RHS Plant Monographs

Offering total knowledge of the topics they cover, the first RHS Plant Monographs for more than half a century mark a new era in horticultural and scientific publishing. These beautifully produced volumes include not only comprehensive information about wild species but unparalleled coverage of the cultivars which enrich our gardens. Telling tales of people and places, these books further appreciation of every aspect of plants.

Lathyrus is a genus for all gardeners, from the dainty woodland species of spring to the spectacular summer sweet peas. This book covers them all, with 150 species, more than 500 fully illustrated cultivars and a checklist of 1,200 plant names. It is a book to treasure that skillfully marries the botany, ecology, classification and wild distribution of these plants with the breeding and domestication that has further added to their diversity.

Saturated with colour, colchicums are the spirit of ebullience. In this astonishing work, extending to 550 pages, all 119 species are covered, accompanied by 220 images and a further 80 cultivars. Chapters on plant exploration and breeding explain the great diversity of colchicums in gardens today. A checklist of all scientific and cultivar names concludes this book that provides a complete botanical and horticultural account of these charismatic plants.

Appearing like plants from a fairytale, Wisteria is perhaps the most stunning of all hardy genera. The authors have done full justice to their subject matter with a beautifully illustrated, meticulously researched, eminently readable volume. Features lavishly detailed accounts of all four species and nearly 100 cultivars and further chapters on breeding, botany, use in Oriental art, propagation and cultivation over nearly 300 fact-packed pages.

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Ivies are extraordinarily diverse plants, ecologically essential in wild habitats as they are in manmade urban environments. In this book all 12 species are described and illustrated alongside 200 of the cultivars and a checklist of more than 2,000 other names. Also included in this 430-page work are fascinating sections on ivies in decorative arts, folklore and medicine, botany, evolutionary history and advice on cultivation and propagation.

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Kniphofia is among the most naturally ornamental genera for temperate gardens. This beautifully produced book includes all 70 species as well as illustrations and full descriptions of more than 160 cultivars and a checklist of all scientific and horticultural names with raisers and dates. Combined with this, the sections on botany, history, breeding and cultivation make this the most comprehensive work on the genus ever produced.

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