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American
Horticultural Society
The American Gardener
January/February 2004
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 2004 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.
BOOK REVIEWS
Recommendations for Your Gardening
Library
GARDENER’S BOOKS
Tomes About Trees
BOOK REVIEWS
Recommendations for Your Gardening Library
 Native
Trees for North American Landscapes(From the Atlantic to the Rockies). Guy
Sternberg with Jim Wilson, Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2004. 575 pages.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $41.97.
Buy This Book
Among my collection of garden books, a few look sadly bedraggled, with
bindings falling apart, or spine type worn off. Sometimes I fault poor
production. But in the case of the original version of this book, Landscaping
with Native Trees, published as a paperback in 1995, I have to blame my own
passionate affection. It’s puffy from rain, stained from coffee, battered from
various strange things being used as bookmarks, because I lug it out to the
garden, off to the weekend house, and onto the trail. As a guide to our native
trees, it was both paean and practical, so I was surprised to hear it had gone
out of print—and jubilant to hear that Timber Press was going to reproduce it.
“Reproduce,” it turns out, was a
major misunderstanding. The book has doubled in size, by virtue of including
more species, more detailed descriptions, and more photographs. Sternberg has
updated information on cultivars, including tips on why you don’t necessarily
need to spend that money (sure, you can buy a “cottonless” cottonwood, but you
can also simply propagate a male specimen) and national champion trees. (That
was a major focus of the previous book that is a bit neglected here.)
The range of photos—single specimen
profiles, close-ups of nuts, leaves, flowers, and bark, and an occasional
grove of trees or leafless branches in a woodland or on a snow-swept plains—is
magnificent. The previous version of the book had way too many pictures of the
coauthors—much as I like and respect them—posed beside their subjects.
Although the champion trees needed this for perspective, Timber’s answer was
to start each entry with a silhouette drawing of the tree indicating shape and
relative size. There’s a selection guide for special environmental situations.
The result may be somewhat less
down-home friendly than my beat-up old pal, but it achieves a fine mix of
academic information and poetic appreciation that could make it a classic. Now
I just have to figure out how to lug around something twice as big.
—Kathleen Fisher
A resident of Alexandria, Virginia, Kathleen Fisher is author, most
recently, of Taylor’s Guide to Shrubs, published by Houghton-Mifflin.
 Roses: A Celebration,
Thirty-three Eminent Gardeners on their Favorite Rose.
Edited by Wayne Winterrowd. Original paintings by Pamela Stagg. North Point
Press, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2003. 256 pages. Publisher’s
price, hardcover: $21.
Buy This Book
Roses: A Celebration is a collection of 33 essays written by some of the
finest garden writers and rosarians of the 20th century, including Graham
Stuart Thomas, David Austin, Lauren Springer, Dan Hinkley, and Ken Druse,
among others. Each writer discusses his or her favorite rose, but the book is
much more than a tribute to a selection of hybrids and species.
Many of the essayists use the subject
of roses as a springboard to communicate a life truth or an insight into human
relationships. Jamaica Kincaid writes, “I take it as a given that all things
worth loving are difficult, hard to pin down, and changeable, all the while
being true to themselves. The ‘Alchymist’ can do whatever it wants, but it
remains a rose, the rose that I love.”
Many of the writers hold strong
opinions, and they are not shy about expressing them. Therein lies much of the
entertainment. Henry Mitchell, who wrote a much-loved garden column for the
Washington Post newspaper for more than 20 years, had an antipathy towards
hybrid tea roses. Of ‘Chrysler Imperial’ Mitchell wrote, “when it blooms I
always feel that I have witnessed an upheaval rather than a flowering.” He was
equally disparaging about the rose ‘Peace’, which he said, “has huge flowers
that should please anyone who has always longed to grow the largest turnip in
the world.”
Each essay in the book is prefaced by
an original color painting by Pamela Stagg of the rose in the spotlight.
This is a book you can dip into at
random when you have a spare five or 10 minutes to read one essay. But beware:
The book is addictive. It is easy to become so immersed that an hour or two
later you find yourself still reading, and saying, “I’ll read just one more
essay, and then I’ll stop.” But you can’t. And that’s all right. Give in to
the pleasure and enjoy the book.
