Cover Image: The Gardener’s Palette

The Gardener’s Palette

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Member Reviews

Thank you so much to NG, the publisher, and the author for the ability to review a copy of this book in exchange for honest feedback. I read a lot of gardening books but consider myself to be a beginner in gardening knowledge application, if that makes sense. This book was a delightful collection of ideas to help jog some creativity for home gardeners. I found the designs and "palettes" to be visually appealing and engaging. There is a good range of information provided alongside the visual appeal, which helps to promote understanding of the gardens and what is needed to recreate these examples. I think the palette element sets this book apart from many others of similar contents. This is a great book for gardeners and plant lovers.

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A lovely book by the Royal Horticultural Society, though probably more enjoyable as information and beauty than as reference. The photographs are stunning, suggesting color palettes for various types and styles of floral fardens.

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I picked up ”The Gardener’s Palette” by Jo Thompson and the Royal Horticultural Society to advance my understanding of garden planning and over-sowing, especially across seasons. Whilst there are an astonishing number of colour palettes in the book, each with a description, list of plants, and beautiful photos, it didn’t quite meet my need. Each palette stands well alone but there is no guide on how go integrate them across a garden or through the season. There are relatively few Autumn and Winter palettes.

If you are looking for inspiration and colour combining guidance especially designed for Britain, this one may be for you. For me, its a three out of five on the enJOYment scale.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from Timber Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Thank you NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book.

The best part of this book is not the text but the amazing photographs of flowers and gardens.
If you are a gardener or flower enthusiast, you will love the pictures as well as the suggestions
for plant and color combinations for the garden.

There is much useful information contained in this book. It would be a reference gardening book that you could refer to time and time again as you looked for new and interesting combinations for your flower garden.

This book is a ‘must have’ for every flower gardener’s library.

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Another book that made wish I could start designing, planting, and working in the garden.
A feast for the eyes and a very useful/informtive guide.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

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Artistic spin to gardening

This is a unique gardening book, broken out by various color combinations as the chapters. Each chapter displays a color chart along with an introduction, highlighting information about the colors and flowers and providing examples of how it was interpreted by artists, gardeners and / or writers. There are large photographs of gardens depicting each color combination. This is then followed by individual photos of the plants / flowers along with a growth chart for each one; outlining type, height, spread, season, light, moisture, hardiness and soil pH.

I have owned or viewed several gardening books over the years and this one is one of the best. I am an artist, interested in plants and flowers as subject matter. This book is not only a great resource for a gardener wanting to learn how to design a garden with various color combinations, but is also a valuable resource for an artist seeking harmonious color combination ideas for their artwork.

Highly recommend!

(I was given a complimentary copy from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review)

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The Gardener's Palette comes from the venerable Royal Horticulture Society. It looks at gardens through the lens of color combinations. Palettes are from actual gardens; some famous, some not. Some even come from famous artwork. They are all stunning. There are numerous, quite beautiful, photos. Each palette is accompanied by a formal, eloquent, and descriptive essay discussing why that color combination works. If you are not in the mood for an essay, each palette is also encapsulated with a graph with all the vital information you need. It includes seasons, sunlight needed, the width and height of growth, and soil conditions, among other information. The resources at the end of the book suggest garden centers in the UK and US where flowers may be obtained. And photos. You cannot forget the photos. They are exquisite. While this book is priced a bit higher, it seems to be well worth the cost.

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Fabulous book and very helpful in growing and choosing plants for color and effect. I love a garden with lots of color in it but the blending needs to be pleasing to the eye and suite the effect one wants to create. With pages and pages of beautiful photographs of every color combinations imaginable, this is an easy book to read and very hard to put down. If only I had a big enough garden to have one of each.
A great book for small gardens or big, there is something for everyone.

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This is a beautiful book for any home gardener. IF you want to add pops of color to your garden this is the book for you. It gives you ideas of types of flowers and colors that will complement each other. These gardens have been designed by an award winning designer Jo Thompson. Everything you need to know to create lovely colorful gardens of your own are included in this book. A great addition to your library.

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This is a stunning book that showcases all different color palettes in the garden. It is put out by The Royal Horticultural Society and is best suited for UK gardeners and those in temperate regions of the U.S. It was frustrating for me as a Minnesota zone 4 gardener since there was not a single garden feature that included all plants that would grow in my zone. Some are only for much warmer areas in zones 8 or 9 but most will work if you are in around zone 6.

Tulips are heavily featured here, along with roses and irises. Many annuals are also featured, which means resowing annually of course. I also really wished I could see the same gardens in different seasons. What do they do in the peach and pink garden that's filled with spring flowers like tulips later in the year? Many of the perennials have a short bloom time, so how does the gardener get the same color scheme during the entire growing season? The gardens do feature flowers that bloom at different times, but I'd love to see the same garden in spring, summer and autumn to see how it changes.

Still, this is the ultimate garden eye candy book and the gardens featured are gorgeous. This is a great resource for visualizing how you want your garden to look color-wise.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Note: The cover of this book and the title on Net Galley is:

The Gardener’s Palette
Creating Colour Harmony in the Garden
by Jo Thompson; Royal Horticultural Society

Here on Goodreads, it is shelved as:

Colour in the Garden: 100 Planting Schemes, 450 Plant Recommendations
by Jo Thompson

This made it difficult to find without using the ISBN. The publisher may wish to update with the final title information.

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The Gardener’s Palette is a lushly illustrated and inspirational guide to colour harmony and garden design by Jo Thompson under the auspices of the RHS. Due out 5th July from Timber Press, it's 388 pages and will be available in hardcover format.

This is a visually stunning and superlatively written guide with specific design instructions and cultivar recommendations for gardeners like me who always buy too many seeds and plants, and wander around forlornly looking for a place to fit them. I've always *wanted* to have the sort of garden which works from a design standpoint, and this is certainly a helpful book for pulling together spaces into a working cohesive whole.

The book is arranged around specific palettes. Each of the chapters has an introduction and pantone palette bar along with a general introduction/theme followed by lots of photos. The photos include keys with very specific plant and cultivar information in table form. The plant information includes name, annual/perennial, height, spread, flowering season, and culture requirements.

The author has also included an abbreviated list of stockists and suppliers, mostly slanted toward readers in the UK and North America, a short bibliography, and a cross-referenced index. The abundant photography and meticulous cultivar notes are clearly the star of the show, however.

Five stars. This would be a superlative choice for public library acquisition, gardening clubs, and lovers of gardening.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Thank you, Timber Press, for the advance review copy.

This collection is like heaven for me!

The precious real pictures of the colourful flowers and their descriptions made me want to touch them. This collection is amazing for someone like me who's interested in gardening and flowering plants.

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Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I've read hundreds of gardening books, maybe more. I haven't read and viewed a gardening book that has given me this much uplifting joy. 'The Gardener's Palette' is the epitome of a gardening book. Its spectacular gorgeousness lets us swim in color, of why flowers and plants can awaken our souls, give them life and give those who love gardens the reason why we do. They create a magical place that can take our breath away and for some sit in a tranquil place to give respite to the soul. An oasis of peace away from the pain of the world, the harshness, gives soft beautiful light and an explosion of color that can cheer us up and put us in a better headspace.

The Gardener's Palette starts with a table of contents that you know just by reading it the reader is in for a treat. When I saw this book I knew it would be gorgeous but it was even more than I thought it would be. So many gardening books are the same ol same ol but this one knocks your socks off and wants you to see the soul of a garden. That magical spot every garden has. Cultivated or not.

The book as it is divided into complementary color palettes, it heads up with the color squares as if a designer would use talks about the plants used, their botanical name, zones, soil requirements, type, height, spread, and season, light, moisture and soil ph.

I lost my mind over 'Colour Love'. I now want to build a cottage and paint it buttercream yellow and plant all the color theories around that dwelling that this book conveys.

It's a stockpile of inspiration and motivation. Not that we all have the budget for these kinds of projects of these gardens pictured but giving one guidance on how we can create more beauty and put more beauty out into the world with just a little more thought of placement and color theory.

This book will be a treasured coffee table book for me when it comes out.

I would like to thank Net Galley, the publisher RHS for the opportunity to read and review this striking book of beauty.

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