Book excerpt: Absolutely fascinating! Informative, enlightening, and entertaining! This is one of the most comprehensive books on Planting Design. It fills in the blanks in this field and introduces poetry, painting, and symbolism into Planting Design. It covers in detail the two major systems in Planting Design: Formal Planting Design and Naturalistic Planting Design. It has numerous line drawings and photos to illustrate the Planting Design concepts and principles. Through in-depth discussions of historical precedents and practical case studies, it uncovers the fundamental design principles and concepts as well as underpinning philosophy for Planting Design. It is an indispensable reference book for Landscape Architecture students, designers, architects, urban planners, and ordinary garden lovers. What Others Are Saying About Planting Design Illustrated... "I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. You will need to concentrate while reading it but the effort will be well worth your time." -Bobbie Schwartz, Former President of APLD (Association of Professional Landscape Designers) and Author of The Design Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together "This is a book that you have to read, and it is more than well worth your time. Gang Chen takes you well beyond what you'll learn in other books about basic principles like color, texture, and mass." -Jane Berger, Editor & Publisher of gardendesignonline "As a longtime consumer of gardening books, I am impressed with Gang Chen's inclusion of new information on planting design theory for Chinese and Japanese gardens. Many gardening books discuss the beauty of Japanese gardens, and a few discuss the unique charms of Chinese gardens, but this one explains how Japanese and Chinese history, geography, and artistic traditions bear on the development of each country's style. The material on traditional Western garden planting is thorough and inspiring, too. Planting Design Illustrated definitely rewards repeated reading and study; any garden designer will read it with profit." -Jan Whitner, Editor of the Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin "Enhanced with an annotated bibliography and informative appendices, Planting Design Illustrated offers an especially "reader friendly" and practical guide that makes it a very strongly recommended addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Gardening & Landscaping reference collections and supplemental reading lists." -Midwest Book Review "Where to start? Planting Design Illustrated is, above all, fascinating and refreshing! Not something the lay reader encounters every day, the book presents an unlikely topic in an easily digestible, easy to follow way. It is superbly organized, with a comprehensive table of contents, bibliography, and appendices. The writing, though expertly informative, maintains its accessibility throughout and is a joy to read. The detailed and beautiful illustrations expanding on the concepts presented were my favorite portion. One of the finest books I've encountered in this contest in the past five years." -Writer's Digest 16th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards Judge's commentary "The work in my view has incredible application to planting design generally and a system approach to what is a very difficult subject to teach, at least in my experience. Also featured is very beautiful philosophy of garden design principles bordering poetry. It's my strong conviction that this work needs to see the light of day by being published for the use of professionals, students & garden enthusiasts." -Donald C Brinkerhoff, FASLA, Chairman and CEO of Lifescapes International, Inc.