Susana Walton: La Mortella: An Italian Garden Paradise

By MARGIE THOMSON

The big story in gardening books is usually the commitment - the sweat, tears and joy - of the gardeners, which is certainly the case in this one: 40 years in the making, Susana Walton's garden on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples incorporates everything from a valley rainforest to drier, sunnier zones and more than 1000 rare species.

If some of the landscape looks familiar, that's because in 1964 her husband, the composer William Walton, sent her some tree ferns from New Zealand which have done extraordinarily well.

New Holland

$59.95