Celebrate The Gardens
By Sarah Chase Shaw
On the Roof of the Rocky Mountains establishes the Gardens as a destination for visitors to Vail, Colorado, a must-see venue, known as much for its beautiful gardens and iconic location as its educational and interpretive exhibits and world-renowned plant collection. The book will also validate the Gardens as a leader in alpine plant ecology and conservation.
With 285 full-color photographs, an artistically-rendered map, and over 22,000 words of text and captions, the global significance of the alpine environment is explained and revealed in detail. Plant and animal species are identified by both scientific and common names.
Organized into five chapters, the book opens with Sowing Seeds, recounting the history of a community effort to create a public garden in Vail to educate locals and visitors about gardening at 8,200 feet. In Promote a Deeper Understanding of the Alpine World, images of alpine and arctic tundra landscapes from around the world illustrate the unique ways in which weather and climate define life above the trees. The magnificence of the Gardens’ plant collections is revealed in Four Seasons in Betty Ford Alpine Gardens. The Gardens’ distinguished collections of alpine plants from around the world come into focus in Guardians of the Alpine. And, finally, the Gardens’ educational outreach and its role as a leader in plant conservation is clarified in Vigilance and Vision.
Sarah Chase Shaw is a freelance writer based in Basalt, Colorado. A landscape architect by training, she specializes in writing about design and lifestyle in the American West. Her work has appeared in national and regional publications, including Garden Design, Western Art & Architecture, Planning Magazine, Urban Land, Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, and Aspen Sojourner. She is the author of Garden Legacy: The Residential Gardens of Design Workshop, and New Gardens of the American West. Her most recent book Living Beneath the Colorado Peaks: The Story of Knapp Ranch received a Bronze Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Short essays from noted botanical experts Panayoti Kelaidis, David Inouye, Richard Daley, Peter Raven, and Sara Oldfield accompany the photos and text. The Introduction is written by Nicola Ripley, Executive Director of the Gardens.
On the Roof of the Rocky Mountains is a tribute to the world of alpine plants and the important work Betty Ford Alpine Gardens is doing to promote research and conservation of global alpine environments in one of America’s premier resort destinations. Named in honor of former First Lady Betty Ford, it is fitting that this world-class botanical garden is located within the Town of Vail’s Ford Park, directly across from Vail Mountain, and a short distance from the center of Vail Village.
All Gardens’ photography was taken by Vail-based photographers Todd Winslow Pierce and Dominique Taylor. Drone photography was taken by Brandon Huttenlocher. Global alpine imagery was sourced through Minden Pictures.
Book Details
- Hardbound with jacket, 276 pages, 12” x 12” square
- Two Maps, Resource Guide, Index
- Retail Price: $45.00
- Publication date: June 2021
- Published by: Betty Ford Alpine Gardens; Distributed by Gibbs Smith Publishers.
- Available after publication from the Betty Ford Alpine Gardens gift shops, independent booksellers across North America, and on e-commerce sites worldwide.
Audiences
Horticulturalists, botanical garden enthusiasts, high altitude plant researchers, alpine zone scientists, visitors to the Gardens in Vail, and aficionados of outstanding plant photography.