—Catriona Tudor Erler
Catriona Tudor Erler’s most recent books are Poolscaping: Gardening and
Landscaping Around Your Swimming Pool and Spa, The Frugal Gardener and
Complete Home Landscaping. She writes and gardens in Vienna, Virginia.
GARDENER’S
BOOKS
Tomes About Trees
Trees are the backbone of a landscape. They line our avenues, shade our
gardens, frame our houses, and provide homes for wildlife. The right tree adds
charm and value to the landscape; alternatively, the loss of a tree can be
devastating. For help in selecting, caring, and appreciating our woody
sentinels, we recommend these recently published books.
Selecting the best tree for your yard
requires a bit of research, and two recently published books are here to help.
Trees for the Yard and Garden by John Cushnie (Tafalgar Square
Publishing, 2003) offers recommendations and descriptions of the best trees
for special purposes, including those adaptable to clay soil, alkaline soil,
sunny dry sites, for growing against walls, in small gardens etc. The chapter
“Trees Grow on You” addresses care and culture, from planting and pruning to
propagation.
Buy This Book.
 Best
Trees for Your Garden by Allen Paterson (Firefly Books, Ltd., 2003) begins
by providing a sympathetic perspective of “how trees as living organisms
arrange their lives,” and what trees mean to us and our landscapes. Paterson
also offers advice on choosing the right tree for the constraints of your
site. Both books include directories of broad leaf trees and conifers,
consisting of encyclopedic entries that provide valuable insight into the
landscape attributes of each.
Buy This Book.
 For
beautiful hand painted illustrations of over 1,000 species and varieties
commonly cultivated in Europe—many of which are also grown in the United
States—look for The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trees by John White,
illustrated by David More (Timber Press, 2002). Each double-page spread
contains descriptions and detailed illustrations of leaves or needles, bark,
flowers, fruit, etc.
Buy This Book.
 If
you need some maintenance advice for your trees, The Tree Doctor: A Guide
to Tree Care and Maintenance (Firefly Books, 2003) by Daniel and Erin
Prendergast is a good place to start. In addition to tips on selecting the
right tree for your property, this book addresses placement of trees within
the landscape, planting basics, as well as after-planting care: watering,
staking, trunk protection, fertilizing, and mulching. Separate chapters are
devoted to pruning, diagnosing problems, protecting trees from damage, and how
to determine when it’s time to call in an arborist.
Buy This Book.
 The
American elm (Ulmus americana) has been a significant part of our country’s
landscape since its beginning, lining avenues first in the earliest towns and
cities of New England, and then, because it proved so adaptable, throughout
the United States. Republic of Shade: New England and the American Elm
by Thomas Campanella (Yale University Press, 2003) is the story of this
elegant and highly venerated tree. Campenella discusses how the elm became a
symbol of the early environmental movement of the 19th century, and he relates
the devastation of this species by Dutch elm disease in the 20th century.
Illustrated with historic photographs and prints, this book traces the story
of the elm through the history of this country and presents hope for its
survival through research aimed at the development of varieties that resist
Dutch elm disease.
Buy This Book.
 Covering
20 North American tree groups, Arboretum America: A Philosophy of the
Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger (The University of Michigan Press, 2003)
is a melding of philosophy, history, ecology, and practical garden advice.
Beresford-Kroeger discusses trees in terms of their historic medicinal uses,
their culture, their contribution to both human well-being and the health of
the natural environment, and their use in our landscapes. She includes tips on
seasonal interest, organic care, placement, and complementary plantings.
Buy This Book.
 A
variety of stories about trees is included in Tree Stories: A Collection of
Extraordinary Encounters edited by Warren David Jacobs and Karen I. Shragg
(SunShine Press Publications, 2002). This is a collection of stories and poems
written by tree lovers of all ages that testifies to the many ways that trees
can enrich and add meaning to our lives from childhood to adulthood. The book
is divided into chapters that include: “Trees as Teachers,” “Trees of
Childhood,” “Trees as Companions,” and more.
Buy This Book.
 Aptly
wrapping up our survey of arboreal book selections is Tree Bark: A Color
Guide by Hugues Vaucher (Timber Press, 2003). A beautifully illustrated
volume, it was originally published in French and German in the 1990s. This
translated revision has been expanded to include over 440 species and
varieties from all over the world that are guaranteed to have you appreciating
tree bark not only for its ornamental value, but also its diverse
characteristics, function as part of the tree, and uses in art and industry.
Buy This Book.
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