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American
Horticultural Society
The American Gardener
March/April 2008 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 March/April 2008 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
BOOK REVIEWS
Recommendations for Your Gardening Library
 The
Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating a Sense of Place
Claire E. Sawyers. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2007. 285 pages.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $34.95.
Buy This Book
If you consider yourself a conscientious consumer, one who tries to
tread lightly on the earth, then the ideas Claire Sawyers presents in
her elegantly written book, The Authentic Garden, will resonate with
you. Globalization is ever-present in our world today, but the 21st
century American backyard should - more than anything else in our lives
- be an honest reflection of its place, she maintains.
Whether we’ve been dazzled by design magazine photographs
of European or Asian landscapes or toured them in person, it’s easy to
be seduced by them. As director of the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania, Sawyer’s own resume suggests she might be
inclined to “borrow” from her years living and working in Japan,
Belgium, and France. Yet the most powerful theme she draws from these
distinct landscapes is to extract lessons rather than mimic their look.
“This book is about how to make gardens true to a place,
a time, and a culture. . . to capture and reflect a certain authentic
spirit so that in turn these gardens will nurture the spirits of those
who frequent them,” she writes. In a conversational tone, supported by
excellent photography, Sawyers escorts the reader through five guiding
principles to make a garden authentic: Capture the Sense of Place;
Derive Beauty from Function; Use Humble or Indigenous Materials; Marry
the Inside to the Outside; and Involve the Visitor.
Sawyers underscores the point of each principle using
examples from private and public gardens around the country. She
demonstrates that the most successful landscapes are ones where the
owners or designers have observed and worked with the spirit of place
rather than struggled against it.
The Authentic Garden reads like a mission statement for
anyone blessed with the stewardship of a piece of land. With these
lessons in mind, we can derive a deep sense of satisfaction from our
environment, wherever it may be located.
Debra Prinzing
Debra Prinzing is a southern California-based garden and
design writer and the author of Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways
(Clarkson-Potter/Random House, 2008).
 Native
Ferns, Moss & Grasses
William Cullina. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts, 2008.
272 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $40.Buy This Book
Bill Cullina has done it again. Following his books on native
wildflowers and on native trees, shrubs, and vines, this time Cullina
tackles a somewhat less familiar suite of plants - those noted more for
form and texture than for flowers. As Director of Horticultural Research
for the New England Wild Flower Society nurseries, he brings 25 years of
experience growing and propagating native plants to bear, with an air of
authority and a sense of humor, in this third and final volume in his
series on native American plants.
Cullina explores a subtle world populated by such
charming characters as spleenwort, haircap, and broomsedge - the ferns,
mosses, and grasses that grow in North America. He starts by defining
terms - clearly articulating his concept of “native” and explaining why
it is an important consideration from an ecological standpoint rather
than from one of semantics. Equal weight is given to discussions of
plant hardiness, light, soil, and pests.
The meat of the book, the encyclopedic listings, is
divided into four parts: Ferns; Mosses; Grasses, Sedges and Rushes; and
Propagation. Sidebars provide detailed explorations of topics such as
invasive plants, fern hybridization, and evolution. Throughout,
beautiful photos by the author augment his vibrant words.
By his own admission, Cullina had limited familiarity with many of the
plants before writing the book, which may account for occasional
subtleties of identification or garden performance being overlooked. I
also noticed a few inconsistencies in format. For example, Parts I and
II - handling ferns and mosses - contain useful chapters covering
anatomy, while in Part III, grass anatomy is included under “Gardening
with Grasses” rather than having its own chapter. However, Cullina’s
considerable skill is evident in Part IV, which focuses on propagation.
He provides concise techniques appropriate for each group of plants, as
well as a chart with specifics for propagating each genus.
Overall, Cullina has produced an authoritative, readable,
and enduring reference. It will provide experienced gardeners with the
specifics they crave, while newcomers are sure to fall under the spell
of these under-appreciated native gems.
C. Colston Burrell
C. Colston Burrell is a garden designer, and coauthor of
Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide (Timber Press, 2006).
 The
Homeowner’s Complete Tree & Shrub Handbook
Penelope O’Sullivan. Storey Publishing, North Adams, Massachusetts,
2007. 408 pages. Publisher’s price, softcover: $29.95.
