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American
Horticultural Society
The American Gardener
January/February 2006
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 2006 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
Plant References
BOOK REVIEWS
Recommendations for Your Gardening Library
 Last
Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
Richard Louv. Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 2005. 324
pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $24.95.
Buy This Book
Are you concerned about how rapidly our children are losing daily
contact with nature? In Last Child in the Woods, author Richard Louv has
coined the term “nature-deficit disorder” to help identify this serious
cultural issue. He discusses how it came about, why it is important, and
what we can do to remedy it.
Louv’s line of argument arises from interviews and focus
groups conducted across the country with parents, professionals, and
young people. He also draws on writers spanning the last 150 years; and
the modest, yet indicative results of scientific research on the
positive health impacts of direct experience of nature.
A historical “frontier” perspective spans the book. The “first frontier”
was the original settlement of the United States, ending around 1893
with publication of Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis,” which
marked the end of “free land” for homesteaders. The “second frontier” of
agrarian development, when the majority of the population lived on and
from the land, formally ended in 1990 when the Census Bureau ceased
counting farm residents. The problematic “third frontier” is very recent
and is characterized by the “severance of the public and private mind
from food’s origins and new urban forms where nature has become a
carefully controlled commodity that offers few opportunities for
children’s messy free play.”
Louv calls for opening the “fourth frontier”—the focus on the greening
of our cities as the only hope. He identifies parents, not public
education, as primary allies in this endeavor. Their voices (and their
children’s) permeate the book to convince the reader to take action.
Nature holds humanity in a common bond, representing the
only path for peace in our post-industrial culture. How can you, as a
garden enthusiast, help your city, neighborhood, and home to engage
children in nature? Read Last Child in the Woods for empowering
arguments to support your actions.
Robin Moore
Robin Moore is a professor of landscape architecture at North Carolina
State University, where he directs the Natural Learning Initiative (http://www.naturalearning.org).
His books include Natural Learning and Plants for Play (both published
by MIG Communications)..
 The
Complete Houseplant Survival Manual Barbara Pleasant. Photography by
Rosemary Kautzky. Storey Publishing, North Adams, Massachusetts, 2005.
384 pages. Publisher’s price, softcover: $24.95.
Buy This Book
Unless you were gardening in the 1970s, it is hard to imagine how
important houseplants were then. As an example, a book I wrote in 1965,
The World Book of House Plants, sold nearly two million copies. The
Dworkins, Floss and Stan, talked houseplants regularly on WNBC-TV in New
York, and Thalassa Cruso, a pal of Julia Child’s, frequently lectured
Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show on the proper way to water potted
plants. What seemed at the time to be a fad has, of course, morphed into
a mass renaissance of all kinds of gardening. It is therefore good to
see a substantial new houseplant book for the 21st century.
The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual lives up to its
promise of providing “essential know-how for keeping (not killing) more
than 160 indoor plants.” Each plant gets an overview, specifics about
their care, propagation, and display, plus a troubleshooting section to
help identify the cause and remedy of problems—for instance, why a plant
doesn’t bloom.
I checked for this under “Abutilon,” the first entry, and
learned that the cause for a flowering maple not blooming is, “Not
enough light, or needs additional fertilizer.” Either statement could be
true, but in fact, abutilon flowers best when night temperatures are at
least 10 degrees cooler than those in the daytime. Checking under “Clivia,”
another pet of mine, I found the instructions accurate for getting
flowers—cool and dry in the fall and early winter, followed by warmer
temperatures and more water.
And, if I may mention my two all-time favorite books
about houseplants, they are Garden in Your House (revised 1971) and The
Art of Training Plants (1962), both by Ernesta Drinker Ballard, a friend
and mentor from 1951 until she died in 2005. Ernesta’s books are
personable and authoritative. Who else would admit in print that “on
state occasions” she turned her plants so the best side faced into the
room instead of pressed against the glass? A dip into her books finds
Ernesta’s spirit alive and well.
Elvin McDonald
Elvin McDonald is deputy editor of “Gardens” and “Outdoor Living” for
Better Homes and Gardens magazine. He also serves on the editorial
advisory board of The American Gardener.
 Gardens
in the Spirit of Place Page Dickey. Photographs by John M. Hall.
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, New York, New York, 2005. 196 pages.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $35.
Buy This Book
In general, the most successful gardens are ones that are in tune with
their surroundings, the ones that are made, as author Page Dickey puts
it, “With a sensitivity to the demands of the site, its climate, its
soil, its topography.” Harmonious gardens are formed—and informed—by
their environments.
Instead of theorizing on the subject, Dickey gives
examples of 14 gardens from all regions of the country that exemplify
this ideal. While you can dip into the book anywhere and enjoy a “visit”
to that specific garden, a cover-to-cover read promotes a comprehensive
understanding and insight into what it means to design and plant a
garden with an eye to both the house it surrounds and the regional
setting.
You’ll also come away with some great ideas and tips. For
example, in a coastal garden in Long Island, garden designer Edwina von
Gal graded the lawn so it undulates, echoing the wind-sculpted sand dune
visible just beyond. In Virginia, Mary McConnell achieves harmony by
using garden plants that are related to those growing wild in the
countryside around her home.
