Plant Hunter In Tibet

Book excerpt: First published in 2006. Gardens in Britain and America today owe much to the exploits of explorer and plant hunter Frank Kingdon Ward. Over fifty years, Ward travelled remote areas of the Far East looking for beautiful flowers and shrubs likely to thrive in western gardens, while also searching for new botanical specimens and recording geographical information on the unexplored country through which he passed. His discoveries include new kinds of rhododendrons, lilies, gentians, primulas and the legendary Tibetan blue poppy. This is a narrative of his adventures and discoveries in Tibet in 1933, illustrated with his own photographs Travelling light, Ward scrambles up snow gullies, descends by rope into dark ravines, dodges rockslides and avalanches fends off attacks by tribespeople, takes yak tea with lamas and ascends to the highest peaks to be rewarded with the sight of turquoise poppies, deep gamboge primulas and rhododendrons as red and vivid as lava. Ward conveys all the excitement of exploration, the thrill of danger and the rewards of discovery as, in one precarious situation after another, he discovers new plants and seeds. Both a book of travel and of gardening history, Ward's account reminds us how the exotic plants we now take for granted found their adventurous w ay into our gardens, greatly enriching our enjoyment of them.