In 1975 Roger Phillips began his life’s major work of photographing and publishing pictures of the World’s garden plants. Using modern photographic techniques, Roger set out to develop an encyclopedic collection of books to show the difference between plants as diverse as mosses, roses and annuals. His first book Wild Flowers of Britain was a huge success, selling 400,000 copies in the first year. He has since written 20 additional volumes (often with his co-author Martyn Rix) selling over 4.5million copies worldwide. In the meantime, he follows Voltaire’s dictum of “tending his own garden”. In London this involves organising the planting and upkeep of the communal plot in Ecclestone Square where he lives; and also doing a bit of experimenting at a small cottage he owns in Wiltshire. He cooks and eats outside whenever he can; his last birthday meal involved – “bugger the neighbours” – a wood fire on the balcony of his flat.

Mushrooms of North America : The Most Comprehensive Mushroom Guide Ever with over 1,000 Color Photos

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Roger Phillips, who has died aged 88, was a self-taught plantsman and portrait photographer of plants, the author or co-author of numerous beautifully illustrated books, including guides to wild flowers and edible wild plants, roses and other garden flowers, fungi, and even fish. September this year saw the publication of a new edition of his Vegetables (with Martyn Rix), and at the time of his death he was working on new editions of his two earliest books, Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland and Trees in Britain.

He was managing director of RogersRoses.com from 2001 and his books included Vegetables: The Definitive Guide for Gardenersand The Random House Book of Perennials(both with Martyn Rix), Wild Food, Mushrooms, and The Botanical Garden.Roger t In 1975 Roger Phillips began his life’s major work of photographing and publishing pictures of the World’s garden plants. Using modern photographic techniques, Roger set out to develop an encyclopedic collection of books to show the difference between plants as diverse as mosses, roses and annuals. His first book Wild Flowers of Britain was a huge success, selling 400,000 copies in the first year. He has since written 20 additional volumes (often with his co-author Martyn Rix) selling over 4.5million copies worldwide. a b c d e f "Roger Phillips, plantsman, mycologist, forager and photographer who produced a long series of acclaimed guides to the flora of the world – obituary". The Daily Telegraph. 26 November 2021 . Retrieved 26 November 2021.

a b c d e f g h Russell, Tony (2 December 2021). "Roger Phillips obituary". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 December 2021. map. Multiple social features are integrated including being able to engage the wider user group inPhillips was best known as an expert on roses and fungi.He was Honorary Garden Manager at Ecclestone Square in London and in the 2010 New Year's Honours Listwas awarded the MBE for services to London Garden Squares. He wrote and presented two six-part TV series on gardening (BBC & Channel 4). Famed for his ebullient personality and garish red glasses, he has become a well-recognised figure in the world of gardening. Those attitudes went surprisingly deep. When he was researching his first mushroom book Phillips was up in Scotland staying on a farm. The farmer was a “tight sod, who charged you extra for hot water and all that”. Phillips was out every day collecting chanterelles. One evening he told the farmer: “You have millions of these in your woods. Put them in a box and send them to France and you will make a small fortune.” The farmer looked at him and said simply: “People shouldnae eat that shite.” “And that was it. That idea was common.”

Plants for Europe's Graham Spencer said: "So many great books came from Roger Phillips pen and camera. I have several on my shelf, still referred to regularly." Phillips accepts their compliments modestly while polishing off his stew – a dish I feel I could eat every winter lunchtime and never tire of. There is some discussion of the origin of the chanterelles – Portugal at this time of year – and we then wander to the edge of the market to get a glass of wine and sit and talk about the mulchy beginnings of his first love. Phillips published books about trees and ferns and wild flowers before he got to mushrooms. He didn’t think the publisher at Pan would go for it. The British, he suggests, had always been funny about fungi. While across Europe and beyond natives would be out in fields and forests as if on pilgrimage in mushroom season, in the UK there was no tradition. “We were famous for herbs from medieval times, of course,” says Phillips. “But those books tend to refer to mushrooms as ‘the spit of Jesus’ or ‘the fruit of the devil’. Because they grew up from nowhere overnight they were associated with witchcraft.” It is a trade system in which the mushrooms which do not have chlorophyll, and therefore cannot use sunlight to generate nutrients, receive sugars and other compounds that they need from the tree or plant. Roger Phillips: he cautioned that novice mushroom hunters should always have experts identify their finds

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Definitely one of the largest pictorial collection of UK native fungi and a must own for anyone interested in fungi.