Dickey laces her garden tales with interesting tidbits
about and insights into the people behind these masterful gardens. At
the end of each chapter, you feel you’ve made a new friend.
The color photographs are excellent, with captions full
of detailed information, including valuable plant identification. If
you’re inspired to reproduce a plant combination in a photograph, you’ll
have the information to enable you to do so.
Catriona Tudor Erler
Catriona Tudor Erler is the author of eight garden books, including
Poolscaping: Gardening and Landscaping Around Your Swimming Pool and Spa
(Storey Publishing, 2003).
Mini Review
 Tempting
Tropicals (Timber Press, 2005, $29.95) by Ellen Zachos
Buy This Book
focuses on 175 exotic and unusual
tropical plants that make good houseplants. “There is a significant
overlap between houseplants and tropical plants, but they are not
identical,” explains Zachos. She covers all the basic needs such as
light, water, fertilization, pruning and repotting, propagation, and
managing pests and diseases. The rest of the book is dedicated to plant
profiles, each alphabetized by botanical name and accompanied with color
photographs. A glossary, resource list of further reading, and
plant-name index round out the book.
Viveka Neveln, Assistant Editor
GARDENER'S BOOKS
Plant References
Some plants evoke such passion in people that enthusiasts devote whole
societies, gardens, and, of course, books to these plants. Books on one
genus or group of plants can help gardeners to appreciate and understand
these plants in a new and more complete way. For those who enjoy
collecting and breeding various members of a genus, monographs provide a
valuable resource for becoming a seasoned connoisseur. Here are some
recently published examples about several popular garden plants.
 Reliable,
tough, and versatile, members of the genus Hemerocallis star in The
Daylily: A Guide for Gardeners by John Peat and Ted L. Petit (Timber
Press, 2004, $29.95).
Buy This Book
After a brief look at the different types of daylilies and the history
of their hybridization, the book dives right into descriptions of
various cultivars, organized by color. With more that 50,000 registered
daylilies, the authors narrow down the dizzying selection by listing
cultivars “that grow and perform well over a wide climatic range, that
have had a significant impact on breeding programs, and that have won
American Hemerocallis Society awards for superior performance.” Most
descriptions include color photographs of the flowers. Landscaping with
daylilies, cultivation, pests and diseases, and how to hybridize and
show them are also addressed..
 Another
genus of plants prized for its wide variation of flowers is Iris, the
topic of Irises: A Gardener’s Encyclopedia (Timber Press, 2005,
$49.95).
Buy This Book
“It would take thousands of pages to
include just 10 percent of known irises,” writes author Claire Austin.
“Instead, this book is intended merely as a snapshot of this wonderful
genus.” At 339 pages filled with over 1000 color photographs, this book
provides an impressive gallery of irises, divided into “Bearded Irises,”
“Beardless Irises,” and “Bulbous Irises.” Each entry of species and
cultivars includes a brief description of the flower, bloom time, and
height. Readers also will find concise information on growing and
hybridizing these plants.
 Members
of two closely related genera are the focus of Heucheras and
Heucherallas: Coral Bells and Foamy Bells by Dan Heims and Grahame
Ware (Timber Press, 2005, $27.95).
Buy This Book
Valued more for their foliage than their
flowers, these perennials have leaf colors that run the gamut from
chartreuse to purple and almost black. More than 100 color plates show
off many of the dazzling shades and leaf shapes of these plants. Most of
the book is dedicated to Heuchera, detailing the genus’s natural
history, hybridization, cultivation, and the various species and
cultivars. 5Heucherella, a genus in existence for less than a century
and populated by hybrids between Heuchera and Tiarella parents, receives
one slim chapter. .
 In
Hibiscus: Hardy and Tropical Plants for the Garden (Timber Press,
2004, $27.95),
Buy This Book
author Barbara Perry Lawton delves into a diverse genus of plants with
more than 200 species and scores of cultivars. As Lawton writes, “Some
are herbaceous, others woody. In habit they range from low-growing,
spreading types to upright, woody forms that reach up to 30 feet tall.”
The book includes descriptions of some of the best-known and most-grown
hibiscuses, with chapters on hardy, tropical, and North American species
as well as one on the rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus). Made up of
“well over a hundred genera and 15 times as many species worldwide, with
more still to be named and discovered,” bamboos are grown for their
foliage as well as their ornamental stems known as culms.
 Hardy
Bamboos: Taming the Dragon by Paul Whittaker (Timber Press, 2005,
$39.95)
Buy This Book
takes a look at the more cold-tolerant species—the ones
that will survive in USDA hardiness zones 4 to 8. Whittaker effusively
shares his 20 years of experience with growing these plants, arguing
that most are not the “dragons” that gardeners seem to think they are.
The book lists many well-behaved temperate species and points out ones
that may need more room to run. Artistic photographs show off the unique
textures and colors bamboos can lend to a garden.
Viveka Neveln, Assistant Editor.
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