Val Bourne on which gardening books will make the best presents for Christmas

It is now that everyone’s thoughts turn to Christmas. Soon I shall begin to receive the usual frantic emails from the husbands of my gardening friends — along the lines of what on earth can I get her this year.

Usually I’m as stumped as they are, but this year there is a solution — albeit rather a pricey one. There’s a worldwide compendium featuring 250 gardens entitled The Gardener’s Garden. published by Phaidon Press, price £49.93. Described by Alan Titchmarsh as “weighty and wonderful”, a description I so wish I’d thought of, this book will allow the armchair gardener to flick from the formality of Villandry in the Loire valley of France, to the snow-flakes and blossom of the Japanese garden Kenrokuen. Thoroughly different, but each in a class of their own.

I’m not usually in favour of vast gardening books: they’re too difficult to read in bed, or flop on a couch with. However, this book, compiled by garden designer Madison Cox, is an exception. For one thing the photography is exceptional and it captures the spirit of each garden using a minimal number of pictures. The photographic credits include luminaries like Andrew Lawson, Clive Nichols and Andrea Jones among many others. The matt reproduction, on good paper, is a joy to handle and, having just judged one book category for The Garden Media Guild this year, I know all about poor paper and muffed shots.

This is a visual delight, clearly laid out so that each garden gets one, two or four pages. It follows a strict format so it isn’t busy because all the pictures are similar in size, with a short column of text to the left. The choice of British gardens includes the usual suspects including Hidcote Manor, Sissinghurst and Great Dixter. However, we also have Veddw House in Monmouthshire, the four-acre garden of Charles Hawes and Anne Wareham. This highly creative garden relies on a strong framework of flowing hedges that mimic the rolling Welsh hills. The plants fight it out in the borders and some of the tidy ‘parks and gardens’ brigade have been critical in the past. However, I’ve always found it inspiring and interesting and, crucially, it nestles into the landscape like a cat in front of an open fire. The book describes Veddw House as an Alice in Wonderland garden because it can be disorientating. It talks of a living sculpture filled with robust plants, happy mostly to look after themselves. With two gardeners managing four acres it can’t be too prim and proper and you need to look at the bigger picture, not the detail. It has its own personality.

Alnwick Castle is also there. Rubbished by so many, I was reluctant even to go. When I did, I loved it. It reminded me of the Pleasure Gardens round Marrakech with its steps, cascade and fountains leading up the slope. And it was packed with families too, despite the blustery March weather, with many of them being season ticket holders.

The text captures the controversy the design provoked and aptly uses the word theatrical to sum up the style. Most of the text cuts straight to the chase, with an experienced team of writers that includes Barbara Segall and Noel Kingsbury.

I’m able to relive the gardens I have visited over the years including Keukenhof in Holland. I can take in the naturalised tulips of Insel Mainau on the shores of Lake Constance and once again feel the warmth of the Majorelle Garden in Marrakech, with its blue and yellow Moorish buildings. This is a book I shall relish for many a year!

Other suitable books include The Plant Lover’s Snowdrop Guide by Naomi Slade, published by Timber Press, £17.99. Designed for the British and American market, this well-researched book contains tried and tested information but lacks the insider knowledge of what grows well and, more importantly, what does not! Cut flower books abound this year, but I really like The Cut Flower Patch by Louise Curley with fantastic photography by Jason Ingrams. This girl grows her own cut flowers. It is published by Frances Lincoln at £20 and would please most gardeners. On a practical note I also love Darlac’s carbon steel Perennial Handshears, pictured here, priced £14.99.

They are rather like large secateurs (darlac.com/ 01753 547790).