The Quest for Shakespeare’s Garden

Art historian and garden expert Strong (A Country Life: At Home in the English Countryside) pieces together an account of how Shakespeare’s rich use of plant imagery has inspired eclectic gardens all around the world and helped pave way for the development of garden conservation and restoration as field of study. The book looks specifically at historian Ernest Law’s 1922 attempt to design a historically accurate garden at New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare resided in the last years of his life, and the subsequent proliferation of “Shakespeare’s gardens”of varying degrees around the globe there after. Sometimes these gardens are nothing more than the plants mentioned in the plays plopped on a plot, though Strong makes a point of wagging his fingers at the lazy listers who just go from aconite to yew and call it done. His opinions—sometimes snippy—reflect his learning, but he shares in delight, never seeming braggadocious. Strong spills stories as if seated by a fireplace after a banquet, and his prose layers fine, formal English over the crisp, juicy histories that he’s expertly researched. Glossy pages of quotes from Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets complement Strong’s words, as do illustrations from collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Color illus. (Jan.)