Shocking Beauty

Creating a garden is an endless and enormous task, appearing so formidable that many people, out of fear, choose not to bother. But as author Thomas Hobbs illustrates in this astounding book, once you take the plunge into garden creation it becomes such a thrill of accomplishment, providing so much personal pleasure, that you never want to turn back.

Shocking Beauty is an in-depth gardening book with a twist-it enables you to discover what it takes to stop people in their tracks and realize how stunning nature can be. In order to do this, Hobbs shows how freeing up the mind from the bonds of conventional garden design concepts can result in gardens of singular allure. Luxuriantly illustrated with over 200 striking full-color photographs, this thought-provoking book will inspire people who've never gardened before and invigorate the passions of those who already know the joy of gardening.

Fine Gardening - Steve Silk

Thomas Hobbs gardens out on the cutting edge of contemporary horticulture. Daring color combinations, foliage with startling hues, hordes of tender perennials, and big, blowsy tropical plants are just some of the ingredients that go into making his eye-popping garden in Vancouver. Hobbs is one of the foremost proponents of a visually striking style that's rapidly gaining favor among cognoscenti, and examples abound all over the Pacific Northwest and in many of North America's best public gardens.

Those who love it will delight in the inspiring, almost luridly colorful photographs that fill the pages of this gardening manifesto. They will delight, too, in the brief, essaylike chapters that are a virtual call to arms, an impassioned plea to liberate ourselves from the confines of stodgy, traditional design and to create our gardens with an electrifying sense of drama and flamboyance.

For trowel-wielding daredevils yearning to take the plunge, Hobbs delivers design ideas aplenty, to appropriate as is or to use as a springboard to realizing your own inner visions. So go ahead and take a look. Then, take a chance.

Thomas Hobbs, internationally known impresario of garden and floral design, is proprietor of Southlands Nursery in Vancouver, Canada. His private garden has been featured in many prominent gardening magazines. A frequent media commentator on gardening matters, Hobbs has spoken before gardening groups and professional associations throughout North America.