|
January/February
2000 Recommended Garden Books
To better serve our
members, AHS has teamed up with Amazon.com. We can now offer better
discounts on most titles, faster deliveries, more inventory, and
improved access to hard-to-find titles. The books listed here are based
on perceived reader interest, unusual subject matter, or substantive
content. To order, or for information about other gardening books,
please call Trish Gibson at (800) 777-7931 ext. 136.
The following books are our
current recommended garden books from the January/February issue of The
American Gardener. To read the review just click on
the book title. You can then order the book directly from Amazon.com by
clicking on "Buy this book!" that follows each review.
BOOKS IN THE
SPOTLIGHT
NATURALISTIC
GARDENS
IMAGINATIVE GARDENS
BOOKS IN THE
SPOTLIGHT
THE
EXPLORER'S GARDEN: RARE AND UNUSUAL PERENNIALS.
Daniel J. Hinkley. Timber Press,
Portland, Oregon, 1999. 380 pages. 73/4" 5 103/4".
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $39.50. AHS price: $28.
Oh, the places you’ll go and
the plants you will meet! In this wonderful book on rare and unusual
perennials Daniel Hinkley takes his readers on fascinating journeys of
plant exploration and discovery. Beyond the finding of a plant—in the
wild or as a cultivar—Hinkley shares what he has learned about the
plants, how they grow in their native haunts, how they grow in
cultivation, and what special qualities the plants possess to delight
the eye and enrich the garden.
It is difficult to imagine a
better qualified individual to write such a book. Hinkley grows a
staggering 9,000 plants in his Kingston, Washington, garden on Puget
Sound. His garden serves as a laboratory for growing and evaluating
plants from around the world. When Hinkley is not traveling in search of
yet more plants, he is likely to be writing, lecturing, or operating his
Heronswood Nursery. It is from this crucible that a single-minded
dedication to horticulture and learning admirably shows itself. What the
reader of this book gets is quality first-hand information from someone
who has observed the plants in the wild and grown them in the garden,
all spiced with wit and insightful opinion.
Upon first picking up this
book, even the most experienced gardeners are apt to find a plethora of
perennials that are completely new to them. The subtitle of the book is
not in the least misleading, for here is an assembly of truly special,
rare, and unusual perennials. Hinkley has selected them for their
ornamental qualities and garden merit—not simply because they are rare
or obscure. The reader’s introduction to these wonderful perennials is
complemented by the photographs of Lynne Harrison, which are
consistently spectacular. They tell the story in a way words alone could
not. Who could fail to become enthralled—and covetous—by the photo
of Hacquetia epipactis ‘Thor’, which has leaves and floral bracts
with cream-colored variegation.
The hundreds of perennials
described in the book’s 28 chapters are grouped by family. Here is the
titanic Gunnera masafaurae, with leaves 10 feet across, described along
with its diminutive cousin G. monoica, which has leaves that might reach
a half-inch across—in a good year. Such contrasts and comparisons are
effective in describing the breadth and depth of a genus. In the chapter
on Cimicifuga, the bugbanes or snakeroots, Hinkley describes both the
North American and the Asian species in this small genus. This may be
one of those cases where every one of the 20 or so species is
garden-worthy.
Plants with bold foliage
abound. There is a wonderful introduction of the genus Rogersia and its
cultivars, stunning perennials that are valued for their foliage as well
as their flowers, which are reminiscent of the bottle-brush buckeye, a
woody plant. Among the ornamental rhubarbs described is Rheum acuminatum
from Nepal, a multi-season ornamental that bears textured leaves with
purplish-red undersides on red petioles and stalks of three-foot-long
rose-red flowers followed by red fruit. Another knockout plant is Rheum
‘Ace of Hearts’, with leaves that are green on top and rich burgundy
beneath.
Other plants treated in depth
are the hardy gingers (Asarum spp.), Jack-in-the-pulpits (Arisaema spp.),
the sinfully underused masterworts (Astrantia spp.), geraniums, Paris
quadrifolia, and the genus Omphalodes.
