Modern Garden Writing: Book Featuring Top Modern Authors

The Gardener's Bedside Reader (Kari Cornell, editor) makes for a fine companion piece to Merilyn Simonds' anthology of classic garden writing featuring authors such as Gertrude Jekyll. If I had two choose between these two garden writing collections, I'd have to give the nod to Cornell's book: the garden writing is engaging, and the images (photos, plant illustrations, vintage advertisements) alluring. But such a choice really amounts to comparing apples to oranges, as Simond's book is meant to appeal more to the historically minded.

Despite bearing a title that would make the Sandman proud, don't count on The Gardener's Bedside Reader to put you to sleep. Far from it. One compelling piece of garden writing follows another in this collection.

The book is thematically organized into six chapters. For instance, the theme of Chapter 6 is the garden as an agent for mental healing. This chapter is reminiscent of some of the stories in Carolyn Freas Rapp's Garden Voices. I found the chapter inspirational except for the last entry, which, although trying to end on a high note, came across as gloomy and not in keeping with the good-natured spirit of the rest of the book.

But this garden writing collection really peaks in Chapter 5, "Ode to a Flower." Do you need evidence that people can be in love with this or that type of plant? Look no further than the five testimonies in this chapter, each devoted to extolling the virtues of a particular plant. There are two entries for the rose, and one each for tulips, lilies and orchids. I found the stories on tulips and orchids especially spell-binding. In fact, the few pages here on the subject of orchids left with me a greater fascination for the subject than did an entire book on growing wild orchids that I had reviewed earlier!

If you're really intent on going to sleep with a copy of The Gardener's Bedside Reader in your hands, then you'd better stick to browsing the images, which include photos, antique plant illustrations and vintage advertisements from companies such as Burpee's. The images may soothe your nerves enough to coax forty winks or so out of you, but I'd advise against reading the text. These provocative stories will only keep you up all night, thinking....