Buy This Book
One problem with garden books that try to say too much about everything
is that they often end up saying too little about anything. Happily,
this is not the case with The Homeowner’s Complete Tree & Shrub Handbook
by garden designer and author Penelope O’Sullivan. The clean, crisp
photography by Karen Bussolini - be it of the exquisite curling bark of
a paperbark maple (Acer griseum), an uphill woodland path in three
seasons, or an arborist in full-helmeted gear 20 feet up a tree -
reinforces the comprehensive treatment of the subject. Helpful and clear
illustrations also supplement the text.
This book begins with a couple of chapters on basic
design concepts. “With a solid plan,” writes O’Sullivan, “you can
arrange plants and garden structures to enhance your house, please your
family, and simplify your life.” To that end, she gives her readers the
necessary building blocks. For example, she explains important factors
such as mature size and growth rate to consider to ensure selecting the
right plant for the right place. Next, a section on how to care for
landscape plants covers everything from planting and pruning to common
insects and diseases. Both sections contain numerous insightful sidebars
as well as handy charts and lists of plants that have specific
attributes.
The book’s final 250 pages are where it really earns its
keep. Here, O’Sullivan lists 357 shrubs and trees, which she includes
“for several reasons, but mostly for their garden merit.” Many
selections are personal and personalized. For example, her mother gets a
nod in the weigelias. And to enjoy the mottled bark of Persian ironwood
(Parrotia persica) she advises patience because after several years in
her garden, her own specimen hasn’t yet begun to exfoliate.
So it goes from Abelia 5grandiflora to Zenobia
pulverulenta. For each plant, O’Sullivan succinctly describes its
characteristics and suggests landscape uses. Each entry lists the
origin, hardiness zones, light and soil requirements, growing tips, and
any cultivars of particular merit. She also takes care to warn of any
weedy tendencies in particular regions of the country. Many of the
listed plants are then tucked into a useful planning chart at the end of
the book, along with additional sources of tree and shrub information, a
glossary, and an index. Complete, indeed!
Bob Hill
Owner of Hidden Hill Nursery & Sculpture Garden in Utica, Indiana, Bob
Hill is also a garden writer and co-host of a garden radio show in
Louisville, Kentucky.
 Encyclopedia
of Exotic Plants for Temperate Climates
Will Giles. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, 2007. 440 pages. Publisher’s
price, hardcover: $49.95.
Buy This Book
In his Encyclopedia of Exotic Plants for Temperate Climates, English
gardener Will Giles states emphatically that he had “an all-embracing
approach to my selection of exotic plants…though I am sure some purists
will disagree with my choices.” No one, however, should quibble on the
book’s quality. The descriptions are well-written and full of good
information on growing requirements. The images are plentiful, clear,
and color-correct, providing plenty of inspiration to those gardeners
living in cooler climates to try growing tropical exotics.
After a foreword by Fergus Garrett, the head gardener at
the renowned Great Dixter garden, Giles explains in the introduction
that the plants he chose to include in this encyclopedia are
“subtropical or tropical in appearance but in fact originate in cooler
climatic regions of the world, as well as true tropicals and
subtropicals that, for various reasons, flourish in temperate gardens
and in some cases are able to withstand several degrees of frost.”
However, as with many books that originate in the United
Kingdom, it does not give cold hardiness ranges. Instead, it lists
minimum temperatures in Celsius and notes if plants are tender,
semi-tender, half-hardy, frost-hardy, or hardy, based on the author’s
experience growing these plants in the British Isles. In his defense,
Giles explains that he purposefully eschewed the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s hardiness zones in an effort to encourage readers to “push
against boundaries, experiment with different care and maintenance
regimes, and make the most of microclimates in your garden.”
The book’s 14 chapters are divided into useful segments
based on a plant’s form and use in the garden, for example, “Grasses,
Grasslike Plants, and Restios” and “Cacti, Succulents, Yuccas, and Other
Spiky Things.” I would caution that some of the groups of plants
described in the book display a propensity for growing out of control in
various regions of the United States. For example, many bamboos, such as
Phyllostachys spp., can be invasive on this side of the pond. The same
goes for plants such as Akebia and Ampelopsis, so I would advise doing a
little further research before planting some of these exotics.
If you are seeking the ultimate treatise on tropical
plants, look elsewhere. But if you want a pleasant, well-written book to
use as a reference on tropical and tropical-looking plants, this would
be a good choice.
Robert Bowden
Robert Bowden has been the director of the Harry P.
Leu Botanical Gardens in Orlando, Florida, for 14 years and is the
author of Florida’s Top Ten Garden Guide (Time Warner/Sunset Books,
2008).
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