning to look – blazing back boldly in the face of the sun, flashing back fire for fire. I crossed the wet grass to the hammock under the beech on the lawn, and lay in it while trying to swing in time to the nightingale’s tune.”
Even winter is enjoyed, here by Norah Lindsay
“The lean winter days have their button-hold in the starry, lemon jasmine, the mysterious pale flowers of Chimonanthus fragrans, and the frail candles of the various crocus species. If there is the slightest interval between hailstorm and snowstorm, the bare ground is immediately powdered with a hundred thousand aconites, their golden blobs frilled elegantly in the newest green, while cyclamen unwind from winter sleep and the pale hellebores raise freckled faces to the new year.
The book is also full of good tips - how to look after cut flowers, how to take hellebore cuttings, how to make a water feature of a half barrel of water, even a description of the esoteric practice of growing sea-kale. Plus the queen of gardening in hostile places - Beth Chatto - discusses some of her achievements.
I found the book very rich – far too rich to read for hours on end. Luckily it is perfectly designed for reading in snips.
Has it made me fall in love with gardening again? No.....those days are gone. Life in the garden is far more prosaic for me now. It was a good book to read though, even though I was reading about other people’s passions. It made me remember the time when I enjoyed the intensity of those passions too.
I was given this book a few weeks back, and it couldn’t have been more fortuitous. It is spring, and I desperately need to fall in love with gardening again.
Many of the woman writing in this anthology do so with a delicious sensuality. Gertrude Jekyll devotes a long paragraph of one sentence to the delights of the fig
“To pass the hand among the leaves of the Fig tree, noting they are a little harsh upon the upper surface and yet soft beneath; to be aware of their faint dusky scent; to see the cracking of the coat of the fruit and the yellowing of the neck where it joins the branch - the two indication of ripeness - sometimes made clearer by the drop of honeyed moisture at the eye; then the handling of the fruit itself, which must needs be gentle because the tender coat is so readily bruised and torn; at the same time observing the slight greyish bloom and the colouring - low-toned transitions of purple and green...
Elizabeth von Arnim is another who makes gardens light up
“And over there, how hot the poppies were already beginning to look – blazing back boldly in the face of the sun, flashing back fire for fire. I crossed the wet grass to the hammock under the beech on the lawn, and lay in it while trying to swing in time to the nightingale’s tune.”
Even winter is enjoyed, here by Norah Lindsay
“The lean winter days have their button-hold in the starry, lemon jasmine, the mysterious pale flowers of Chimonanthus fragrans, and the frail candles of the various crocus species. If there is the slightest interval between hailstorm and snowstorm, the bare ground is immediately powdered with a hundred thousand aconites, their golden blobs frilled elegantly in the newest green, while cyclamen unwind from winter sleep and the pale hellebores raise freckled faces to the new year.
The book is also full of good tips - how to look after cut flowers, how to take hellebore cuttings, how to make a water feature of a half barrel of water, even a description of the esoteric practice of growing sea-kale. Plus the queen of gardening in hostile places - Beth Chatto - discusses some of her achievements.
I found the book very rich – far too rich to read for hours on end. Luckily it is perfectly designed for reading in snips.
Has it made me fall in love with gardening again? No.....those days are gone. Life in the garden is far more prosaic for me now. It was a good book to read though, even though I was reading about other people’s passions. It made me remember the time when I enjoyed the intensity of those passions too.
July 31, 2017
What a lovely book!
An anthology of writing from Women Gardeners, including famous important people through to comments in novels.
A blissfully read and led me to look again at some wonderful writers.
An anthology of writing from Women Gardeners, including famous important people through to comments in novels.
A blissfully read and led me to look again at some wonderful writers.
March 14, 2010
The Virago Book of Women Gardeners is a treasury of women's garden writing wide in scope. The anthology is helpfully grouped into sections should you want to dip in, though I had just as much fun reading from start to finish. For dream-value I took great pleasure in reading about some of the grand stately gardens of our time but by far my favourite sections were, Dawn MacLeod's 'A Child's Garden of Seeds' (p232) about a five-year-old's joy at carefully planning and planting out a small plot; and also the sheer determination of Hester Mallin (p152) attempting a garden on the twenty-third floor of a tower block in East London.
