America’s Romance with the English Garden

"Mickey has thoughtfully woven together an American landscape design history with a critical examination of how commercial interests and mass media shape our preferences, even in our humble backyards." -Publishers Weekly "Mickey convincingly demonstrates how catalog companies used advances in color printing, rural postal service, and railroad networks to reach a mass audience, uniformly promote the English ideal, and create demand for their own products. Thoroughly researched and footnoted, the book includes examples from powerful and enduring catalogs such as Burpee's but also from lesser-known and regional seed companies, including some from the burgeoning West." -Library Journal "[Among] the year's best gardening books." -The Spectator "I loved this meticulously researched guide through the history of American gardening. It's fascinating to discover how much has changed in our gardens over the last 200 years, and how much has not." - Susan Harris. author of the award-winning blog Garden Rant "With colorful reproductions of original catalog artwork, this engaging book conveys a wonderful insight into how ... nursery companies had a profound and lasting influence on American garden design. There may be other books explaining America's enchantment with the English garden style, but none, I'm sure, match the scope or contents of this one." - Betty Earl. author of Fairy Gardens and In Search of Great Plants "A penetrating look at the standardized English garden's grip on the American imagination."-Ted Steinberg, author of American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn "This is an illuminating book packed with very readable results of dedicated and thoughtful research. It helps give a greater understanding of how and why English garden style has been admired in North America for such a long time." - Gardens Illustrated