The number and varieties of all
kinds of plants available to gardeners has increased immensely over the
past 20 years or so, and American gardens are the better for it. This,
in fact, is in no small part due to individuals such as Hinkley, who are
smitten and committed collectors willing to go almost anywhere in search
of new and better plants, and who are also willing to share their
discoveries in books such as this one.
Is The Explorer’s Garden one
of the best books on perennials ever written? You bet it is. —Carl
Hahn
Former chief of the Natural
Resources Division of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning
Commission, Carl Hahn has been involved in the introduction of hundreds
of plants new to American horticulture. Buy
This Book.
A
CLEARING IN THE DISTANCE Witold Rybczynski. Scribner, New York,
1999. 422 pages. 61/2" 5 91/2". Publisher’s price,
hardcover: $28. AHS price:$20.
Americans owe a great deal to
Frederick Law Olmsted for his tireless
efforts and remarkable vision in designing large tracts of land in inner
cities and suburbs for the preservation of natural beauty. With his
partner, Calvert Vaux, he planned Central and Prospect Parks in New York
City and invented America’s first parkway. He devised the country’s
first regional plan—for Staten Island—and was a proponent of
national parks. But as Witold Rybczynski makes clear in his new
biography of Olmsted, he was much more than a landscape architect.
Born in 1822, Olmsted was
reared in comfortable circumstances; his indulgent father supported him
until his mid-30’s. He traveled in Europe and tried his hand at a
variety of professions—surveyor, merchant seaman, farmer, journalist,
and publisher. In later years he co-founded The Nation magazine, ran a
gold mine in California, and served as chief executive officer of the
United States Sanitation Commission, precursor of the Red Cross.
Rybczynski writes it was
Olmsted’s travels in England that “evidently awakened in him a
desire to understand exactly how natural elements could be manipulated
to create an effect of picturesqueness or sublimity.”
Luck intervened for Olmsted
when political connections and acquaintances secured him a position as
superintendent of the Central Park project, in charge of the park’s
construction workforce. He teamed up with architect Calvert Vaux to
develop a winning entry for the park’s overall design. The firm
Olmsted, Vaux & Company was on its way to becoming the country’s
first landscape architecture firm.
Rybczynski identifies
Brooklyn’s Prospect Park as one of Olmsted and Vaux’s great
masterpieces, “a transcendental vision of a unified, peaceful country,
in which the meadows represent agriculture, the wooded terrain is the
American wilderness, and the lakeside terrace and its more refined
architecture, civilization.” Other masterworks include Boston’s
Emerald Necklace, the design of the grounds at the United States Capitol
in Washington, D.C., and a network of parks and public spaces in
Buffalo, New York, to show “how the burgeoning American industrial
city could be made livable.”
I have a few minor quibbles
with the book: At times Rybczynski interjects his own opinions about
events in Olmsted’s life, and he includes several fictional
passages—set off in italics—in which he imagines what Olmsted must
have been thinking or feeling. I found both devices distracting and
unnecessary, particularly since the biographical sources are so
extensive.
Still, A Clearing in the
Distance is a very readable and excellent biography of a man to whom the
country owes a great debt for the movement he started to preserve
natural spaces for enjoyment of all Americans. —Jane Berger
Jane Berger is a partner in The
Garden Design Group LLC of Alexandria, Virginia. Buy
This Book.
TREASURED
PERENNIALS Graham Stuart Thomas. Sagapress, Inc., Sagaponack,
New York, 1999. 180
pages, 182 color illustrations. 8" 5 101/2". Publisher’s
price, hardcover: $39.95. AHS price: $28.
One cannot go wrong with a new
book by English plantsman Graham Stuart Thomas. While he is already
famous for his prolific and beautifully crafted garden writings on
perennials, garden design, ground covers, trees, roses—especially
shrub roses—and for his skills as a photographer and botanical
illustrator, we can now also appreciate his love for poetry and music.
Both are convincingly blended into a book that describes more than 200
special perennials.
