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Recommended Gardening
Books - List 2
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| The 400 Best Garden Plants : A
Practical Encyclopedia of Annuals, Perennials,
Bulbs, Trees, and Shrubs by Elvin McDonald |
| Hardcover - 432 pages Reprint edition
(September 1998) |
| This
fully comprehensive guide to the outstanding garden
plants of every season should be on the book shelves
of both novice gardeners and green-fingered experts.
More than 425 full-color photographs illustrate
detailed listings for specific varieties of annuals,
perennials, bulbs, and trees. Each category features
troubleshooting advice, instruction on cultivation
and maintenance, tips on garden design, and schedules
for garden care in every season. There is also
detailed information on bringing outdoor plants
into the home so that beautiful plants can be
part of life the year round in every climate. |
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| 80 Great Collector's Garden Plants
(Ken Druse's Natural Garde Guides) by Ken Druse,
Kenneth Druse |
| Paperback - 128 pages 1st edition
(March 1998) |
| It's
one thing to be a gardener, and entirely another
to be a plant collector. But the gardeners of
the world are still interested in unusual plants,
and collectors of rare plants do find it necessary
to know how to keep their prizes alive. Ken Druse's
earlier book The Collector's Garden covered much
of the ground between the two areas of interest.
In this fascinating small addendum to the plant
collector's oeuvre, Druse helps gardeners to determine
which of the 80 beautiful collectible plants he
includes will be happy in their very own gardens.
It's a perfect companion volume to The Collector's
Garden as well as an interesting introduction
to collectible plants. |
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| Country Garden Planner by Darrell
Trout, Country Home (Editor) |
| Hardcover - 192 pages (October
1998) |
| "Country
gardens" are popular these days. They are distinguished
not so much by their location or size as by their
abundance, informality, and profusion of color.
Country Garden Planner shows 19 beautiful incarnations
of the country garden--water gardens, scented
gardens, shade gardens, dried-flower gardens--with
photographs, plant suggestions, and a roughed-in
plan for each. There's also a chapter on creating
your own country garden, with advice on attracting
birds and butterflies, container gardening, and
using structures in the garden. The plant suggestions
are satisfyingly old-fashioned, and include color,
size, and zone information. Country Garden Planner
isn't an in-depth planning guide, but the pictures
and text are pleasantly harmonious, providing
gentle inspiration to would-be bucolic green thumbs. |
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| American Horticultural Society
A To Z Encyclopedia Of Garden Plants by Christopher
Brickell (Editor), Judith Zuk (Editor), American
horticultural, Judy D. Zuk (Editor) |
| Hardcover - 1092 pages 1 Amer Ed
edition (September 1997) |
| Collecting
contributions from 100 distinguished horticulturists,
the handsome and lavishly illustrated American
Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden
Plants is a truly definitive gardening reference.
With its 1,092 tiny-print pages, this may not
be the book to tuck into your pocket as you weed
and mulch, but what this encyclopedia lacks in
portability, it certainly makes up for in scope.
Hardy and tender plants, heirloom varieties and
the latest hybrids--they're all accounted for
here, with growing tips and background information
about native habitats and ornamental features.
You'll also find a fascinating section about botany,
as well as information about basic gardening techniques
such as mulching, staking, pruning, propagating,
and protecting plants for winter. But the encyclopedia's
main attraction is the individual plant entries--more
than 15,000 of them, embellished with 6,000 full-color
photographs and illustrations. From the visual
glossary of leaves to the map of growing regions,
The American Horticultural Society A-Z of Garden
Plants provides an unsurpassed wealth of botanical
information, making it the yardstick by which
all other gardening references must be measured. |
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| Japanese Garden Design by Marc
P. Keane, Haruzo Ohashi (Photographer), Haruso
Ohashi (Photographer) |
| Hardcover - 200 pages 1st edition
(March 1997) |
| Once
introduced to Japan's aesthetic sensibilities
and philosophical underpinnings, Westerners often
develop an appreciation of Japan's traditional
gardens. Keane's handsome, explanatory survey,
however, offers garden lovers who simply fail
to see beauty in Japanese landscapes a rich resource
for comprehending this ancient art form. Beautifully
written descriptions illuminate historical development,
religious and societal associations, and relationships
between garden design and other Japanese arts.
