|The Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Conifers - an incredible piece of work by two devotees.|
These volumes are monumental in size and weight, but also in content. The work is truly encyclopaedic, describing all known conifer species (615) plus (by the authors' own count) a staggering 8185 cultivars, of which 4795 are illustrated. There has been nothing like it in scope before and it is difficult to imagine such a work ever being produced again - on paper, at least.
|The images - here in one of no fewer than eight spreads featuring Chamaecyparis pisifera - are generously sized.|
|Multiple images of Picea abies 'Rydal',|
with its beautiful spring flush of red shoots.
Inevitably the descriptions are succinct, but each contains a useful note on the characters that distinguish a cultivar or species, and a particular effort was made to include information on the origins and/or originators of each cultivar described. This in itself is a major achievement by the two authors. Aris Auders is a Latvian conifer enthusiast, while Derek Spicer is a British conifer nurseryman based in Leicestershire, and a colleague on the RHS Woody Plant Committee. Between them their knowledge, as revealed in this work, is immense, and they must be saluted for producing a truly exceptional reference to their favourite group of plants.
Inevitably this is not a cheap book, being offered by the RHS bookshop or through the dedicated website www.coniferworld.com for £149, but at 1507 pages this works out at a fraction over 10p per page - I think that it's actually a bargain at this price. There are two other recent two-volume conifer books on the market at present: A Handbook of the World's Conifers by Aljos Farjon (£195), which is strictly botanical and sparsely illustrated, and Debreczy et al's Conifers Around the World (c. £200), which has a magnificent set of images of wild species. J. Eckenwalder's Conifers of the World is only one volume, and only £45, but largely illustrated, unbelievably, in monochrome.
Conifers are sadly derided and generally ignored by the current crop of horticultural trendsetters, but this book will show anyone what a wonderful contribution they make to the garden, and I think that anyone with an interest in the diversity of garden plants needs a copy.
|The diversity of conifers on display at Bedgebury National Pinetum|