The Potting Shed Papers - Charles Elliott

In a fresh crop of funny, pungent and unpredictable essays, American Charles Elliot shifts his gaze beyond his adopted home of Britain, "the world's largest potting shed", to observe the gardens and gardening habits of some of the rest of the world.

From the Japanese craze for the Ingurishu Gaaden - the English garden - to the Dutch facility for cultivating myriad plant species from the 18th century, Elliot brings life to these episodes in horticultural history.

He introduces great plant hunters such as the interpid Pere Delavay and the oddball John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman, and takes the reader to places as diverse as Cincinnati, Ohio to the jungle-choked gorges and valleys of the eastern flank of the Andes in search of the Fever Bark Tree.