Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

Volume 12, Number 3
(May 2010)


Elizabeth Abbott. Sugar: A Bittersweet History. New York: Overlook Press, 2009.

Helena Attlee. The Gardens of Japan. London: Frances Lincoln, 2010.

Matthew Biggs. The Complete Book of Vegetables: The Ultimate Guide to Growing, Cooking, and Eating Vegetables. Revised edition. Buffalo, N.Y.: Firefly Books, 2010.

James Bruges. The Biochar Debate: Charcoal’s Potential to Reverse Climate Change and Build Soil Fertility. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.

Richard C. Brusca, Mark A. Dimmitt, and George M. Montgomery (editors). Desert Gardens: A Photographic Tour of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Brentwood, Tenn.: Cool Springs Press, 2010.

Daniel Butler. How to Plant a Tree: A Simple Celebration of Trees & Tree-Planting Ceremonies. New York: Tarcher/Penguin, 2010.

Bradley Cantrell and Wes Michaels. Digital Drawing for Landscape Architecture: Contemporary Techniques and Tools for Digital Representation in Site Design. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2010.

Editors of Storey Publishing. The Vegetable Gardener’s Book of Building Projects. North Adams, Mass.: Storey Publishing, 2010.

Nancy Keeler. Gardens in Perpetual Bloom: Botanical Illustration in Europe and America 1600–1850. Boston: MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) Publications, 2009.

W. John Kress and Shirley Sherwood. The Art of Plant Evolution. Richmond, Surrey, U.K.: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (distributed in the U.S. by the University of Chicago Press), 2009.

Tim Newbury. The Ultimate Garden Designer. New edition, revised and updated. London: Hamlyn, 2009.

Emil Nolde. Emil Nolde: Mein Garten voller Blumen; My Garden full of Flowers. Seebüll, Germany: Nolde Stiftung, 2009.

Alec M. Pridgeon, Phillip J. Cribb, Mark W. Chase, and Finn N. Rasmussen (editors). Genera Orchidacearum, Volume 5: Epidendroideae (part two). New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Nick Romanowski. Planting Wetlands and Dams. Second edition. Collingwood, Victoria, Australia: Landlinks Press, 2009.

Carolyn Summers. Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East. Piscataway, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2010.

Lynette L. Walther. Florida Gardening on the Go. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2010.

Catherine Zandonella. Green Guide Families: The Complete Reference for Eco-friendly Parents. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2010.

Current Books is an internet-only journal reviewing new books about gardening, horticulture, and botany. Reviews cover a wide range of new literature in print and are written primarily by the staff and volunteers of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Please send your comments and suggestions to

Edward J. Valauskas
Editor, Current Books on Gardening & Botany
Lenhardt Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden