Synopses & Reviews
Have you ever seen the delicate flowers of a red maple? The emerging leaves of a tulip poplar? The twigs of a beech? When you look at a tree up close, you begin to appreciate trees in a whole new way. Seeing Trees invites readers to watch trees with the care and sensitivity that birdwatchers watch birds. Focusing on 10 common trees of North America, Nancy Ross Hugo highlights the rewards of tree viewing and describes some of the most visually interesting leaves, flowers, fruits, buds, leaf scars, twigs, and bark of familiar trees. Using software developed for work with microscopes, Robert Llewellyn created incredibly sharp close-up photographs of the tree detail by stitching together 8 to 45 images of each subject—each shot at a different focal point. The combination of these lavish photos with Nancy Ross Hugos writing makes each page come alive with the beauty of the growing process. The result is a gorgeous journey into the life cycle of trees.
Featured trees include the American Beech, Ginkgo, Red Maple, Southern Magnolia, Tulip Poplar, White Oak, White Pine, American Sycamore, Black Walnut and Eastern Red Cedar.
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A beautifully produced and photographed new book. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about this fascinating group of plants both in the wild or in your backyard. Mary Beth Breckenridge
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Filled with arresting close-ups. MarthaStewart.com
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You’ll be dazzled. Mary Beth Breckenridge - Akron Beacon Journal
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Seeing Trees opens our eyes to a trees shy magnificence and invites us to deepen our relationship with these earthly treasures. Sandy Hausman - Albemarle
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“Vivid, fascinating botanical biographies.” Albemarle
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"The resulting images are full of detail.” Reader's Digest
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“A whole new world of tree mystery has opened up.” Outdoor Photographer
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“If you love trees, or if you love good photography, you will love this book.” Cold Climate Gardening.com
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“A new exciting book.” Kathy Purdy - Cold Climate Gardening.com
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“Gorgeous images & observations.”
Botanical Art Painting
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“You will begin to appreciate trees in a whole new way.” Kathy Zarsky - Holos Collaborative
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"Hugo writes with real passion about trees, describing their qualities, flowers, fruits, barks, and unique characteristics, and including her own observations and experiments with cuttings and seedlings. She is articulate and enthusiastic, making this an ideal volume for beginning observers of trees." Book News
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“This fascinating celebration of trees will delight gardeners, botanists, students of natural history, and nature photographers.” Library Journal
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“The book to change us all into unabashed tree worshippers.” Library Journal
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“A splendid book.” Seattle Times
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"The only way I can describe my reaction to receiving Seeing Trees was like a child being taken into a sweet shop.” PatientGardener.com
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“A beautiful and exciting book.” CommonWeeder.com
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“Hugo writes with real passion about trees…. Beautifully produced and fascinating to read.” Reference and Research Book News
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“A botanical masterpiece.” Reference and Research Book News
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“Filled with surprises.” WVTV
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“Their call to seeing what nature offers is magical and the photographs are works of art.” Beacon Journal
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"This seems like the sort of book which sprinkles a bit of fairy dust on something we see everyday, so that just taking a walk or stepping outside feels magical and fresh." North Coast Gardening
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“If you love books and nature, this is one to own for reference and to ponder during the long winter months.” Red Dirt Ramblings
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“A captivating book.” Red Dirt Ramblings
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“A gorgeous book, a great reference and a beautiful addition to the nature lovers bookshelf.” UnderMyAppleTree.com
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“Will take your breath away.” UnderMyAppleTree.com
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“My favorite new book this season is Seeing Trees…This book is made for us nearsighted gardeners, who long ago learned the thrill of peering at plants.” New York Times
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“You can't help but be bowled over by the beauty at play in the science.” Dominique Browning - New York Times
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“The authors have brought the level of observation to new heights.” Washington Post
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“Through [Llewellyns] lens we take flight with a red maples charming helicopterlike seed pods and can almost feel the smooth, muscular, steel-gray bark of an ironwood.” Houston Chronicle
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“Llewellyns extraordinarily crisp photographs alone force the reader to consider trees differently, if only because there are so few illustrations of entire trees, trunk, crown and all.” San Francisco Chronicle
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"An idiosyncratic portrait of common trees and their life span, Hugos book introduces aspects of tree culture that delight and bemuse." American Reference Books Annual
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Filled with arresting close-ups. Akron Beacon Journal
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Youll be dazzled. Kathy Purdy - The Cleveland Plain Dealer
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“Vivid, fascinating botanical biographies.” Jim Chatfield - Reader - ' - s Digest
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"The resulting images are full of detail.” Dominique Browning - Outdoor Photographer
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“A whole new world of tree mystery has opened up.” Mary Ellen Snodgrass - Danger Garden Blog
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“A new exciting book.” Botanical Art Painting
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“Gorgeous images & observations.”
