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American
Horticultural Society
The American Gardener
January/February 2007
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 2007 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
From the Garden to the Table
BOOK REVIEWS
Recommendations for Your Gardening Library
 The
Oxford Companion to the Garden
Edited by Patrick Taylor. Oxford University Press Inc., New York, New
York, 2006. 554 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $65.
Buy This Book
Patrick Taylor and his distinguished team of advisory editors and
contributors have brought this book, first published in 1986 as The
Oxford Companion to Gardens, into the 21st century. Their objective is
to “give a clear idea of the sort of gardens made in those countries in
which gardening has been a significant ingredient of the culture, and to
cover those in which it looms less large but is nonetheless of great
interest.”
While the book concentrates heavily on the gardens of
Britain, France, and Italy, coverage of American gardens is also
extensive—quadruple what it was in the first edition. Countries such as
Hungary and Bulgaria that were once behind the Iron Curtain, or those
such as China and Iran that used to be considered outside the reach of
the average traveler, are now well covered.
Though most entries are either about gardens, garden
history, or people who created gardens, there is also practical garden
information ranging from the layout of kitchen gardens to the making of
compost, as well as discussion of aesthetic terms such as feng shui and
treillage. The book also includes information about environmental and
ecological issues - climate change, for example - and their effect on
gardens around the world.
Those people who did not read through encyclopedias from
A to Z when they were children might wonder whether this book’s
alphabetic format makes for interesting browsing, but in fact the book
is very readable. The style is clear, concise, and engaging, and there
is a helpful thematic index.
Although there are more than 100 color photographs of
excellent quality, they seem like an afterthought. They are clustered
together rather than integrated into the text, and the few historic
engravings that are within the text have such a light line weight that
they are hard to read.
On a practical note, gardens that are open to the public
are marked by a flower symbol, and each country has a general entry.
This makes a perfect combination for planning or dreaming about a future
trip.
Elin Haaga
Elin Haaga studied history at Oxford University and now teaches History
of the Landscape at George Washington University. She also has a
landscape design firm in Bethesda, Maryland.
 Native
Alternatives to Invasive Plants
C. Colston Burrell; Edited by Janet Marinelli and Bonnie Harper-Lore.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, New York, 2006. 239 pages.
Publisher’s price, softcover: $9.95.
Buy This Book
Invasive plants are an increasingly serious threat to the preservation
of native species and habitat. They out-compete natives for resources,
change soil chemistry, and disrupt food webs. Unfortunately, we
initially invited the majority of these wildlands invaders into our
gardens. They have jumped the garden gates through seeds dispersed by
wind or birds or through rhizomes tossed into greenbelts or washed
downstream in floods.
This book takes a national approach to this issue by
offering suggestions for North American native plants that can be used
to replace invasive non-native species. Following a brief introduction
to this complex topic, the bulk of the book consists of an encyclopedic
section describing native plants that can be used as alternatives for
100 invasive species.
Small, color photographs of the invaders are provided for
each entry along with larger ones for the alternatives. In some cases,
only one alternative is suggested; in others, several options are given.
Little information is given about the invader, but each alternative
includes extensive information as well as growing tips. A small sidebar
of “Attributes at a Glance” provides a quick summary of the alternative
plants. Coupled with the photos, this makes it very easy to see the
benefits of each recommendation.
It is difficult to write a book recommending native
plants on a national level - I don’t know of any other published
examples - and this book illustrates some of the reasons why. For
instance, the editorial team suggest bush lupine (Lupinus arboreus) as
an alternative for Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius). This Californian
lupine is invasive in the same parts of the Pacific Northwest as Scotch
broom. The editors do note at the end of the entry that the lupine can
be invasive, but a less careful reader may not get beyond the attractive
photo and description.
All the same, this book is a good introduction to some of
the common garden plants that should be discouraged in many parts of the
country and will encourage gardeners to think about what they could
plant instead.
Sarah Reichard
Sarah Reichard is an associate professor at the University of Washington
and co-editor of Invasive Species in the Pacific Northwest (University
of Washington Press, 2006).
 Seascape
Gardening: From New England to the Carolinas
Anne Halpin, photographs by Roger Foley. Storey Publishing, North Adams,
Massachusetts, 2006. 224 pages. Publisher’s price, softcover: $19.95.
Buy This Book
 Gardening
at the Shore
Frances Tenenbaum, photographs by Jerry Pavia. Timber Press, Portland,
Oregon, 2006. 176 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $29.95.
Buy This Book
We are drawn to water - to vacation, play, and frolic, or to live there
and garden. These two well-written, beautiful books will help seashore
gardeners deal with the special challenges of coastal conditions and
enjoy the rewards.
Anne Halpin lives and designs gardens on Long Island
Sound, and Frances Tenenbaum has lived on Martha’s Vineyard for decades.
Both authors know the special problems of gardening by the sea: fierce
sun, salt spray, wind, squalls, hurricanes, tidal surges, and sand. Yet
calm mornings bring damp air, and the special softness of dew-drenched
flowers, glowing foliage, and colors unlike any others.
In Gardening at the Shore, Tenenbaum describes various
conditions on both the west and east coasts of the United States.
