“In case you were wondering, paradise does exist and it's closer than you think. In fact, it's just inland from the Central Coast at a place called Kulnura … It's the creation of Bob Cherry, one of Australia's foremost plant collectors and breeders … The best way to appreciate daily life at Paradise is to read the absorbing Two Dogs & A Garden by Cherry's wife, Derelie, a passionate plants person.”

Cheryl Maddocks, Sydney Morning Herald

“ PARADISE FOUND … the wonderfully scenic and scented world of Bob Cherry, one of Australia's most renowned breeders of rare flowering plants … Bob is one of Australia's most informed and experienced plant professionals … one of the most ambitious and exciting gardens in Australia … Derelie has written a book … it contains six years' worth of photographs of Paradise in all its moods, including images of the dam filled with lotus flowers, poppies with petals pleated like an Issey Miyake skirt, fabulous roses from ancient ramblers to ravishing hybrids. Keen gardeners should keep a copy by their beds and peruse it before going to sleep. Then dream of Paradise.”

Leo Schofield, Australian House & Garden

“ … is a stunning and visual record of Derelie's new life surrounded by a landscape of plants, in … Paradise, the home of a gardening empire built by her husband, Bob … This beautifully presented book is one that every garden lover will enjoy and get inspiration from.”

The Sunday Canberra Times

“Some books … rise above the ‘good' standard to qualify for outstanding status. Derelie Cherry achieves this with Two Dogs & A Garden … a delightful chronicle … the pictures are truly stunning – and prose filled with passion, pride, sorrow and joy, this is not so much a gardening book, more a botanical odyssey … Paradise is globally famed for its extensive collection of plants from across the world, many of which visitors have never seen before.”

North Devon Journal, United Kingdom

“With Christmas looming … readers can do no better than Two Dogs & A Garden – not only does it contain stunning images but the story is heart-warming … While garden lovers, in particular will appreciate Derelie's story, the book has much wider appeal … It is so easy to be enchanted by the personal manner in which this book is written and with the life that Derelie and bob have made for themselves but it has not been all roses. The tragic death of the couple's cairn terrier Trudy, to whom the book is dedicated, is sure to bring tears to the eyes of many. A delight to peruse or read more thoroughly, Two Dogs & A Garden is real gift material – the kind of 'pressie' one would truly cherish.”

Howick and Pakuranga Times, Auckland, New Zealand

“This charming book tells of Derelie Cherry's life with her husband, Bob, on their dream 92-hectare property, Paradise, on the NSW Central Coast. Crammed with splendid photographs and matters spanning camellia breeding and sensual garden scents to a Chinese expedition where a brilliant red rose first seen by British plant collector Ernest Wilson in 1903 was discovered, it also encompasses the couple's symbiosis with their ‘ animal children', dogs Jessee and Trudy. Throughout, their passion and care for plants and wildlife is palpable.”

The Sun-Herald, Sydney

“ … not just a book about a beautiful garden – it is the story of a dream coming true and two dogs providing lots of love and companionship in a little piece of paradise. I have no doubt I could spend days exploring the gardens, but as they are in Australia I will have to settle for dipping in and out of this beautiful book … I found it very interesting to discover more about the history of particular flowers and plants – many I have seen before or had myself but also so many I have heard of but never had the pleasure of seeing first hand. The book is an education in itself! If you like gardens, then you will love this book – it is educational and inspirational as well as absolutely stunning and definitely deserves 5/5.”

Laura Fairbairn, What's Good To Do, United Kingdom
whatsgoodtodo.co.uk/two-dogs-and-a-garden-by-derelie-cherry-review

“ … features page after page of spectacular photos … It is the kind of book a former publisher, garden lover and self-confessed perfectionist would write … Derelie Cherry says: ‘I love lifestyle memoirs, I love a book you can dip into, and I love flowers. There's never been a lifestyle book based on a garden done in Australia before, and I wanted to show what a wonderful life we have here, and how beautiful a garden can be featuring introduced plants and natives … I was confident because I had 20 years of publishing behind me'… Bob Cherry … had a vision for a significant private garden similar to many in Europe …”

Joanne McCarthy, Newcastle Herald Saturday Weekender Magazine

“This is a love story centered on a garden called Paradise. Plant hunter and breeder Bob Cherry was divorced and looking for a wife, but Derelie, the author of this book didn't see a husband in her future – all she wanted was a garden and two dogs. Well, Derelie got her garden and her two dogs when she married Bob, whom she met at the Melbourne International Flower Show in 1999 … the book gives the reader a personal account of every day of the year, showing how the colourful and expensive garden, with its rare and exotic plants, has been created and cared for. It also reveals how Derelie and Bob's life in Paradise has evolved”

Sunday Times, Perth

“Cherry worked in publishing before she met and married plant breeder and collector Bob Cherry … tells the story of her involvement with the garden, her plant-collecting trips with her husband and the history of some of the plants grown at Paradise Gardens. There are also practical tips and insights into Cherry's approach to looking after hectares of gardens … the book makes fascinating reading.”