Reading Treasured Perennials is
like having a conversation with a botanical master. The reader feels as
if he or she is visiting a venerable plantsman at his home and being
treated to the best he has to offer: a tour of his garden, his
watercolors, and his music. Plants are presented in alphabetical order,
but there is no attempt to systematically describe the cultural details
for each, such as sun/shade requirements, height, color and timing of
bloom. Each chapter begins with a quote from the verse of English poet
A. E. Housman, the subject of which is a plant in the category described
in the chapter. From the beginning we think of plants in the context of
poetry.
What makes these perennials
treasured? Thomas wishes to draw attention to lesser-known species of
well-known genera. He writes, “It strikes me as little short of
extraordinary that so many plants should have been in cultivation in
these islands for so many years—even hundreds of years—without ever
becoming popular.”
The most compelling quality
that unites the perennial treasures, however, is that they look as good
as possible for as long as possible in the garden. Thomas writes,
“Today it is not enough to appraise the flowers, we have to look and
study the whole plant if each garden is to be different from the
next.” In particular, Thomas stresses the importance of foliage:
“While flowers come and go at short notice, the leaves are with us for
months on end, therefore their study is of paramount importance in
planning a garden.”
As to be expected, Thomas’s
book has a British perspective, and many of the plants he describes are
not easily grown in many American gardens. For the convenience of
American readers, the USDA hardiness zone map and USDA zone information
for all plants are included.
The music to which Thomas has
set poems of A. E. Housman is the most unusual aspect of this garden
book. Thomas describes his early love of gardening as developing
coincidentally with his love of the works of A. E. Housman and 16th- and
17th-century madrigals. These elements are in harmony in his life, as
the elements of a treasured perennial are in harmony. He simply writes,
“I think that music and gardening make good companions; they bring
into use different senses and abilities and together make for happy
days.” And so they do. —Chela R. Kleiber
Chela R. Kleiber is Director of
Education at Tyler Arboretum in Media, Pennsylvania. She is co-author of
Burpee Complete Gardener. She gardens in Philadelphia. Buy
This Book.
NATURALISTIC
GARDENS
THE
WILDLIFE SANCTUARY GARDEN
Carol Buchanan. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California, 1999. 209 pages.
Publisher’s price, paperback: $11.95. AHS price: $9.75.
Turn your backyard into a
wildlife garden. This guide, complete with photographs and
illustrations, defines a wildlife sanctuary garden and explains how to
create one. The book focuses on care and maintenance of native plants.
Included are sections on attracting animals and controlling pests. Buy
This Book.
WILDLIFE
IN THE GARDEN: HOW TO LIVE IN HARMONY WITH DEER, RACOONS, RABBITS,
CROWS AND OTHER PESKY CREATURES
Gene Logsdon. Indiana University Press, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1999. 275
pages. Publisher’s price, paperback: $14.95. AHS price: $12.
This guide shows how gardeners
can live in harmony with deer, raccoons, rabbits, crows, and other
creatures. The author presents his information in an imaginative way,
using various characters to represent alternative points of view.
Characters Smith, Brown, the Widow Lady, the Beekeeper, and the Farmer
give advice for living with nature and offer information about some less
appreciated garden visitors such as snakes, bats, owls, wasps, and
leeches. Buy
This Book.
WILDFLOWER
GARDEN C. Colston Burrell. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc.,
Brooklyn, New York, 1999. 111 pages. Publisher’s price, paperback:
$9.95. AHS price: $8.
Part of the 21st-Century
Gardening Series, Wildflower Garden reviews 60 spectacular plants and
describes how to grow them in the garden. A portfolio of various
wildflower gardens is presented, including shade gardens, water and bog
gardens, and meadow and prairie gardens. Many color photographs
complement the text. Buy
This Book.
THE
HUMMINGBIRD GARDEN Mathew Tekulsky. The Harvard Common Press,
Boston, Massachusetts, 1999. 118 pages. Publisher’s price, paperback:
$12.95. AHS price: $12.95.
