New Garden Design, by Zahid Sardar

I was very enthusiastic about getting this book, because I have seen the garden pictured on the cover and loved it. The book does show some of the contemporary iconic gardens, such as the cover one by Bernard Trainor, Marcia Donohue's garden, and others by Roger Raiche, Andrea Cochran, Bob Clark, Ron Lutsko, etc. All of these are certainly powerful current designers of western gardens, appropriate for inspiration here in the Bay area. Still, I was a little disappointed. The photography, by Marion Brenner, sometimes seems a little off. Is it the color reproduction? Not sure. The labelling of the photos is certainly off. Many of the plants are misidentified. (Pp 128-129, for example, which shows a Ron Lutsko painted steel trellis topped by what is called a wisteria. The vine doesn't look like any wisteria I've ever seen. I'd guess a clematis, maybe.) The overall design of the book seems odd, too, with the chapters headed by artsy black and white images bearing little relation to anything else, certainly not garden design. Maybe art photography. To me it seems Sardar would have been well-served to have a horticulturist look his book over.