Track My Order
Help Centre
1300 187 187
Likes
My Wish ListsLogin / Join
Booktopia
Australia's local bookstore
The Brother Gardeners : Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession - Andrea Wulf

The Brother Gardeners

Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession

By: Andrea Wulf

Paperback | 5 February 2009 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback

$33.80

or 4 interest-free payments of $8.45 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

A wonderfully readable investigation of the origins of the modern garden in 18th-century England. Popular history at its finest.

One January morning in 1734, cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London’s Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram in the American colonies. But it was not bales of cotton that awaited him, but plants and seeds…

Over the next forty years, Bartram would send hundreds of American species to England, where Collinson was one of a handful of men who would foster a national obsession and change the gardens of Britain forever: Philip Miller, author of the bestselling Gardeners Dictionary; the Swede Carl Linnaeus, whose standardised botanical nomenclature popularised botany; the botanist-adventurer Joseph Banks and his colleague Daniel Solander who both explored the strange flora of Tahiti and Australia on Captain Cook’s Endeavour.

This is the story of these men – friends, rivals, enemies, united by a passion for plants. Set against the backdrop of the emerging empire and the uncharted world beyond, The Brother Gardeners tells the story how Britain became a nation of gardeners.

About the Author

Andrea Wulf was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art and is the author of The Brother Gardeners (longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize 2008 and winner of the American Horticultural Society 2010 Book Award), The Founding Gardeners, Chasing Venus and the co-author (with Emma Gieben-Gamal) of This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History. She has written for The New York Times, theGuardian, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and many others.

She lives in London.
Industry Reviews
This absorbing and delightful book about 18th-century botanists stands out among histories of plant hunting ... Works superbly -- Jenny Uglow * Sunday Telegraph *
Rounded, generous and exhaustively researched ... She is very adept at telling a good story, and in the history and origins of gardening she has found the perfect vehicle ... An excellent, hugely entertaining and instructive tale, and Wulf tells it very well -- Mark Cocker * The Guardian *
Wondrous ... I have learned so much from her book -- Jon Snow, Channel Four News
A delightful book ... Remarkably vivid -- Adrian Tinniswood
Engrossing ... A gripping story, told here with grace and aplomb -- Tim Richardson * Country Life *

You Can Find This Book In

Non-FictionBiographies & True Stories BiographiesScience, Technology & Medicine BiographiesScienceBiology, Life SciencesBotany & Plant SciencesHistorySpecific Events & Topics in HistorySocial & Cultural HistoryGardeningGardens (Pictures, Descriptions, History)
Specialised Gardening MethodsGardening With Native PlantsEngineering & TechnologyAgriculture & FarmingCommercial Horticulture

More in Gardening With Native Plants

Costa's World : Gardening for the soil, the soul and the suburbs - Costa Georgiadis

Costa's World

Gardening for the soil, the soul and the suburbs

Flexi Bound Book

RRP $45.00

$37.25

17%
OFF
Yates Garden Guide ANZ Edition - Yates

Yates Garden Guide ANZ Edition

Paperback

RRP $45.00

$37.25

17%
OFF
Creating an Australian Garden - Angus Stewart

Creating an Australian Garden

Paperback

RRP $39.99

$37.95

Native : Art and Design with Australian Native Plants - Kate Herd

Native

Art and Design with Australian Native Plants

Paperback

RRP $39.99

$35.35

12%
OFF
The Herb Almanac : A seasonal guide to medicinal plants - Chelsea Physic Garden

The Herb Almanac

A seasonal guide to medicinal plants

Hardcover

RRP $34.99

$31.75

Growing Bromeliads - Bromeliad Society of Australia

Growing Bromeliads

Paperback

RRP $35.00

$31.75

How to Do It in the Garden - Sabrina Hahn

How to Do It in the Garden

Paperback

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
Luxe Nature - Orchids : Luxe Nature - Reed New Holland Publishers

Luxe Nature - Orchids

Luxe Nature

Hardcover

$22.25

500 Plants : Great Australian Favourites for Your Garden - Angus Stewart

500 Plants

Great Australian Favourites for Your Garden

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$34.80

Outside In : A Year of Growing & Displaying - Sean A Pritchard

Outside In

A Year of Growing & Displaying

Hardcover

RRP $69.99

$63.90

Everyday Permaculture : Sustainable Living For Every Space - Anna Matilda Gibbons

Everyday Permaculture

Sustainable Living For Every Space

Flexi Bound Book

RRP $42.99

$36.75

15%
OFF
Lawns Into Meadows, 2nd Edition : Growing a Regenerative Landscape - Owen Wormser

Lawns Into Meadows, 2nd Edition

Growing a Regenerative Landscape

Paperback

RRP $47.50

$37.80

20%
OFF

This product is categorised by

Popular Searches