Holos Collaborative
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“You will begin to appreciate trees in a whole new way.” A Charlotte Garden.com
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“The book to change us all into unabashed tree worshippers.” Seattle Times
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“A splendid book.” Philadelphia Inquirer
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“A botanical masterpiece.” Horticulture Magazine
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“A captivating book.” MyHortus.com
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“Will take your breath away.” WeatherProofingYourLandscape.com
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“You can't help but be bowled over by the beauty at play in the science.” Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
Have you ever looked at a tree? That may sound like a silly question, but there is so much more to notice about a tree than first meets the eye. Seeing Trees celebrates seldom seen but easily observable tree traits and invites you to watch trees with the same care and sensitivity that birdwatchers watch birds. Many people, for example, are surprised to learn that oaks and maples have flowers, much less flowers that are astonishingly beautiful when viewed up close.
Focusing on widely grown trees, this captivating book describes the rewards of careful and regular tree viewing, outlines strategies for improving your observations, and describes some of the most visually interesting tree structures, including leaves, flowers, buds, leaf scars, twigs, and bark. In-depth profiles of ten familiar species including such beloved trees as white oak, southern magnolia, white pine, and tulip poplar show you how to recognize and understand many of their most compelling (but usually overlooked) physical features.
"
About the Author
Nancy Ross Hugo has been writing, lecturing, and teaching about trees, native plants, and floral design for over thirty years. Her writing has appeared in
Horticulture, Fine Gardening, American Forests, Country Journal, Virginia Living, and
Country Life.
For eight years, her weekly columns on gardening and natural history ("Earth Works") appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and her monthly "Habitat" column on gardening for wildlife appeared in Virginia Wildlife for ten. She has been recognized for excellence in magazine and newspaper feature writing by the Garden Writers Association and by the Virginia Urban Forest Council.
As education manager of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, she supervised adult and children's education. She is the author of Earth Works: Readings for Backyard Gardeners and, with Dr. Jeffrey Kirwan, of Remarkable Trees of Virginia.
She and her husband John live in Howardsville, Virginia where they manage the outdoor education center Flower Camp. She was cited for Outstanding Achievement in Field of Horticulture by the Garden Club of Virginia in 1988 and received the Dugdale Award for Conservation in 2001. Robert Llewellyn has been photographing trees and landscapes for almost forty years. His photographs have been featured in major art exhibits, and more than thirty books featuring his photography are in print.
His 2007 book, Empires of the Forest: Jamestown and the Beginning of America, won five national awards in nonfiction and photography, and his The Capital was an official diplomatic gift of the White House and State Department. Llewellyn honed his tree photography skills while working on Remarkable Trees of Virginia (2008), a four year project, creating landscape photographs that have been called "a spectacular tribute to Virginia's native trees."
Seeing Trees showcases a new form of photography, however. Using software developed for work with microscopes, Llewellyn creates incredibly sharp close-ups by stitching together 8 to 45 images of each subject #8212; each shot at a different focal point. Robert Llewellyn has been photographing trees and landscapes for almost forty years. His photographs have been featured in major art exhibits, and more than thirty books featuring his photography are in print.
His 2007 book, Empires of the Forest: Jamestown and the Beginning of America, won five national awards in nonfiction and photography, and his The Capital was an official diplomatic gift of the White House and State Department. Llewellyn honed his tree photography skills while working on Remarkable Trees of Virginia (2008), a four year project, creating landscape photographs that have been called "a spectacular tribute to Virginia's native trees."
Seeing Trees showcases a new form of photography, however. Using software developed for work with microscopes, Llewellyn creates incredibly sharp close-ups by stitching together 8 to 45 images of each subject #8212; each shot at a different focal point.