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American
Horticultural Society
The American Gardener
January/February 2003
Recommended Garden Books
Because the AHS Horticultural Book
Service was discontinued as of June 30, 2000 no further phone or mail orders
are filled. However, AHS members are still be able to order books at a
discount by linking to Amazon.com through the Society's Web site. Through this
partnership with Amazon.com, AHS members can receive better discounts on most
titles, faster delivery, greater inventory, and improved access to
hard-to-find books. The books listed here have not been critically evaluated;
they have been chosen for description based on unusual subject matter or
substantive content.
The
following
books are our current recommended garden books from the January/February 2003 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
GARDENER'S BOOKS
BOOKS IN THE
SPOTLIGHT
 Orchid
Growing for Wimps.
Ellen Zachos. Sterling Publishing Company, New York, New York, 2002. 128
pages. Publisher’s price, softcover: $12.57.
Buy This Book
Orchids and Their Conservation.
Harold Koopowitz. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2001. 176 pages. Publisher’s
price, hardcover: $27.97.
Buy This Book
Ultimate Orchid.
Thomas J. Sheehan, in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution and the
American Orchid Society. DK Publishing, New York, New York, 2001. 160 pages.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $17.47.
Buy This Book
C learly
patterned after the wildly popular Dummies series, Orchid Growing for Wimps
gives a fairly good treatment of how folks with other houseplants can grow
orchids—at least some orchids—right alongside. And this makes sense, because
so many of our commonly grown houseplants grow right alongside orchids in
nature. The book contains a few misspellings and, well, it is fir bark used
for orchid media and not pine bark, but overall this is a good way for the
aspiring orchid grower to get his or her feet wet.
The section specifically for “wimps”
is quite good, and the “don’t try this at home” section offers particularly
welcome advice. But I personally disagree with the inclusion of dendrobiums as
a group for beginners. Too many new growers start out with plants that are
destined to fail and disappoint. Zachos generally provides a real service in
steering novices away from this sort of plant.
 Orchids and
their Consersvation is not a book for the beginner, but for those seeking a
solid treatment of the orchid family by one of the most knowledgeable “orchid
guys” of our time.
Harold Koopowitz devotes wonderfully
readable chapters to explanations of what makes an orchid an orchid, their
ecology, their role in the larger ecosystem, and concerns about their
conservation. He is extraordinarily well informed on CITES (Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species) and gives a thorough analysis of
how this complex treaty affects the orchid trade. The coverage of specific
plants and their conservation is particularly interesting, as Koopowitz’s
intimate knowledge of the plants lends a depth to the presentation unavailable
anywhere else in print.
For those who want to know and
understand orchids and their place in modern conservation-related thought,
this book is a must.
Tom Sheehan, author of Ultimate
Orchid, is one of our foremost orchid experts. This is a splendid book, almost
a paragon of what an orchid book should be. The photography, representing the
best from the vast photo collection of the American Orchid Society, as well as
outstanding selections from the Smithsonian archives, simply cannot be
faulted. The captioning is accurate and clear.
A university professor, Sheehan has
spent his career educating horticulturists and it shows in this book. History,
morphology, classification, and variability are presented with exceptional
clarity. Sheehan’s overview of the various alliances is detailed yet concise,
offering a comprehensive view of today’s spectrum of widely available orchids.
His thoughts about conservation are right on the money. Also of great value is
the section on general care of orchids, with some of the best and most
illustrative photos I have seen.
These three books represent a good
cross-section of the spectrum of orchid books available today. In the end, the
final assessment of a book is whether or not you would buy it or recommend it
to your friends. As a career orchid grower, I would buy the latter two books,
and I would recommend, with qualifications, Orchid Growing for Wimps to a
novice orchid grower.
—Ned Nash
Ned Nash has made a career of growing, studying and writing about orchids. He
is director of conservation for the American Orchid Society in Delray Beach,
Florida.
