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Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides
An Illustrated History of Brooklyn Botanic Garden Handbooks
The first BBG handbook was published in 1945. It was 64 pages long and printed entirely in black and white. The cost of four quarterly handbooks was $2 per year.
Here's what an early BBG book looked like. The Handbook on Biological Control of Plant Pests was a milestone. It helped launch the organic gardening movement in the U.S.
These vintage back-and-white handbooks have become collector's items.
In the early 1980s, color appeared on the cover of BBG handbooks—and only one color, with a black-and-white photograph. The books were still 64 pages long.
This handbook, Gardening With Children, dates from that period. Children's gardening is another subject pioneered at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
By 1990, BBG handbooks featured color photos inside and out. They were fatter—96 pages long instead of 64—and perfect bound, with a flat spine.
In 1994, Brooklyn Botanic Garden handbooks were redesigned, and the 21st-Century Gardening Series was launched. For the past decade these books have explored the frontiers of ecological gardening, demonstrating that gardens can be beautiful habitat for people as well as plants and wildlife. Expanded to 112 pages, the handbooks are full of lush color photos. They have won numerous awards.
Four types of gardening books were published as part of the 21st-Century Gardening Series. Some books, such as Summer-Blooming Bulbs, focus on a particular group of plants. Some, including Easy Compost, cover a nuts-and-bolts gardening technique. Some, like Woodland Gardens, pioneer a new kind of garden design that draws its inspiration from native habitats. Others, such as Gourmet Herbs, add a new dimension to the current revolution among food lovers by promoting the cultivation of new, international foods and the appreciation of fresh, delectable flavors.
In 2003, the BBG handbook series received a new look and a new name. Expanded to 120 pages, the new Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guides showcase a dramatic new cover layout featuring a full-page-bleed photo, handsome photos and text on the back cover, more full-page photos on the inside, and a new, easy-to-read typeface.
Books continue to focus on different aspects of gardening. The Best Orchids for Indoors and The Gardener's Guide to Growing Orchids feature some of the most spectacular plants in the gardening world. The Butterfly Gardener's Guide highlights the role gardeners can play in creating and preserving wildlife habitat.
What is BBG's all-time bestseller? More than 200,000 copies of Indoor Bonsai, still another subject developed at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, have been sold around the world.