"John Tradescant the Younger has inherited his father's unique collection of plants along with his unerring ability to nurture them. But as gardener to Charles I, he confronts an unbearable dilemma when England descends into Civil War. Fleeing from the chaos, John travels to the Royalist colony of Virginia in America. But the virgin land is not uninhabited. John's plant hunting brings him to live with the native people, and he learns to love and respect...

Follows the lives of six men (Joseph Banks, John Bartram, Peter Collinson, Carl Linneaus, Philip Miller and Daniel Solander) who shared a passion for plants and a love of gardening in eighteenth-century London, who made Britain the epicenter of horticulture, and transformed gardening from an aristocratic pastime to a national obsession.

Presents the experiences and contributions of early adventurers, explorers, and scientists responsible for discovering and documenting new types of plants, showing how their often dangerous voyages help establish the field of botany.

Presents information for increasing the use of native plants and wildflowers in America's future landscaping.

Susan Orlean's book is about passion itself, and the amazing lengths to which people will go to gratify it.