If you thought the age of the great plant explorers was over, guess again. Dan Hinkley, founder of the legendary Heronswood Nursery, has scoured the globe for botanical treasures, a bounty that has enriched gardens throughout the world. He presents the most outstanding shrubs and vines from his plant-collecting trips to Chile, Costa Rica, South Africa, Japan, Korea, China, Vietnam, Nepal, Bhutan, India, New Zealand, Europe, and North America. Explorers will encounter little-known exotics such as the sapphire-berried dichroas and vermilion-flowered Desfontainea spinosa (Chilean holly). "The Explorer's Garden: Shrubs and Vines from the Four Corners of the World" also includes more familiar, but just as garden-worthy, plants such as witch hazels, hydrangeas, and sassafras. In every case, Hinkley zeroes in on why the plant deserves your garden space and what you can expect as the plant matures. Excerpts from Hinkley's travel journals evoke the plant's native setting with poetic precision, painting seductive portraits of the monkey-puzzle forests of South America or the rhododendron-clad slopes of the Himalayas.
As this brimming collection makes clear, there are still scores of exciting plants that await wider use by the gardening public. Readers who yearn for an expert guide to this cornucopia of riches will find no better companion than Dan Hinkley.