For more information about orchids, including an extensive listing of
available books on all topics relating to these plants, visit the American
Orchid Society (AOS) Web site at
http://orchidweb.org/.
 Alpine
Plants of North America.
Graham Nicholls. Rick Lupp, consulting editor. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon,
2002. 344 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $34.975.
Buy This Book
Almost any week from late winter to autumn, somewhere in Great Britain or
Ireland, you can find a lavish plant show offering immaculate pots brimming
with perfectly grown, rare alpine plants. Tables groan with alpine daphnes
covered with thousands of flowers, Himalayan primroses galore, and immense,
symmetrical cushions of Dionysia—cousins to rock jasmine (Androsace spp.)—from
Iran.
But if you are looking for American alpines at these shows, you will be
frustrated. You will quite certainly encounter a number of superbly grown
Lewisia or Douglasia species and an occasional trillium or gangly calochortus.
But the daisies, Indian paintbrushes, penstemons, phloxes, milkvetches,
buckwheats, and cresses that paint the alpine meadows of the Rockies, Sierras,
and Cascades like a surrealistic canvas are almost excluded.
Graham Nicholls’ book should do much
to shine a spotlight on these glorious and insufficiently valued resources. It
is not as encyclopedic as its front cover boasts: Ferns, sedges, and grasses;
succulents like sedums, Rhodiola, and cacti; as well as practically all dwarf
woody subjects such as Cassiope and Kalmia are conspicuously absent. But there
is a superabundance of the major groups of wildflowers that grow at the
highest elevations, particularly those with a compact habit and showy blooms.
Any such ambitious effort can be
expected to have a few blemishes. For instance, the photograph on page 44 is
mislabeled Aquilegia saximontana—the flowers on true A. saximontana have an
unmistakable color and shape and are always nodding, unlike this pale,
upfacing impostor. The text implies that Astragalus coccineus is restricted to
the White Mountains of California, but it has a much wider range that includes
the Sierra Nevada. And Zauschneria garrettii does not grow in California.
There are other factual inaccuracies, but to give Nicholls credit, his book
has a far lower percentage of errors than, say, Harold Rickett’s monumental
wildflower encyclopedias produced a few decades ago.
Nicholls has spent an enormous
amount of time gathering information, making lists, and taking photographs.
His tips for germinating seed and growing plants in pots are authoritative and
invaluable to anyone who yearns to grow our native alpine gems. Best of all,
he has actually grown a large portion of the plants he covers, thus his
descriptions are precise and they glow with an honest enthusiasm. Thanks to
this book, we can look forward to many more American alpines on the benches of
the English plant shows—and hopefully in our gardens here as well. m
—Panayoti Kelaidis
Panayoti Kelaidis is curator of plant collections at the Denver Botanic
Garden, where he created the world-renowned Rock Alpine Garden.
GARDENER'S BOOKS:
Noteworthy New Titles
There are many more new books on the market than we have time or space to
review, but here are a few that recently caught our eye. Through a partnership
with amazon.com, AHS members can order these and other books at a discount by
linking to amazon.com through the Society’s Web site at www.ahs.org.
 Remarkable
Trees of the World.
Thomas Pakenham. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, New York, 2002. 192 pages.
Publisher’s price, softcover: $49.95.
Buy This Book
In this informative and inspiring book, which spans four continents and two
decades of research, historian and photographer Thomas Pakenham shares his
passion for some of the world’s most dramatic trees as well as his concern for
their survival. Chapters cover giant trees, tiny trees, old trees, historic
trees, and trees in peril. Each tree has a story, which Pakenham reveals
through historical anecdotes and exquisite photographs.
The hollowed interior of the
Chene-Chapelle (Chapel Oak), located in Allouville, Normandy, has served as a
chapel since the late 17th century. This unusual specimen has survived a
revolution, lightning, and disease. Pakenham describes it and every other tree
he visits, with an honest appreciation and a measure of awe for nature’s
majesty.
