Acknowledgements

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LUCKY, meeting people throughout my life who have been generous and willing to share their time, knowledge and friendship. If I were to thank all of these people adequately then this would be by far the most extensive part of the book.

However, special thanks must go to the team at Knoll Gardens, without whom neither the nursery nor the garden, nor indeed this book, would exist. To Ross Humphrey who runs the nursery and is my right-hand man for most things, and to Gary Fatt, Pat Humphrey, Pam Lel, Angela Mann, Luke Tanswell, Amanda Walker and Trevor Walker.

I wish to thank my mum and my stepdad, Janet and John Flude, who helped me to purchase Knoll in 1994, giving me the chance to fulfil my lifetime ambition of owning my own garden.

I am also grateful to Dave and Rainie Fross, whose enthusiasm, knowledge and long-term friendship continues to be a most special pleasure. And to Rick Darke and Melinda Zoehrer, for their generous help, friendship and advice on so many matters, I shall always remain truly grateful.

In the UK, I wish to thank David Jewell (whose passion for grasses equals my own), as well as Michelle Cleave and Tom Cope, Beth Chatto and David Ward, Jaimie Blake, John Coke, Chris Evans, Chris Greene, Jim Gardiner, Fergus Garrett, Ian Harris, Roy Lancaster, Caroline Legard, Ian LeGros, Anna Mumford, Keith Powrie, Becky Rochester and Cleve West. I wish to thank Erica Gordon-Mallin for her skilled editing, and Anne Crotty for her patient proofreading. Thanks are also due to Poul Petersen in Denmark.

In the United States, I am grateful to Ed and Lucie Snodgrass and to Jim Ault, Fred Ballerini, Sue Barton, Kurt Bluemel, Steve Castorani, Pat Cullina, Mike Curto, Melissa Fisher, Dale Hendricks, Casey Lyon, Bernard Trainor and Paul van Meter.

IMAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks to friend and photographer Dianna Jazwinski whose wonderful imagery graces many a page in this book. A warm thanks also to Rick Darke whose patience and willingness to share his great photographic knowledge helped enormously with my own rather limited abilities. My thanks also to Alexandre Bailhache, Rick Darke, Dave Fross, Ross Humphrey, Jason Liske, Ed Snodgrass and Amanda Walker for generously supplying images for use in the book.

I am also deeply indebted to many gardens both public and private, and to nurseries, reserves and institutions, for their help and advice with many of the images. Sincere thanks to The Beth Chatto Gardens, Chanticleer Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, Longwood Gardens, Lurie Garden, North Creek Nurseries, Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Royal Horticultural Society Gardens at Wisley and Hyde Hall, Scampston Hall and the Springs Preserve.

THE KNOLL GARDENS FOUNDATION My own journey is now inextricably bound up with my garden. To this end, and hopefully to the advantage of us both, I have been lucky enough to establish a charitable organization called the The Knoll Gardens Foundation, dedicated not just to the preservation of the gardens but to the continuation of everything that goes into making a successful garden—to the ethos that drives it forward and to that essential spirit of relentlessly optimistic experimentation and learning, without which we achieve nothing.