Bobby J. Ward is past president of the North American Rock Garden Society. He has a degree in plant physiology, received his PhD in botany from North Carolina State University, and is a retired environmental scientist. A dedicated gardener, he has long been interested in plant names and plant lore. His book A Contemplation Upon Flowers won the Quill & Trowel Award of the Garden Writers Association. Bobby grew up on a farm in eastern North Carolina where his early interest in native plants started with observing the plants around him. In college, he had the opportunity to learn more about general biology, including botany, becoming interested in it as a career. He began his professional life as an environmental scientist working for 25 years at a major electrical power company. During these years, Bobby drifted toward horticulture and gardening as an avocation, so when he retired he already had his next career as an author and gardener in place. Bobby has traveled to Chile, Canada, the U.K., Mexico, South Africa, the Czech Republic, and extended regions of the United States to interview modern explorers and to see the landscape and locations where they do their species collecting. In his spare time, Bobby enjoys reading, traveling, and a sweet, peaceful dedication to his private gardens.
This is a great book to read for any plant enthusiast. -- Linda Cobb "In the Garden", WSPA-TV 20041020 The plant descriptions are mouth-watering and the book's photography sumptuous. Together they are guaranteed to produce plant lust. -- Pam Beck Trillium 20041110 Ward has once again proven his mastery of the written word and shared the scope of his extensive plant knowledge through The Plant Hunter's Garden. -- Pam Beck Trillium 20041015 His book is a mastery mix of scientific explanation and personal profile, based on his acquaintance with his subjects. Color photos of many new plants and portraits of the folks who found them make this handsome volume even more interesting. -- Carolyn Ulrich Chicagoland Gardening 20041116 A great winter time adventure story. -- Jean Starr Munster (IN) Times 20041125 A great gift idea for plant enthusiasts. -- Leah Chester-Davis Extension's Successful Gardener 20041216 This is a fasctinating book on many levels ... Spectacular photographs and descriptions of an amazing spectrum of new plants are covered with insightful individual essays. -- Ann Bartlett American Penstemon Society Bulletin 20041213 The book has enough plants to keep a gardener's wish list full for a long time, and the plants are made all the more fascinating by Ward's stories about the people who introduced them. -- David Bare Winston-Salem Journal 20041218 This treasure trove of new and exciting plants will delight any gardener who likes to know what's new in the horticultural world and is eager to go beyond the tried and true offerings found at local garden centers. -- Ethel Fried Manchester (CT) Journal Inquirer 20041204 What is truly appealing about this book is that there are more than 200 mouthwatering, full-color pictures of these plants. And then there are hundreds of irresistible (at least to the plant obsessed like me) text descriptions of other plants. -- Patricia A. Taylor Trenton Times 20041219 This handsome volume is a wonderful surprise. -- Lili Singer Los Angeles Times 20050113 In the end three things make this book such a delight-the people, the plants and the pictures. Irresistible! -- Malcolm McGregor Journal of the Scottish Rock Garden Club 20050131 This handsome volume is a wonderful surprise. -- Lili Singer Los Angeles Times 20040113 It's good to see a portrait of the people whose travel, adventures and plant introductions we're sharing, even if from the comfort of our own backyard. -- Jeff Stevens Southeastern Palms 20040203 Take your Christmas money and run out this minute to buy this book. It's more than hyacinths for your soul. It's meat, bread and wine. -- Ruth Moose Pinehurst Pilot 20050109 This book on new plant explorers and their discoveries offers exciting information for the gardeners of the world. -- Joanne S. Carpender National Gardener 20050203 In every chapter, the best of each plant hunter's treasures are described in the well-crafted text. -- Jeff Stevens Southeastern Palms 20040209 Ward had a simple formula for his new book: Each chapter begins with an introduction to the person, provides brief biographical information, then reviews the many plants he or she has introduced to the market. -- Anton Zuiker Perspectives 20050211 The Plant Hunter's Garden is reading exciting enough to be a novel, beautiful as a travelog and absorbing as a seed catalog. I couldn't put it down. -- Ruth Moose Pinehurst Pilot 20050109 In the end three things make this book such a delight--the people, the plants and the pictures. Irresistible! -- Malcolm McGregor Journal of the Scottish Rock Garden Club 20050111 I recommend this book to anyone who has a hunger for the how and why of plants, or plant history, or who wants to know more about the process of horticultural introductions. -- Susi Torre-Bueno Let's Talk Plants 20041122 The book is full of stories about their adventures, and features startling photographs of the plants they have found. It's a great temptation to want them all. Ward's book will change the way you look at plants when you shop at the local nursery. -- Pat Rubin Sacramento Bee 20050326 Here is the backstage story of the avid plant-people whose passion takes them all over the world to collect seeds and plants for the commercial nursery market. -- Marge Howard-Jones California Garden 20040412 From the comfort of the armchair or the potting-shed table, readers of The Plant Hunters Garden can embark on their own voyages of discovery in these delightful pages. Eden Project Magazine 20050425 Ward is a knowledgeable plantsman, and here he proves himself an accomplished hunter of plant hunters. -- Michael Cunningham Horticulture 20050425 All 32 plant hunters profiled are worthy of attention. Homebodies who love to garden will savor reading about vast realms of uncommon plants, the unique people who set out to find them, and the magical places where plants do, in fact, reign supreme. -- Alice Joyce Booklist 20050722 A fascinating and gossipy compendium of stories about the lives and careers of the new plant explorers; includes much intriguing plant lore. -- Madeleine Wilde Kirkland Courier 20050801 An engaging account of the travels and travails of thirty-two modern-day plant collectors. Pacific Horticulture 20050805 If you are a gardener or horticulturalist who thrills at the anticipation of new species and varieties of plants, you will thoroughly enjoy reading this book. ... Travel with these plant hunters to exotic locales to share the thrill of discovery, excitement of their plant finds and cultivation experiences. -- Lee Luckeydoo Sida, Contributions to Botany 20060701
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