The Sydney Morning Herald

“This is Derelie Cherry's ode to both her extremely capable husband Bob, and their amazing garden Paradise, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. With plenty of photographs, this book is a fabulous record of a garden …”

Your Garden Magazine

“A beautiful hardback book, with high quality paper, full of exquisite colour pictures … There's a feeling of peace and tranquillity in these well-designed pages …”

The Sunday Examiner Magazine, Hobart

“… a really quirky and personal look at one family's garden, enough to make you truly envious … The Bookworm's gift guide … best books for book lovers …”

The Sunday Telegraph

“… a little piece of paradise … explore a unique garden of glorious graceful beauty and sensory delight where flowers rule, ok! Peppered with classically inspired structures of old stone and brick, it's a flowering wonderland … Bob is the man behind Paradise Plants, a name seen on plant labels in nurseries all around the country … to learn about this garden, its plants and history check out Two Dogs & A Garden.”

Better Homes & Gardens

“This is a feel good book in every sense … beautiful photos … a heart-warming true story … the story of the making of the garden and its changing face through the seasons …”

Jennifer Stackhouse, Gardening Australia Magazine

“When a flower lover meets a flower breeder, it's love at second sight … The private garden is legendary … bury your nose in this flower-crammed book.”

New Zealand Gardener

“ … a little gem of information about plants, planting, plant collecting and plant breeding, set with travel anecdotes and bursting with photographs … Give it to your mother, your best friend, your children, or better still, to yourself.”

Leigh Stone-Herbert, Australian Garden History Society

“I started reading it that evening and couldn't put it down. Page after page was a visual delight and the story Derelie told was fascinating … the extraordinary talents and achievements of a remarkable man who has given much to the world of horticulture … told simply but with skill, eloquence and affection, and without sentimentality. Above all, for me as a fellow lover of flowers and gardens, the book is a work of art … each page containing the most exquisite photography and colours, and so attractively designed that I marvelled at each one. It is an absolute treasure and a testament to Derelie's own talents as a writer, photographer and publisher … I commend it to every garden, and dog, lover!”

Sally Sweeney, New South Wales Camellia Research Society

“ … pages of glorious colour … Derelie writes in a friendly easily read style … throughout we see some charming shots of the two dogs who have a life of fun in this great garden … This book is now available in New Zealand – you will enjoy it.”

Vonnie Cave, New Zealand Camellia Bulletin

“ … the book is one to own and cherish as well as a wonderful gift for any garden or dog lover … Derelie has dealt with their love of dogs in an unusual way in depicting them as having human thoughts.”

Ross Hayter, Camellia News

“If ever there was a book to inspire the gardener in you, it is Two Dogs & A Garden … this book is a delight … Derelie Cherry has captured the essence of what a garden should be all about – joy.”

Australian Senior

“Marrying plant breeder Bob Cherry changed Derelie Evely's life for good … the book … is whimsical, informative, inspiring and, with masses of well reproduced colour photography, quite beautiful.”

University of Sydney Alumni Magazine

“This book is one of the most luscious books I have read. The book is not a ‘how to’, but about plants they have gathered, propagated, and now are familiar names to us … A real treasure to read.”

Kathy Smalley, Dibble and Hoe Cottage
Dibble and Hoe Cottage Website

“ … a book celebrating two of life's more reliable pleasures … For the whole day we were slack-jawed [when Country Style first visited Paradise] … at the sights and scents and stories … they'd hunted rare camellias in Tibet … they'd rebuilt ancient Rome on their property … they'd engineered the humble polyanthus so that it burst forth with stars and stripes and polka dots … Have you hanky ready for the dog chapter. Each year I select a book to give to every deserving person in your coterie. This is the one.”

Country Style Magazine

“Garden of Eden … Welcome to Paradise, the most impressive private garden you're ever likely to see … a book of magnificent photographs, all taken by Derelie, and a book of stories …”

Good Reading Magazine

“Derelie Cherry's new book ‘Two Dogs & A Garden’ was launched by Graham Ross in the beautiful Maiden Theatre in the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens. Tim Entwistle, Director of the Gardens, was the host and he has written about the evening in his blog called Talking Plants. It was a special evening and Graham Ross paid tribute to Bob's plant genius and said that what he had done for gardeners would be around for generations to come.”

NSW Camellia Research Society Newsletter

Watch Derelie on New Zealand Television
tvnz.co.nz/good-morning/tuesday-27-september-4420278
On Demand link: tvnz.co.nz/good-morning/s2011-e270911-dereliecherry-video-4422516

Listen to Derelie talking to Scott Levi on 92.5 ABC Central Coast
blogs.abc.net.au/nsw/2009/07/derelie-cherry-blossoms-1.html

Listen to Derelie talking to Annie Warburton on ABC Hobart
blogs.abc.net.au/tasmania/hobart_evenings/page/32/

“Bob Cherry is a plants-man par excellence, explorer, breeder, grower, geneticist, designer … the list goes on … The various aspects of his life's journey are recounted with verve, as we travel through his garden, ably guided by Derelie and their two dogs … The whole is sumptuously illustrated with hundreds of photographs …”

The Gardens – Magazine of the Friends of the Gardens

Also by Derelie Cherry:
Alexander Macleay - From Scotland to Sydney