Gardening

After years of lean cropping, the harvest of Irish-related gardening books includes a sheaf of tempting titles this season. It presents a confusing choice, especially as there are three glossy volumes entirely devoted to Irish gardens.

My vote for sumptuous photography and meticulously-researched writing goes to Olda FitzGerald's Irish Gardens (Conran Octopus, £30) a lavish work on 20 remarkable gardens. In the smaller, more concise Gardens of Ireland (Gill & Macmillan, £14.99), Marianne Heron covers 40 gardens in a highly readable and confident fashion. The third book, Glorious Gardens of Ireland, by Melanie Eclare (Kyle Cathie, £19.99) gets my third place: while it is certainly very nice to look at, it doesn't have the depth of the other two - and there are just too many cute pet photos.

Orchids, by Wilma and Brian Rittershausen (Quadrille, £30 in UK) is a handsome and informative guide to this exotic family. There are shockingly beautiful photographs by Linda Burgess, with the decidedly glandular and hairy close-ups demonstrating graphically why orchids were considered an improper plant for Victorian ladies to grow.

Veteran garden writer Christopher Lloyd, now nearly 80, continues to experiment - and make and break trends - at his home at Great Dixter. His Gardening Year (Frances Lincoln, £25 in UK) is an account of the seasonal goings-on in his Lutyens-designed garden. Evocative photographs by Jonathan Buckley complement the erudite yet easy text.