Books: Tropical Masterpieces by Jungles

Just wait.  If The Colors of Nature: Subtropical Gardens by Raymond Jungles (Monacelli Press, 2008) is one of your favorite books -- it's certainly one of mine -- you will definitely want to add his latest to your collection. 

In his new book, The Cultivated Wild: Gardens and Landscapes by Raymond Jungles (Monacelli Press, 2015), the award-winning landscape architect brings his sub-tropical art with plants to locations as far north as Montana, with stunning results.

Again, Jungles shares his drawings, sketches, and site plans that illustrate his ideas and the way he designs -- and many, of course, are reminiscent of his late Brazilian mentor, the celebrated designer Roberto Burle Marx.

Jungles and his studio have also branched out well beyond residential design, and the new book contains plans for fabulous public projects like the New World Symphony Rooftop Garden in Miami Beach, the Pavilion Beach Club Garden in St. Kitts, West Indies, and the Brazilian Garden in the Naples Botanical Garden (Naples, Florida).

I particularly liked the Big Timber Garden in Montana, where Jungles designed a series of spring-fed ponds that surround the residence, which is sited on a riverbank.  The house sits on a plinth that allows it to rise and fall along with the water level. 

The book is an inspiration and a guide to innovative landscape design -- you'll find more ideas here than in 10 other books combined. 

 In the introduction to the book, Charles Birnbaum, president of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, says this latest book demonstrates that Jungles "is posed to amaze, enlighten, and nurture a broader audience with a unique design approach that he continues to refine, expand, and perfect."  How true.