March 6, 2023
This book really fed my soul. I have noticed over the years that no matter what, in any book or story or poem, I love reading beautiful descriptions of nature, and this is essentially an anthology full of excerpts of women writing about their gardens and their feelings about them and getting their hands dirty and weeds and their indecision over which flower to plant where, etc. I read it all in a day and it made me want to read more writing about gardening. There's a helpful bibliography at the end that I'll be using to start off.
Part of the real joy of this reading experience stopping every few pages to search latin names of plants I'd never even heard of, and eventually painting a picture of the garden in my head once I had the visual. So pretty. Weirdly moving, too! But I'm kind of a sap...
My only critique is that the name of each author is listed only after the excerpt—weird editing thing but didn't take away from my enjoyment of it. Highly recommend.
Part of the real joy of this reading experience stopping every few pages to search latin names of plants I'd never even heard of, and eventually painting a picture of the garden in my head once I had the visual. So pretty. Weirdly moving, too! But I'm kind of a sap...
My only critique is that the name of each author is listed only after the excerpt—weird editing thing but didn't take away from my enjoyment of it. Highly recommend.
September 1, 2020
Purchase The Virago book of Women Gardeners here for just $12!
Women's gardening writing at its finest - Authors include Hester Mallin, Germaine Greer and Sylvia Plath. Beautifully illustrated throughout with colour photographs and paintings a must for any women’s literature lover and gardener alike.
Alison - The Book Grocer
Women's gardening writing at its finest - Authors include Hester Mallin, Germaine Greer and Sylvia Plath. Beautifully illustrated throughout with colour photographs and paintings a must for any women’s literature lover and gardener alike.
Alison - The Book Grocer
July 21, 2020
Pleasant compendium of short bits of garden writings by women. Is it only me that is infuriated by all extracts having the author and date only at the end? If I'm going to read several pages of something I would like to know what it is beforehand. Otherwise I'll be there judging something as hackneyed gardening tips that everyone knows...and then finding out it was written in the 1880s and was totally cutting edge. The quality varies as you would expect, and moves between practical gardening tips and poetry.
February 2, 2019
Fun and it got my gardening juices flowing.
January 24, 2021
Such a wide diversity of women gardeners/writers and each one with another bit of inspiration/frustration to get gardening again . Working in the greenhouse just isn’t the same . Roll on Spring.
January 22, 2024
Exquisite and one I’ll be returning to for the rest of my life however long it may be. I had to pause regularly to google what some of the plants were, it was a real education and very inspiring.
March 30, 2024
Loved this book of eclectic gardening writing; many pieces I haven’t encountered before. A really joyful and interesting read - a good one to reread in future.
December 16, 2025
3.5 stars
An interesting book, one i would not have picked up if it had not been part of my advent calendar. The sort of book you can dip in and out of rather than reading it in one sitting.
An interesting book, one i would not have picked up if it had not been part of my advent calendar. The sort of book you can dip in and out of rather than reading it in one sitting.
January 18, 2018
One of the most inspiring books on the craft of garden making and flower cognition. I especially enjoyed the humorous style captured in notes of gardeners that shared their thoughts not only about planting seeds. I recommend this book for all natural world enthusiasts and those who care about wisdom sharing - there is a lot of it in between the lines. Enjoy! :)
July 26, 2012
I love this book. You can open it to any page and find a word of advice, a cautionary note, or just a good old fashioned idea. The way the book is set up allows the reader to jump into whichever section seems most interesting at the moment.
November 5, 2021
A pretty anthology. Mostly very well chosen pieces, although there were a few that were essentially an unimaginative list of latin. Also some very well chosen gardens, covering not just great estates but some very interesting spaces.
January 8, 2013
Still reading, but it is a great pleasure to revisit some of the garden writers I grew up with.
June 7, 2012
Thoroughly enjoyable!
May 3, 2013
Boring, boring, boring. Disjointed and ill-thought-out and nonsensical. With great relief I relegate it to the So-Bad-I-Gve-Up shelf.
May 2, 2014
Not exciting but good for dipping into
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews