The Plant Hunters: Two Hundred Years of Adventure and Discovery Around the World by Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner, and Will Musgrave
Extreme Gardening
Mommy, where do monkey puzzle trees come from? Or how about the
Douglas fir or Clematis Montana var.
rubens? Have you ever considered
where all our plants came from (other than a catalog)? The Plant Hunters: Two Hundred Years of
Adventure and Discovery Around the World by Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner, and Will Musgrave explores the
lives of brave men who scoured the world over to bring back those lovely plants
that thrive in your garden. Their quests to find plant specimens often put them
in perilous situations. In this fascinating book you’ll
find out how Ernest “Chinese” Wilson, the prolific plant hunter, got his “lily
limp.” You’d never guess this
mild-mannered looking man was actually a daring Indiana-Jones type who faced treacherous
rapids on the Yangtze River and narrow mountainous trails with dangerous
landslides. And speaking of Indiana
Jones, Frank Kingdon-Ward was also terrified of snakes, but that didn’t stop
him from conducting almost two dozen expeditions to exotic locales such as
Burma and Tibet. This was one hardy man.
He endured falling off a cliff, armies of leeches, malaria, being impaled
by a bamboo spike, and even survived an earthquake. And you thought you had a rough day at work. Discover
which plant collector was trampled to death when he fell into a pit that was
already inhabited by a bull. Follow the lives of both renowned Joes: Sir Joseph Banks and Sir Joseph Dalton
Hooker. In all, the lives of ten fearless explorers
are featured.
Although their action-packed lives seem movie-worthy, their
accounts are conveyed in a purely biographical format. It’s a “just-the-facts, ma’am”
style of writing with no flourishing descriptions, no glimpses into their
thoughts or emotions, no conversations to follow. Nevertheless, I found this book an eye-opening adventure
that made me look at the flowers in my garden in a whole new light.
Happy reading, happy gardening!
Annette
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