{"id":84,"date":"2008-03-10T04:41:05","date_gmt":"2008-03-10T12:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=84"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:24","slug":"book-review-beautiful-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/book-review-beautiful-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Beautiful Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOK REVIEW:\u00a0BEAUTIFUL MADNESS<\/em><\/font><\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Veteran writer James Dodson used to have a single passion–golf.\u00a0 As a golf writer, he also had a dream job, traveling the world to interview golfers and play the great courses.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But when the North Carolina-born Dodson and his wife bought a piece of property in Maine over twenty-five years ago, the seed of another passion began to sprout.\u00a0 That passion was gardening and it eventually led Dodson to spend a year exploring–literally and figuratively–the gardening world.\u00a0 Dodson chronicles that year in his book, Beautiful Madness<\/em>, which came out last year in paperback (Penguin, 2007) <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dodson acquired a genetic susceptibility to the horticultural bug from his mother, an avid gardener.\u00a0 Early on in the book it becomes clear that his search for gardening knowledge is also an attempt to reconnect with his roots and make up for the well-meaning, but possibly unnecessary gesture that finally separated his elderly mother from her home ground.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

The author’s desire to create an English-style garden on his Maine acreage took shape when he began encountering great gardens during golf-related trips to England.\u00a0 In Maine he made friends with Suzanne Verrier, author, rosarian and all-around garden maven.\u00a0 It was Verrier who suggested that he begin his serious gardening education with a trip to the “mother of all gardening shows”\u009d–the Philadelphia Flower Show.<\/font><\/p>\n

Like most people, Dodson is awestruck by his first glimpses of the show.\u00a0 He gets the inside scoop on the horticultural extravaganza from people like Walt Fisher, a veteran show exhibitor, whom he calls “the Botticelli of Bulbs.”\u009d \u00a0Going behind the scenes, he also creates sharply etched portraits of all kinds of plant people, from the orchid grower who tries to convince Dodson that he is ripe to become an orchid fanatic, to an enigmatic Englishman who may or may not be trafficking in contraband cycads.<\/font><\/p>\n

While in the Philadelphia area, Dodson makes a detour to Bartram’s Garden, America’s oldest first botanic garden.\u00a0 Horticultural history intersects with self discovery when he meets a fellow visitor who is there to scatter his late wife’s ashes.<\/font><\/p>\n

Dodson’s also makes frequent stopovers at his home in Maine, consorting with singular Down East characters including Verrier and “Pothead Eddy”\u009d, an occasionally reliable excavation contractor whom Dodson employs to do earthmoving on his property.<\/font><\/p>\n

Early in his travels, the author stops off in Boston to meet estimable garden club doyenne Polly Logan, and makes a sentimental journey to North Carolina to visit “Sweet Alice”\u009d Brown, an elderly African American woman and friend of his mother’s.\u00a0 Sweet Alice, though robbed of her short term memory by dementia, has complete recall of her celebrated former garden and her old friends.\u00a0 Dodson takes her on a sentimental journey to her old homestead, only to find that it has become completely overgrown and rundown.\u00a0 This bothers him much more than it bothers Sweet Alice, whose aging mind allows her the privilege of returning again and again to an unspoiled garden of memories.<\/font><\/p>\n

In search of more garden history, the author makes a pilgrimage to Monticello, delving into the horticultural passions of Thomas Jefferson.\u00a0 He also goes to Delaware to visit Winterthur, the magnificent home and garden of Henry Francis DuPont.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Of course, no exploration of the world of gardening would be complete without a dedicated trip to England and a tour of the Chelsea Flower Show.\u00a0 Dodson is duly impressed by Chelsea, but decides that the Philadelphia show is more to his taste.\u00a0 He also spends a memorable afternoon with English garden writer Mirabel Osler, whose book, A Gentle Plea for Chaos, <\/em>has become a gardening classic.\u00a0 Osler’s garden, chock-full of all kinds of plants and embodying the kind of barely controlled “chaos”\u009d described in her book, inspires the author more than his visit to Chelsea. <\/font><\/p>\n

To cap his year of discovery, Dodson goes on a hair-raising plant hunting expedition in South Africa with a group that includes fellow North Carolinian Tony Avent, noted nurseryman and owner of the Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden.\u00a0 South Africa, home to myriad species of flowering plants, is a revelation to the author.\u00a0 Vivid descriptions of the country’s natural beauty and the incredible richness of the plant life are in sharp contrast with portrayals of South Africa’s serious social, environmental and political problems in the aftermath of apartheid. <\/font><\/p>\n

The year ends as Dodson revisits the Philadelphia Flower show and renews his friendships with its denizens.\u00a0 In the final chapter, the road to horticultural knowledge finally leads him back to North Carolina and a memorable encounter in his mother’s former garden.<\/font><\/p>\n

Beautiful Madness<\/em> has the hallmarks of a great garden memoir, providing the reader with a revealing looks at the symbiotic process by which gardening adds richness to the author’s life and life experience adds depth to his passion for gardening.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOOK REVIEW:\u00a0BEAUTIFUL MADNESS \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Veteran writer James Dodson used to have a single passion–golf.\u00a0 As a golf writer, he also had a dream job, traveling the world to interview golfers and play the great courses. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But when the North Carolina-born Dodson and his wife bought a piece of property in Maine over twenty-five … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1696,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/1696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}