Exhibitions: One Not To Miss!

I can't think of a designer or avid gardener who isn't fascinated, as I am, by rare botanical drawings and books.

SO -- don't miss the current exhibition (through July 27) at the Grolier Club in NYC:  "Gardening by the Book:  Celebrating 100 Years of the Garden Club of America."

It's an amazing collection spanning 400 years of botanical and gardening literature and encompasses the GCA's major holdings, selected by writer and art historian Arete Warren, who is also the GCA's library chairman.

The earliest book on display is a hand-colored 1612 catalogue of bulbs and and flowers by Emmanuel Sweert, a Dutch painter and nurseryman --- it's said to have contributed to the "Tulipmania" craze.

Also: The Natural History of Carolinas, Florida and the Bahma Islands by Mark Catesby (1771); Elizabeth Blackwell's A Curious Herbal (1739), a guide to plants introduced from American to England and growing in London's Chelsea Physic Garden; letters and manuscripts by Gertrude Jekyll; and a first edition of Silent Spring by environmentalist Rachel Carson.

Well worth a stop if you're in the NYC area.