First Ladies of Gardening

A beautiful exploration of the 14 most important female gardeners of the last 100 years, tracing a line from Vita Sackville-West, Rosemary Verey and Beth Chatto to the contemporary exemplars Gill Richardson, Rosanna James and Sue Whittington.

The English Garden is the universal measure of all things related to garden design. It is in the UK that the great garden designers live and work and where a major gardening movement has developed over the last few decades, influencing the rest of the world with its ideas and vision. This book introduces the “grandes dames” of contemporary English garden design and includes the great names of the garden world which have emerged since the 1950s, from Vita Sackville-West and Beth Chatto to Beatrix Havergal. It also presents outstanding women gardeners of the present-day who have likewise had a substantial influence on the development of contemporary garden design. Heidi Howcroft has discovered these women’s gardening secrets and writes sensitively and informatively about the individual women and their influence on the English country garden. The individual gardens' charm and design are captured in photos by Marianne Majerus.