No comments about Pests & Diseases of Herbaceous Perennials: The Biological Approach.

5 comments about Lois Hole's Perennial Favorites.

1. Midwest perennial gardener here! This is the easiest, most helpful gardening book I own for choosing a new perennial or figuring out what's going wrong with an older one. All the pictures are in color and show the plants in clear close-up shots and as they look when planted. The Latin names are where they should be-off to the side, and Ms. Hole recommends the best variety and explains why it's the best. She also lists the other varieties available to clear up confusion, gives thorough planting steps, includes the length of time the plant will take to mature (read "look good in your garden"), and a host of other tips. These are all beautifully written on a two-three page spread for each plant! Add chapters on planning a garden, choosing the plants, preparing soils, trying different types of perennial gardens, throw in a host of well laid-out "quick" lists, and you have a very useful guide. Handy, easy, and confidence-building for the beginner or the intermediate gardener! Recommended absolutely!



2. I have both Lois Holes "Perennial Favorites" and "Practical Advice and the Science Behind it" and have found both books to be extremely helpful, since I live in Saskatchewan. I carry "Perennial Favorites" with me when I am shopping for perennials! It is extremely helpful to me as I am a first-time gardener. They are easy to read, have fabulous pictures of what the plants actually look like, and have very detailed care information. I will continue to purchase her books! Thank you Lois Hole for some sound advice on Saskatchean gardening!



3. I have both Lois Holes "Perennial Favorites" and "Practical Advice and the Science Behind it" and have found both books to be extremely helpful, since I live in Saskatchewan. I carry "perennial Favorites" with me when I am shopping for perennials! It is extremely helpful to me as I am a forst-time gardener. They are easy to read,have fabulous pictures of what the plants actually look like, and have very detailed care information. I will continue to purchase her books! Thank you Lois Hole for some sound advice on Saskatchean gardening!



4. This is a great book for gardners in the colder shorter growing regions. What I like is that there are no plants included that will not grow in my region (3) so I spent no time browsing plants that only grow further south. Nice book at a reasonable price from a knowledgeble author



5. This is an excellent resource for gardeners. I took my copy to the garden centers last year and the staff loved it because I knew what I wanted and what I was talking about. Hole's easy to follow instructions on planting and care resulted in ALL of my perrenials coming up this year. Blogging on MySpace right now and recommending this text.

3 comments about Penstemons.

1. Packed with color photos and botanical illustrations is this intriguing guide to penstemons, outlining a wide range of species both common and rare. Enjoy a range of choices which can be used in both dry and marshy gardens across the country, concluded by a mail order source guide.



2. VERY heavy on the botany and botanical terms; not enough practical advice on growing each of the mentioned species in a garden setting. This is really something of a botanist's guide to penstemons, NOT necessarily a gardening guide, and definitely NOT for beginners. Unfortunately, the book also can't really be used as a field guide either since it doesn't contain enough photos or illustrations to help with identification of penstemons (at least for non-botanists).

   While the photos and paintings that are included are beautiful, I really wanted to see photos of all or most of the species mentioned because I expected to use this as an aide in identifying penstemons. More photos, especially of common species that I would have expected to be included, would have greatly enhanced this book. And making the book less botanist-oriented would probably have helped with its popularity and usefulness to the general gardening public.

   This book DOES describe each of the different species (in mostly technical botanical terms) and sometimes gives an overall idea of where they grow in nature (and occasionally, how to grow them in the garden). But the descriptions are not meant for the average person and are not very helpful when trying to identify specific plants.

   There still is no one good book for the average person that describes each species, gives growing tips, and offers enough photos/illustrations for identifying penstemons...




3. This book is of great merit for some potential readers, but is not useful for the majority of gardeners, for a number of reasons:
   
   1) The bulk of the book is textual and technical species descriptions, useful only for botanists and those aiming to collect from the wild.
   
   2) The photos are a very limited selection compared to the above and they are inconveniently placed in two "plates" sections in the middle of the book (an understandable decision as it keeps production costs down).
   
   3) The species descriptions and especially the photos are very heavily focused on the Western semi-desert, mountainous and scree-living species. That may reflect the reality of the Penstemon's origins, but I think many, if not most potential purchasers of a book on Penstemons would be interested in more coverage of plants useful in a conventional garden scheme. But such plants and their cultural requirements take up maybe 5% of this book.
   
   In short, if you are a Western-highland gardener looking for species xeriscape plants, this book will prove useful. If you are a botanist, or if you aim to collect, breed and hybridize Penstemons, then this book is of even greater value. But if you want to add Penstemons to a more conventional garden scheme, then it is close to useless.

2 comments about The Harrowsmith Perennial Garden: Flowers for Three Seasons.

1. I use this book like one of my little garden bibles.Easy format, and very informative.I like the fact that he gardens in Ontario, and writes about the same climate that I contend with!Definitely one of my favorite gardening writers!!



2. This book is definitely a favorite of mine in making my garden plans. The authors use their own Ontario perennial garden to illustrate and guide the reader through the planning and seasonal chores involved in a perennial garden. Although their garden style is more formal than mine, they cover choosing, planting and care of perennials in a way that is easily applied in my more casual cottage gardens. Each month has detailed cultivation and care information for many varieties that will bloom at that time, helping with the daunting task of planning so that a garden has continued bloom throughout the growing season. Attention to garden "bones," the structure that holds the garden, is demonstrated in their snow-covered garden photos. Even barren of life and buried in snow, their gardens are interesting to look at, giving us hope that we too can have lovely gardens year round.

