Book review : Foggy Bottom. A Garden to Share by Adrian Bloom

I was once asked if I had seen Adrian Bloom’s foggy bottom. 

At the time, in the days before I had discovered the joys of gardening and visiting gardens, I was mystified. Who was this man and why would I have seen his bottom, foggy or otherwise.?

Of course, that was years ago and since then I've read some of his books, admired his cultivars at Chelsea Flower Show, watched him on TV , pored longingly over the 8,000 different plants online available from Bressingham Nursery, and finally met Adrian earlier this year. 

He's humorous, softly spoken but passionate when talking about his book which was just published last month,

No wonder, as this book is a labour of love, a testament to over half a century of creating his garden Foggy Bottom in Norfolk from meadowland.

The book begins with a highly personal tour through every acre of the garden from Adrian throughout the different seasons. Crossways Corner is the starting point, a beautiful and joyous riot of colour, photographed in late August.

The hydrangeas may be grabbing the limelight in the foreground but I adore the layer upon layer of colour and height further back,  Adrian explains it was planned to keep this below head height of a very short person to allow views to other vistas.

Adrian leads us through the six acres of garden where conifers, pines, spruces, grasses, ferns, brooms and bulbs abound. If we were visiting the garden by ourselves, we would only see snapshots of each area, captured at a specific time of one day in one season.  The multitude of photos gathered here in the book show how they appear throughout the year, in different lights and it's quite a revelation. 

The treasury of plants in the second part of the book, hones in on some of Adrian's favourites eg camellias, hostas and Japanese maples amongst them, and the part they play in his garden. Well worth seeing how he paints such beautiful palettes of colours with his plant positioning and reading his insights, as the President of Bressingham Nurseries, with a lifetime's experience of growing.

In the third part of the book, Adrian looks back to the past, to 1967 when he began to create his garden. Early photographs show him and his wife Rosemary at the beginning of their life together, the small inroads they made on the land, at first for a little garden around their new house. A family garden, but you can see their dreams grow larger, as brown earth islands appear in profusion in the grass, as seeds are sown, saplings and shrubs are planted, and grow alongside Adrian and Rosemary's family.

The before and after photographs highlight both the sheer amount of work involved, as they are joined by other members of staff, and by Adrian's colourful vision of the possibilities he saw and created with his family over time. 

It's also an achingly personal part of the book, his love and the loss of Rosemary and his pride evident as he marks what his sons have also achieved at Foggy Bottom.

At over 400 pages long with hundreds of glossy photographs taken by the author,  this is not a book to be read in bed ...your wrists may drop off with the weight .At fifty pounds, this hardback book isn't cheap either, but it's an enjoyable insight into an inspirational garden, which is well-loved by millions of visitors, and one which I will be re reading.

Signed copies of ‘Foggy Bottom. A garden to share’ by  Adrian Bloom is published by Foggy Bottom Books. Signed copies are available at www.foggybottombooks.co.uk and cost £50 including postage.

I was sent a press copy of this to review, but was not paid for this review.