Halpin’s Seascape Gardening concentrates on the area from New England to
the Carolinas, and also delineates differences between bays, estuaries,
salt marshes, etc. Each book describes ways to shelter gardens from
harsh natural conditions, particularly wind.
Both books feature sections of proven and tough plants
for the seashore, with the caveat to be aware of subtle and significant
differences that could make them unsuitable for your garden. Halpin
describes 100 plants, almost all with photographs. She also has some
useful charts of plants for specific uses, such as “Plants for
Windbreaks.” Tenenbaum lists slightly more plants but with shorter
descriptions. The authors and I agree on some solid performers:
Amelanchier canadensis, Clethra alnifolia, Baptisia australis, and
Perovskia atriplicifolia.
Halpin profiles 11 mostly professionally designed and inspiring east
coast gardens, with exquisite photographs by Roger Foley. Tenenbaum
includes 10 gardens photographed by Jerry Pavia that show a range of
seaside conditions from both coasts. She also includes a unique chapter,
“Advice from Seashore Gardeners,” which gives some other experienced
gardeners a chance to add suggestions of their own.
Darrell Trout
Darrell Trout is a writer, lecturer, and photographer who has gardened
on Shelter Island, New York, for 18 years.
GARDENER'S BOOKS
Gardens Around the World
When my garden is in the icy grip of winter and summer’s lushness seems
like a half-remembered dream, I often enjoy paging through books with
large, colorful photographs of gardens. All that exuberant,
chlorophyll-laden eye candy helps to ease my winter blues and gives me
ideas for the coming season. And if the books are about faraway, exotic
gardens, it can feel like a little vacation. If you’d like to give it a
try, these recently published titles will transport you to some of the
planet’s most beautiful gardens - without ever having to leave your
armchair.
 “Although
garden design principles are global,” writes Penelope Hobhouse in her
latest book, In Search of Paradise: Great Gardens of the World
(Frances Lincoln, in association with the Chicago Botanic Garden, 2006,
$60),
Buy This Book
“most successful modern gardens give high priority to their regional
settings and the needs and habits of native plants.” To prove her point,
Hobhouse takes readers on a tour of stunning public and private gardens
in Asia, North America, England, and other parts of Europe. She also
includes thematic designs such as desert gardens, tropical gardens,
ecological gardens, and urban gardens. As the adage goes, a picture is
worth a thousand words, so Hobhouse lets the 200 sumptuous illustrations
do most of the “talking,” along with pithy captions and a smattering of
brief, explanatory paragraphs.
 New
Brazilian Gardens: the Legacy of Burle Marx (Thames & Hudson, 2006,
$50)
Buy This Book
offers a fascinating foray into South America. “Like a continuous act of
cannibalism,” writes author Roberto Silva, “practitioners have been able
to absorb, digest, adapt, and translate the diversity of different
garden traditions to create something distinctively Brazilian.” The book
features more than 30 of the country’s finest contemporary gardens by
designers who were influenced and inspired by Brazilian-born Roberto
Burle Marx, one of the 20th century’s most important landscape
architects. Each garden is described in detail and is accompanied by
sketches, design plans, plant lists, and numerous color photographs.
 For
a look at one particularly famous man’s gardens—not to mention his art -
there’s Living Monet: The Artist’s Gardens by Doris Kutschbach (Prestel,
2006, $35)
Buy This Book.
While Giverny near Paris may be Claude Monet’s best-known garden, it was
not “the first place to awake Monet’s love of gardens and plants,”
writes Kutschbach. She describes the painter’s various other gardens
before Giverny and the integral role all of these gardens played in his
work. One section of the book examines some of Monet’s favorite flowers,
such as irises and poppies, and how he carefully planted them to achieve
just the right blends of hues and contrasts for his paintings.
Reproductions of pieces that span Monet’s career as well as color and
black-and-white photographs of Giverny supplement the insightful text.
 Another
book that illustrates the strong connection between art and the garden
is Italian Gardens by Helena Attlee (Frances Lincoln, 2006, $60)
Buy This Book.
Through the centuries, the Italian garden “satisfied the senses with the
beauty of its structure, the sound of birdsong and falling water and the
scent of flowers, and it engaged the mind with the iconography of its
statues and fountains,” explains Attlee, who chronicles the development
of gardens in Italy from the early Renaissance to present day. Color
photographs and reproductions of paintings illustrate that during each
epoch, gardens served as a backdrop and as subject matter for Italian
sculpture, paintings, and architecture as well as plays, poetry, and
philosophy.
 The
Art of the Japanese Garden by David and Michiko Young (Tuttle
Publishing, 2005, $40)
Buy This Book,
one of the American Horticultural Society’s 2006 Book Award recipients,
will whisk you off to the serene and sublime landscapes of the Far East.
The book begins with a section on the basic elements and principles of
Japanese gardens, such as the use of rocks, sand, ponds, and paths. The
bulk of the book profiles well-known, publicly accessible gardens found
in Japan that exemplify the different types of traditional gardens from
Zen temple gardens to stroll gardens, illustrated with color photographs
and diagrams. A few more recently built gardens, which “integrate
indigenous and foreign elements,” and Japanese gardens outside of Japan
“where the historical and cultural context is different” are also
included.
Viveka Neveln, Assistant Editor
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