No comments about Clematis: Inspiration, Selection, and Practical Gudance.

1 comments about Perennials: Organic Gardening Basics Volume 6 (Rodale Organic Gardening Basics, Vol 6).

1. This gardening book is exactly what the beginning gardener needs to plan their garden. It is beautifully illustrated, with photos of each type of perennial, and detailed descriptions of each. The information provided is extremely helpful, since it includes ideal climate, growing guidelines, height and spread.

   I found myself browsing through this book for hours reading about the different plants that were appealing to my eye. Armed with this book, I can now go to my local garden center and select exactly what I want instead of wandering around for hours not knowing what to choose for my yard! I highly recommend this book to any gardener, beginner or not, who wants a good reference guide to perennials. Happy gardening!

1 comments about The Perennial Garden: Color Harmonies Through the Seasons.

1. This book has a lot of useful things to say about color and garden design. Some of the color theories presented are flaky and esoteric (such as detailed color-emotion link tables, and matching hues to musical notes and making a literal "color harmony"), but the reader is free to learn and choose from many color and design theories. Since garden design is a subjective art, I can reject the need to use, say, the "golden section" in a given design, yet believe that it's a good idea to consciously consider it.
   
   The book also has about 150 pages of information on specific perennials, by genus, and chapters on matters such as building up soil, and building paths - wasted pages if you already have a good basic library. For me, the book's best feature is its 80 well-annotated color plates, arranged by season, showing either a medium close-up of 2 or 3 plants or a broader landscape view. It always inspires and humbles me.

1 comments about Encyclopedia of Annuals and Perennials.

1. Colston Burrell and others have developed an extremely useful guide for the early-intermediate gardener. This book is not gardening for dummies, but neither is the content so complex the relative newcomer cannot use it. The contents consist of a compendium of pertinent topic-based articles and an approximately 100 pages (three per page) of photographs and descriptions of "popular" perennials and annuals. (Hence, the odd or unusual item may not be covered.)
   
   The text opens with a basic botany lesson reminiscent of the chapter you read in college Biology 101 and goes on to discuss some of the properties of selected annuals and perennials as well as bulbs which can be recurring (become naturalized) or not. The next section encourages the reader to consider where he or she is building a garden. Aspects such as climate, terrain, sun exposure and growing zone are discussed.
   
   Next the authors discuss the flower garden, which most folks want to create. Various considerations such as planning and design, the layout of beds, borders and the items to fill the interstices are addressed, along with various types, such as cutting, meadow, and cottage gardens. Annuals and perennials not only present problems, they can be used for problem solving. Using the garden with various land features such as hills, shade and drought and bogs is discussed.
   
   When one becomes conversant with the aesthetics of the garden plot, the next step is to address the mechanics such as soil preparation, plant fit, and timing. In this arena, tool choices are critical, as well as the application of mulch and water, pruning and training your plants and facing winter requirements. When you become skilled you will want to consider propagation not only as a cost saving measure, but a way to obtain otherwise difficult or impossible to acquire plants.
   
   The book closes with what I consider to be the encyclopedia portion-annotated entries for selected perennial and annuals. No one section of this book is as comprehensively covered as it might be in a text designed to cover a subject in depth, but the book is a good synopsis of the most critical topics every gardener addresses eventually.

No comments about The Genus Lavandula.

5 comments about The Gardener's Guide to Growing Cannas (Gardener's Guide to Growing Series).

1. This book deserves more than five stars! I had searched for a book on Cannas for a long time. As Ian Cooke points out, this book is the only comprehensive work published on Cannas since 1903. It has become one of my treasured plant bibles, along side with "Heliconia: An Identification Guide" by Fred Berry & W. John Kress and "Exotica" by Alfred Graf.

   I live in the tropics and Cannas are indispensable in adding colours to an otherwise overpowering green garden. This book is aimed at gardeners in temperate climate countries, who have a more challenging task in growing Cannas. Ian Cooke is obviously an authority on these plants. The book has valuable information on Canna species, cultivation including common pests and diseases, and propagation by rhizome division and growing from seeds. There is even a list of websites/nurseries dedicated to this genus and is an alternative avenue for sourcing of new species by keen gardeners.




2. Cannas are thought of in terms of their beautiful color. Ian Cooke's Gardener's Guide To Growing Cannas presents a canna expert's complete review of the plant, from an A-Z listing of varieties to the history of cannas, their cultivation and species, and cannas in the garden. Gardener's Guide To Growing Cannas is an appealing, colorful, comprehensive guide which gardeners and horticulturalists will appreciate.



3. Detailed descriptions of Cannas including leaf and petal colors. Great color photos. Nice book!



4. The Gardener's Guide to Cannas is a perfect place to start if you have any interest in one of the easiest plants to grow. The book covers everything you need to know, covers all the unique varities, and has wonderful pictures.



5. I was very surprised at how much I learned about Cannas. I have approximately 40 different cannas. I learned more from reading the book than I have from raising cannas for the last 10 years. I also discovered some new ones that I plan on ordering.