The Hummingbird Garden explains
how to create a garden to attract hummingbirds. By understanding the
habits of hummingbirds, one can more easily determine the types of
flowers and feeders to use in the garden. This book includes complete
information on hummingbird and plant species, bird and conservation
organizations, mail-order sources, and an extensive bibliography. Buy
This Book.
THE
BUTTERFLY GARDEN Mathew Tekulsky. The Harvard Common Press,
Boston, Massachusetts, 1999. 144 pages. Publisher’s price, paperback:
$10.95. AHS price: $10.95.
This book is a complete
step-by-step guide to butterfly gardens. It addresses the life cycle,
habitats, and behavior of butterflies as well as information on
designing a butterfly garden in the country, suburbs, or city. One
section reviews 50 common garden butterflies and the plants to which
they are attracted. By understanding their habits and preferences,
plants can be included that will entice a wide variety of brightly
colored butterflies to any garden. Buy
This Book.
EASY
LAWNS Stevie Daniels. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc., Brooklyn,
New York, 1999. 111 pages. Publisher’s price, paperback: $9.95. AHS
price: $8.
One of Brooklyn Botanic
Garden's 21st-Century Gardening Series, Easy Lawns suggests and
discusses growing lawns of species adapted to your specific region,
instead of the conventional turf grasses that require frequent mowing
and supplemental applications of water, fertilizer, and pesticides. Many
of the alternative lawns require little or no irrigation once they’re
established, nor do they need regular fertilizing or mowing.
Photographs, diagrams, and detailed explanations make this an easy to
read guide for lawn alternatives. Buy
This Book.
IMAGINATIVE GARDENS
GARDEN
WHIMSY Tovah Martin and Richard W.
Brown. New York, New York, 1999. 160 pages. Publisher’s price,
hardcover: $30. AHS price: $21.
This new book by the authors of
Tasha Tudor’s Garden will amuse and inspire readers to add a whimsical
touch to their own gardens. Numerous color photographs illustrate how
some creative gardeners have used birdhouses, scarecrows, topiary
animals, gates, and fences to lend interest and whimsy to their
landscape. Other objects not commonly associated with gardens are woven
into eccentric combinations. Buy
This Book.
GARDENS
OF THE IMAGINATION Sophie Biriotti. Chronicle Books, San
Francisco, California, 1999. 144 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover:
$24.95. AHS price; $17.50.
This collection of fiction and
poetry by some of the world's most well known writers throughout the
ages makes a great gift for gardeners who appreciate literature as well
as plants. Artist Peter Malone beautifully illustrates each selection as
readers are led on a journey through the gardens of Nathaniel Hawthorne,
John Milton, Vladimir Nabokov, Zora Neale Hurston, Pablo Neruda, Italo
Calvino, Lewis Carroll, Octavio Pav, and many others. Buy
This Book.
FLOWERKEEPING
Georgeanne Brennan and Kathryn Kleinman. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley,
California. 144 pages. Publisher’s price, paperback: $17.95. AHS
price: $14.50.
Flowerkeeping introduces the
reader to the art of preserving and arranging flowers. The book begins
with an overview of Victorian traditions; it proceeds to explain the
many techniques that can be used for drying flowers—including the use
of air, silver sand, and silica, as well as pressing, waxing, sugaring,
and freezing. Each chapter highlights different flowers and the
preservation techniques that are best suited to them. Vivid color
photographs illustrate how artfully preserved flowers can keep blooms
“alive” all year long. Buy
This Book.
MAPLES
FOR GARDENS C.J. and D.M. van
Gelderen. Timber Press, Inc., Portland, Oregon, 1999. 294 pages.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $49.95. AHS price: $35.
Maple trees occur naturally
over most of the Northern Hemisphere and are among the most versatile
garden trees. This color encyclopedia illustrates the broad spectrum of
maple species with photographs from more than 30 arboretums, gardens,
and nurseries in several countries. Japanese maples are well represented
with several new cultivars and updated taxonomy. This resource will help
the gardener explore the great diversity of maples available for
inclusion in their own gardens. Buy
This Book.
|
