The Hardy Plant Society of Oregon

Selected Book Reviews

The HPSO Library Committee acquires materials on a broad range of garden-related and horticulture-related topics. Most are newly published books, although some are revised and expanded versions of old standbys, and some are classic favorites. We invite members to stop by the HPSO office for a look at what's available in our large collection. We're certain that you'll find the book, or books, that are on your "must read" list.

Here, we offer you book reviews (by anyone we can convince to do them!) to entice you into the library. Note: Reviewers are solely responsible for the opinions, biases, etc., expressed in the reviews. We welcome new reviews by members; they don't need to be very lengthy; if you have something short and sweet to say - or something longer - send it to us by email. We will attempt to publish all appropriate reviews

The following reviews, all by Marilou Harms, chair of the Library Committee, originally appeared in the HPSO Newsletter and span the period of August 2004-July 2005.

Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is a thorough compendium of 225 plant species discovered by the explorers. The book follows the path taken by Lewis and Clark and groups the plants by geographic region. The clear color photographs and short descriptions of the plants are augmented by journal entries, making it possible to imagine that you are along for the trip.

Common to This Country: Botanical Discoveries of Lewis and Clark concentrates on just 25 plants and is more narrative in style than the previous title. The author smoothly interweaves information about the plants with events of the expedition and Lewis’s plant descriptions. The colored botanical illustrations and elegant font make this a beautifully designed book.

Of a more international flavor is In Pursuit of Plants: Experiences of Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Plant Collectors. The stories of numerous explorers in search of horticultural treasures all over the world are told through excerpts from their letters and journals. The perils of shipwrecks, warring local tribes, fevers, ant and leech attacks, and the difficulties of transporting precious plant specimens on the backs of galumphing camels are all detailed. What stands out most in these accounts, however, is the thrill of discovering something new.

A new DVD, The Interactive Manual and Photo-Library of Woody Landscape Plants, by Michael A. Dirr, narrows the field of possibilities quickly. The interactive feature allows you to select for basic features such as zone, sun or shade, water requirements, and size and, in addition, has fields for more specific characteristics such as growth rate, winter stem color, disease resistance, flower or fruit season, urban tolerance, contorted stems, etc. A search for a small evergreen with needles, pyramidal in shape, with decorative bark, zone 7, suitable for a sunny location with minimum water resulted in 33 matches. The photo library is excellent. Try comparing the flowers for Styrax japonicus and two of its cultivars ‘Emerald Pagoda’ and ‘Pink Chimes’, and you’ll know immediately which one is right for you. Woody shrubs, ground covers, and vines are included in addition to trees.

Conifers: The Illustrated Encyclopedia by D.M. van Gelderen and J. R. P. van Hoey Smith is part of the library Reference section. The two volume set includes a classification list which shows how the various genera are organized. There is also a short description of each genus and an index of common names. It is the outstanding color photos (over 2,300) of the trees and shrubs, however, which makes this an indispensable aid for comparison.

Small Trees: The Little Plant Library Series by Andrew Mikolajski and Peter Anderson should be of interest to anyone who has a small suburban garden. It can be a time consuming exercise to sift through a comprehensive encyclopedia, looking for a tree that will fit your space. In contrast, it’s easy to skim through the photos in this book, determine which form and foliage appeals to you, and then make a final decision based on siting and care details.

Autumn Gardens by Ethne Clarke is a good place to start in searching for plant ideas. The author considers how foliage, grasses, berries and late-blooming flowers can contribute to the fall landscape.

Plants for All Seasons: Beautiful and Versatile Plants That Change Through the Year by Ursula Buchan profiles shrubs, vines, border plants and trees. Many are pictured side by side in their summer and winter guises, so that you can look beyond the appearance of a particular plant when you buy it at the nursery to what it will look like six months hence.

Tree Bark, A Color Guide by Hugues Vaucher features an amazing variety of beautiful tree trunks (over 186 pages of photos). Take the book outside, stand back, and mentally paste the various colors and textures into your garden. The section on eucalyptus is especially useful, as the barks of mature trees vary quite dramatically from one species to the next.

In Outdoor Plants for Indoor Rooms Kathy Sheldon focuses on plants usually found in the garden which adapt nicely to indoor conditions. Ideas include planting lettuce and pansies in a shiny kitchen colander, pruning myrtle into a mini standard, and filling a stemmed bowl to overflowing with sedums and sempervivums.

John Brookes, a British author who is best known for his books on garden design, applies his knowledge to houseplants in The Indoor Garden Book. Plants with similar forms (upright, arching, bushy, trailing) are grouped together for comparison purposes and the book contains helpful information on interior mini-climates and matching plants to containers. Photos suggest numerous ways to incorporate plants into every room of the house, including stairwells and that essential room, the conservatory.

Rosemary McCreary showcases some attractive arrangements for indoor plants in Tabletop Gardens. Baskets of Mediterranean herbs grouped together are monochromatic, but have varied textures. Bright green wheat grass contrasts with a silver-shaded container, while the orange highlights of New Zealand sedge are echoed in its copper pot. There is even a bog garden for those who tend to overwater.

