in the course of a long public career, hellyer wrote an extremely large number (over 100) of influential gardening books: one of the first, "the alphabet of gardening", subtitled "a complete concise and comprehensive guide to practical gardening" was published in 1927; one of the last, the "hellyer gardening encyclopedia", was published in 1993, not long before his death. his titles were often ambitious, but the contents of his books were always as comprehensive as the claims in his 'encyclopaedias', 'directories', 'diaries' and 'guides'. some of his books covered single plants, such as "chrysanthemums" (1958), "roses" (1957), "dahlias" (1963) and "tomatoes" (1954). some covered specific aspects or problems, as "plant propagation" (1955), "herbaceous borders" (1955), or "garden pests and diseases" (1964). others enticed the amateur gardener with titles such as "practical gardening for amateurs" (1966), or "starting with roses" (1966). his knowledge was always practical, whatever the subject. hellyer pioneered the intensive use of illustrations in gardening books, with titles such as "flowers in colour" (1965) and a series of "amateur gardening picture books" published by collingridge.