Rhapsody In Green - the Garden Wit and Wisdom of Beverly Nichols

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Roy Dicks read and studied Beverly Nichols (1898-1983) with a passion. Dicks pulled together the best quotes from Nichols' garden writing and Timber Press put them into a volume that I have enjoyed reading.

It can be read by flipping to a page and enjoying one or two quotes. Or, my favorite: Lying on the bed reading page after page.

Nichols was a writer of 60 books and plays including mystery novels and short stories, books about travel and religion and children's books. His gardening books remain timeless contributions to all of us.

Quotes from "Rhapsody in Green" ($12 at Amazon )

"The sweet fragrance of the flowers gives to the mind an amiability in which the most fanciful conceptions flower freely."

"The Regal Lilies do indeed praise the Lord. Some of my own, last summer, were so exultant that they praised Him through no less than thirty snow-white trumpets on a single stem, and even the most accomplished angel could not do much better than that."

"Do you ever find yourself bursting into a sort of lunatic laughter at the sheer prettiness of things?"

Nichols' garden and home books include
Down the Garden Path (1932)
A Thatched Roof (1933)
A Village in a Valley (1934)
How Does Your Garden Grow? (1935)
Green Grows the City (1939)
Merry Hall (1951)
Laughter on the Stairs (1953)
Sunlight on the Lawn (1956)
Garden Open Today (1963)
Forty Favourite Flowers (1964)
The Art of Flower Arrangement (1967)
Garden Open Tomorrow (1968)

OTHER RHAPSODIES
Several plants are named Rhapsody in Green, there is a blog called Rhapsody in Green and Elkhart IN has a festival by that name.

Comments

tom | tall clover farm said…
A friend lent me "Merry Hall" and I was surprised how funny and how contemporary his writing was, by the latter I mean, his ramblings about house and garden were in concert with mine sixty years later. Proving home and garden are ageless, Beverly Nicholas is amazingly witty and wonderfully readable. Nice tip -- thanks!
April 1, 2009 at 8:03 AM
Molly said…
Beverly Nichols must have been quite a character.

Don't you wish you knew someone that witty to hang out with? I sure do.
April 3, 2009 at 10:17 PM
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