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July/August 1999 issue
An Inside Look
Every day I receive
new requests to assign USDA Hardiness and American Horticultural
Society (AHS) Heat Zone codes for plants to be listed in books,
magazines, and nursery labels. After recently completing the
coding for Dorling Kindersley’s AHS Great Plant Guide, which
describes 2,000 plants illustrated in full color and has 55
planning guides to help the reader find plants for specific
interests, I have coded more than 20,000 plants.
As I review each new list of plants to be
coded, I am constantly amazed to find how much progress has been
made with the ones we all know so well—even the familiar garden
annuals our grandmothers grew. If you haven’t grown any classic
garden annuals for some time, you will enjoy Karan Davis
Cutler’s photo essay on 10 annuals that have stood the test of
time. In recent years, new colors, species, hybrids, forms, and
sizes have expanded the display potential for these easy-to-grow
plants. Other than stock, which is a cool-weather crop (AHS
Zones 5–1), these annuals will grow happily in all 12 heat
zones.
Most of us get the wanderlust in late
summer, so it’s a good time to take a look at what’s going on
around North America. In this issue, Andy Wasowski profiles Ron
Gass, owner of Mountain States Wholesale Nursery near Phoenix.
Gass is expanding the plant palette available to southwestern
gardeners by introducing and promoting new cultivars of native
and adapted desert plants. We also take you on a hike in Maine’s
Acadia National Park with Barbara Arter to locate rugged plants
suitable for northwestern coastal gardens. And you’ll visit the
Pacific Northwest, where fern expert Sue Olsen offers insight
into the best native ferns for that region’s moist, temperate
climate.
For me, no summer meal, beverage, or
homemade candy would be acceptable without the flavor of fresh
mint. A few shady characters have given the mint family a bad
reputaton for invasiveness, but Rand B. Lee introduces us to a
wide range of underused or uncommon ornamental mints that will
bring color and diversity to the summer garden. It’s our salute
to being “square-stemmed” in the garden.
Our Focus section this issue offers an
update on the new vaccine for Lyme disease, as well as a review
of products that protect you from the onslaught of mosquitoes
and other biting insects that plague gardeners in summer.
Meanwhile, remember I’m coding more plants
every day to help you and other gardeners select the best plant
for any location. The list of codings for plants described in
this issue are on page 62. On to 40,000 plants!
H. Marc Cathey
AHS President Emeritus
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