And Keane's great affinity with his subject, after
immersion in Japanese life and the creation of
gardens in Japan, affords him the ability to reveal
countless subtleties in the acclaimed gardens
pictured. In this fascinating commentary, Keane,
a thoroughly engaging, insightful observer, clarifies
the essence of what occurs when the elements of
Japanese design intermingle to form a near perfect
realm. |
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| The Year in Trees : Superb Woody
Plants for Four-Season Gardens by Kim E. Tripp,
J. C. Raulston (Contributor) |
| Hardcover - 208 pages (October
1995) |
| The
Year in Trees looks beyond the old standards of
trees, shrubs, and vines that dominate our landscapes.
Authors J. C. Raulston and Kim Tripp participated
in the North Carolina State University (NCSU)
Arboretum’s trials of more than 9,000 new and
unusual woody plants from all over the world.
This book is part of their effort to spread the
word about high-quality woody landscape plants
that, in Raulston’s words, "deserve a chance in
our gardens." It contains 150 plant portraits
divided into four parts corresponding to the seasons,
to help readers to select the appropriate tree
or shrub. Each portrait offers a thorough description
of a particular plant and its relatives, provides
cultural, hardiness, and propagation information,
and offers tips for the best ways to use it in
gardens. Many excellent photographs, most of them
taken by Raulston, show each subject at its best.
The Year in Trees will help gardeners throughout
the country find exciting new plants to enliven
the landscape. |
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| Plants That Merit Attention :
Shrubs (Vol 2) by Garden Club of America, Nancy
Peterson Brewster (Editor), ja Poor, Janet Meakin
Poor |
| Hardcover - 2 pages Vol 2 (October
1996) |
| Don't
let the magisterial title of this large volume,
part of the Garden Club of America's ongoing series,
put you off. The authors have provided a marvelous
compendium of alternatives to the hardy perennials
of American garden shrubs: rhododendrons, forsythias,
and yews. Here are hundreds of lesser-known shrubs
(along with the common varieties, of course),
each presented with a photograph and a brief,
authoritative text. Arranged alphabetically, the
book includes a set of appendices categorizing
all the cultivars by pest and disease resistance,
soil preference, shade tolerance, and several
other factors. This is a book that no comprehensive
gardening library can be without. |
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| Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs
: An Illustrated Encyclopedia by Michael A. Dirr |
| Hardcover - 493 pages illustrate
edition (October 1997) |
| Dirr,
a horticulture professor at the University of
Georgia, has spent more than 25 years photographing
trees and shrubs. For this volume, 1,600 of his
color photographs were used to illustrate 500
species of U.S. northern trees and shrubs, suitable
for zones 3 to 8 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture
Hardiness Zone Map. Dirr's photos are also used
in Michael A. Dirr's Photo-Library of Woody Landscape
Plants on CD-ROM (PlantAmerica, dist. by Timber
Press).
Entries
are arranged alphabetically by scientific name
and describe the habitat, foliage, flower, fruit,
landscape use, etc., of the trees and shrubs.
The author has a descriptive and entertaining
style--he writes that the eastern redbud has
"no equal, no competitor . . . the stage is
reserved for this native species"; and mapleleaf
viburnum is "this suckering, colonizing denizen
of the woods. . . ." The descriptions of the
trees and shrubs are from three sentences to
half a column, with the rest of the page filled
with beautiful color photographs of varying
sizes. The photographs illustrate, at different
seasons, the flowers, fruit, and bark, as well
as the leaves and the whole shrub or tree. The
last part of the volume provides numerous lists
and charts of trees, shrubs, and vines for design
and cultural characteristics, such as tolerance
to drought, weeping habit, or flowering sequence
by month. The USDA Hardiness Zone Map and a
common and scientific name index complete the
volume.
A
number of garden books have been published recently,
but this volume and The American Horticultural
Society A^-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants [RBB
Ja 1 & 15 98] will become standard garden reference
sources in public and academic libraries. Dirr's
volume is especially enjoyable and useful for
the gardener in the eastern U.S.
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| Growing Conifers : Four/Season
Plants by Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Susan F. Martin
(Editor), Kim Tripp (Editor), R. William Thomas
(Editor) |
| Paperback - 112 pages (September
1997) |
| Conifers, the most underrated plants
in the landscape world, provide the garden with
strong form, color and texture in each season.
These versatile low-maintenance plants come in
an array of shapes other than the ubiquitous pyramid
and in umpteen colors - yellows, blues, grays
and maroons. This essential guide will help you
select the conifers that will set your garden's
stage - every day of the year. |
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| Ortho's Houseplant Encyclopedia
by Ortho Books, Marianne Lipanovich (Editor),
Larry Hodgson |
| Paperback - 112 pages (May 1993)
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| An A-Z guide to plants for indoor
gardens, from familiar favorites to exotic species,
this book describes almost 300 plants, with advice
on watering, feeding, potting, and propagating
them. |
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