SECOND EDITIONRobert L. Stevenson, Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, Walt Disney, Saint-Exupéry, Catherine Deneuve, Sting, and others Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president and the author of the Declaration of Independence, sowed thousands of plants. In Samoa, when he was not writing, Robert Louis Stevenson used to pull up weed. Catherine Deneuve, who loves irises more than any other flower, owns a massive wild garden in Normandy no one could ever photograph. The world of gardening is not only made of old ladies in rubber boots or of those who try to escape from modernity. Plants appeal both to loners and to men of action. Gardens stem from vision, will, maybe vanity. When you sow, you stake your all, you do not think you are omnipotent. You accept the unpredictable and wait to see. “In the relationship between humans and plants, I have an interest in humans” writes Delfina Rattazzi, who outlines charming portraits of famous past and present characters while investigating this relationship. Gardens acquire the soul of those who conceived them, and give it back to us in the shape of plants and flowers. “The most beautiful gardens always have a story to tell.” The New York Times