 Making
Gardens Works of Art:
Creating Your Own Personal Paradise.
Keeyla Meadows. Sasquatch Books, Seattle, Washington, 2002. 128 pages.
Publisher’s price, softcover: $15.37.
Buy This Book
Award-winning designer and artist Keeyla Meadows shows you how to create your
own style in the garden by combining plants and art in tasteful, colorful, and
sometimes flamboyant arrangements. Included are discussions of such design
considerations as elevation, focal points, connectors, harmony, and contrast.
Color in the garden and effective use of space are examined in depth.
Meadows’ colorful photographs
highlight her exuberant style. Her use of art may have you looking at your
landscape in a new light as you consider non-traditional uses of such everyday
items as shovels, or the effect of combining a variety of paving materials
into a single pathway. She challenges you to think outside of the box when it
comes to garden art and artistic garden design.
 The
Plants that Shaped Our Gardens.
David Stuart. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2002. 208
pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $27.97.
Buy This Book
David Stuart’s selective history of the plant movement focuses on plant
explorers and the treasures they sought, found, collected, and shared. It is
also an account of how garden styles were influenced by the introduction of
plants from foreign lands. Chapters cover such topics as “Treasures of the
East,” “The American Garden,” and “From the Wilderness to the Rose Garden.”
Stuart explains how certain plantsmen
were “networkers” who had contacts with botanists throughout the civilized
world and who were driving forces in the exchange of plants between the new
world and the old.
By relating the amazing and
sometimes harrowing details of how plants were collected and introduced into
cultivation, this book offers an enriching perspective about the plants we
grow.
 Natural
Landscaping: Designing with Native Plant Communities.
John Diekelmann and Robert Schuster. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison,
2002. 301 pages. Publisher’s price, softcover: $17.475.
Buy This Book
This revised edition of a popular reference, first published 20 years ago, has
been updated and expanded to reflect changes in plant nomenclature,
information technology, and environmental concerns such as invasive plant
species. Also added is a chapter about a specific restoration project in
central Wisconsin and its meaning to the community in terms of an expanded
appreciation of both the natural world and human history in the region.
Private, public, and commercial
landscapes are addressed, and a step-by-step approach directs gardeners from
site analysis through designing a plan for a variety of conditions. Both color
and black and white photographs illustrate plants and plant communities.
Extensive appendices list plants and places to observe natural plant
communities.
 The
Botanical Garden, Volume I: Trees and Shrubs.
The Botanical Garden, Volume II: Perennials and Annuals.
Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix. Firefly Books, Westport, Connecticut, 2002.
Volume I: 492 pages;
Buy This Book
Volume II: 540 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $52.50 per volume.
Buy This Book
A resource for serious gardeners,
horticultural students, and garden and landscape professionals, these two
volumes include entries on over 1,000 genera of plants, with more than 4,000
color photographs.
Entries include botanical and
common names, date of discovery, range, key recognition features, and
evolutionary relationships. By supplying the month and day photographs were
taken, readers can observe seasonal variability within each plant. Also
included is information about plant explorers, history, ecology, and plant
lore. Plants are classified by family and are listed in evolutionary order.
 “Forget
not Mee & My Garden…”:
Selected Letters 1725–1768 of Peter Collinson, F.R.S.
Alan W. Armstrong, editor. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 2002.
300 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $60.
Buy This Book
Peter Collinson was a London cloth merchant in the 18th century who conducted
a massive international business in plant imports, particularly with his
connections in the American colonies. His letters reveal a great deal about
the gardening of his day, as well as history, geology, botany, and zoology.
Among his correspondents were John and William Bartram, Benjamin Franklin, and
Carl Linnaeus. Collinson’s enthusiasm for the exchange of knowledge provides
interesting and insightful reading for the garden history buff. The book is
illustrated in color with beautifully rendered historical prints of people,
plants, animals, and places.
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