A Beautiful Obsession

Jimi Blake has spent 25 years collecting the most interesting plants he could get his hands on. At Hunting Brook, these come together in a unique fusion of funky foliage, perennial, and woodland styles to make a flamboyant, surprising, experimental garden that is overflowing with ideas for enthusiastic gardeners. Exotic-leaved plants from the Far East and South America rub shoulders with temperate perennials to excite the eye. Trees are pollarded, salvias and dahlias are present in abundance, and borders are unconstrained. Jimi’s eagle eye for flaws means plants that don’t quite cut the mustard are ruthlessly dispatched and the garden is constantly being scrutinized and reinvented. A Beautiful Obsession inspires new garden projects, rewrites the rule book about combining plants, and will have plant enthusiasts reaching for specialist nursery catalogues.

"A handsome, lavishly photographed book, HUMMELO: A Journey Through a Plantsman’s Life, a gift to all serious lovers of garden design." – New York Times

“This is a thoughtful, insightful guide that deserves serious consideration.” —Library Journal on Planting: A New Perspective

Jimi Blake trained as a horticulturist at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin and became Head Gardener at Airfield where he resuscitated a large Victorian garden. At Hunting Brook Gardens he is fulfilling his ambition to grow an ever-expanding plant collection in dynamic and innovative ways. Noel Kingsbury is a well-known designer, commentator, and writer on plants, gardens, landscape, and the environment. He has a doctorate in horticultural ecology from Sheffield University and continues active research in this field.