Pick of the crop: This year’s best gardening books

Looking for a greatgardening book to read or gift this Christmas? Here’s my pick of the crop from this year’s harvest.

Few people know more about houseplants than the British garden writer, blogger, former gardening editor of the Guardian and On The Ledge podcaster Jane Perrone. Her latest book, Legends of the Leaf (Unbound, £14.99) takes a fascinating in-depth look at 25 “iconic houseplants” and is a delight. How intriguing, for example, to discover that the aspidistra’s popularity in the Victorian era is due in large part to its ability to tolerate the large quantities of ethylene that were a by-product of most household’s gas lighting and coal fires. Or that the famous German poet Goethe, was a huge fan of the spider plant, Chlorophytum comosum. And that the millions of specimens of the oh-so-fashionable houseplant known as String of Pearls (Curio rowleyanus), in circulation around the world, can be sourced back to just one single specimen sent to a British grower back in the 1950s. Perrone’s infectious enthusiasm and almost boundless knowledge makes for a very entertaining and informative read.

The Seed Detective: Uncovering the Secret Histories of Remarkable Vegetables (Hodder Press, £12.99) has been resoundingly praised by a slew of leading cooks and horticulturists (Ballymaloe founder Darina Allen called it “one of the most inspirational books I have encountered in a long time”, while the British gardener and writer Mark Diacono described it as fascinating, enlightening, informative and entertaining). Author Adam Alexander’s love affair with vegetables – their history, lore, cultivation – has led him all over the world, on a journey that starts off with the discovery of a particularly delicious sweet pepper in