Gardening at Sissinghurst by Tony Lord explores the garden of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson room by room. It has the look of a coffee table book, with its excellent photos which highlight the beauty of the garden. In this case, however, the text is every bit as good as the visuals. The story of how the design was thought out and how the plants were selected makes for a fascinating read.

Influential Gardeners: The Designers Who Shaped 20th-Century Garden Style by Andrew Wilson profiles a multitude of designers. The book includes such familiar names as Penelope Hobhouse, Rosemary Verey, and Beth Chatto. Perhaps not as well-known are Dan Pearson, whose philosophy is to design with nature so that the human intervention is not so apparent; Dan Kiley, who blurs the lines between house and garden and between the garden and the natural landscape; and Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden, who have dispensed with the lawn and concentrated on lush plantings with interesting textural contrasts.

In Gardens of Inspiration, Erica Hunningher has asked famous British garden designers to write about a garden which has most influenced his or her work. It’s interesting to see that Christopher Lloyd, who is known for his brilliant combinations of color, has chosen a garden which emphasizes foliage in subtle shades of green and yellow. In Mirabel Osler’s choice of a garden in California, where fallen petals and leaves are left on the ground and low branches across a pathway go unpruned, one can see a link to her book, A Gentle Plea for Chaos.

When Dominique Browning wrote her enthusiastically reviewed Around the House and in the Garden, she looked candidly at the pain of going through a divorce and related how making changes in her home and garden helped her to recover. Her latest book, Paths of Desire: The Passions of a Suburban Gardener, stays very much in that emotional realm. Delight, dismay, serenity, envy, hope - are all there. She also describes the people she meets in the course of gardening: the landscape architect, for example, who spends all his time studying his books and perfecting his plans vs. his brother, the nurseryman, who actually gets out and digs, getting his hands dirty.

Ken Druse’s The Passion For Gardening: Inspiration For a Lifetime delves into the reasons why we garden. He examines personal motivations such as the pleasure of seeing things change each day, a fascination with particular plants, and the desire to create a garden in harmony with nature. Especially interesting is the section entitled “Collaborations,” which talks about relationships between gardening spouses or partners as well as work done with groups to accomplish community horticultural goals. Gardeners with all these reasons and more are profiled and the results are shown in inspiring photographs.

Reading Time and the Gardener: Writings On a Lifelong Passion is like sitting down over a cup of tea with a very knowledgeable and witty gardening friend. Elisabeth Sheldon discusses what she has learned over a lifetime of gardening, some of her favorite plants, and the lives of well-known gardeners of earlier times. My favorite chapter is entitled “The Ill-Tempered Gardener” in which she examines the theory that gardening tends to mellow the personality of the gardener - then reminds us that a number of famous ones, thought talented, were in fact very prickly, difficult characters.

The New York Times 1000 Gardening Questions and Answers is a great book to put on your bedside table and browse through before you drop off to sleep at night. The detailed index also makes it simple to find information on specific topics fast. A sampling of questions: "I'd like to start some ferns in a shady part of my yard, but I've never grown them before. Any suggestions?" "When and what should I feed my roses? Are organic fertilizers better than chemical ones?" "Would you please tell me what to do about the black bugs that are making a home and multiplying on my nasturtiums? I don't know what to spray them with because I would love to use nasturtiums in my salads."

Amy Stewart's From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden is an entertaining account of a person who started gardening with lots of enthusiasm, but no real clue as to what to do. Reading about her mistakes makes it easy to laugh at your own. Also, she includes some very useful tips at the end of each chapter. She suggests making a sun map, for example, marking off the dividing line between sun and shade with twine or bone meal, in the morning, at noon, and in the late afternoon. The result is a very clear picture of the conditions your plants are living in.

If the thought of being responsible for the death of a plant makes you cringe, making choices from Tough Plants: Unkillable Plants for Every Garden by Sharon Amos should insure that your plants survive.

Joan Clifton, in Garden Elements: A Sourcebook of Decorative Ideas to Transform the Garden begins by looking at what types of hardscaping are appropriate for various garden styles (formal, Mediterranean, Japanese, contemporary, etc.) and then offers a large selection of possibilities from bridges to abstract metal sculptures. Obtaining some of these pieces may require finding a talented artisan or searching through architectural salvage shops. Others, such as arranging pieces of slate vertically as an edging or making a willow obelisk can be do-it-yourself projects. One look at a whimsical trio of bug-eyed crows made of metal could inspire you to take a welding class and create your own variation.

The Craft and Art of Bamboo: 30 Elegant Projects to Make for Home and Garden by Carol Stangler contains some very beautiful and functional garden art. The book includes information on how to harvest and purchase bamboo, what tools to use, and how to tie the various lashings. Two striking projects are a trellis made with wavy golden bamboo and a screen with bamboo brush held vertically in a bamboo pole framework, reminiscent of a flattened row of wheat sheaves.

If you are a lover of antique prints or line drawings, Decorating Eden: A Comprehensive Sourcebook of Classic Garden Details will keep you absorbed for hours. Elizabeth Wilkinson and Marjorie Henderson have brought together fascinating prints of English knot garden patterns, wrought iron fence designs, Victorian gazebos, paving patterns, urn styles, and more. The text places them in the context of garden history. Take an old idea from this book and make it new in your garden.