14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A reader from Michigan, July 17, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: 100 Easy-To-Grow Native Plants: For American Gardens in Temperate Zones (Paperback)
Great pictures and a worthy book. This book describes the benefits of growing native plants and has beautiful photos. I am always in a quest to find and identify native plants to Michigan and this book is a terrific asset. It differs from wildflower books as it strictly focuses on the native plant and not the non-native yet wild. I would like to see the author write a larger more comprehensive guide. I have shared this books with friends and they have all found it very beneficial in appreciating the native flowering plants.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good introduction to native gardening, December 28, 2002
This review is from: 100 Easy-To-Grow Native Plants: For American Gardens in Temperate Zones (Paperback)
This isn't by any means exhaustive, either in coverage or growing information, but as an intro to native plants it is a fine addition to your library. Generally excellent photographs and an accessible page layout, with a description, requirements (soil type, sun), propagation tips, and good companions for each plant. Very pleasant to read.
There is one goofy thing about this book that is worth mentioning: The plants are presented in alphabetical order by common name. This leads to confusion when you find nothing under Trillium, only to find it under "Western Trillium," or you find Coneflower under "Purple Coneflower." The index lists only Latin names. To get around the problem of multiple common names, the book should be sorted by Latin name, and the common names should be available along with the latin names in the index.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Non-woody plants, not srubs or trees......, April 3, 2005
This review is from: 100 Easy-To-Grow Native Plants: For American Gardens in Temperate Zones (Paperback)
When I was a little girl, my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Bryant took our class on a walking field trip. We hiked from the school to a nearby creek that actually ran through a woods behind my home. There on a bank (or several banks for that matter), we found the plants we had been studying, NC flora-trilliums, mandrakes, jack-in-the-pulpit and others. I haven't seen these plants in the wild in a long time. The reason of course is that my old haunts have become unrecognizable as developers plowed under miles and miles land between High Point and Thomasville, and Winston Salem and Salisbury--farms when I was a kid. With the destruction of these farms, went creeks, bogs, hedgerows and other wonderful places native plants thrived. `Like the dew on the mountain, like the bubble on the fountain...lost and gone forever....'
100 EASY TO GROW NATIVE PLANTS by Lorraine Johnson is about these native American plants systematically destroyed by the forces of change, including the invasion of foreign plants such as English Ivy (Hedera helix) and Asian and European privet. There are alternatives. Instead of English Ivy you can plant Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). At the headquarters of Museum of Garden History at Lambeth Place in London, Virginia Creeper grows on the old church that serves as the museum and tumbles across the small cemetery that houses the Tradescants and Captain Bligh of Bounty fame (also a great plantsman). Unlike the evergreen English ivy, Virginia creeper loses its leaves in winter and thus moisture does not collect under the leaves and destroy masonry. (I ripped it off my house because I thought it would lift the shingles). In addition, the creeper leaves turn a bright red in the fall...so, when you see those lovely fall photos of old houses in England and notice the red leaves on the facades, remind yourself "That is a Native American plant."
Johnson does not really cover the list of invasive plants you might wish to displace with native substitutes but you need to know their names. You can obtain more information about invasive plants and native substitutes on the US Fish and Wildlife Service site www.nfwf.org (202-857-0166). At the NFWF site look for a publication entitled `Plant Invaders of the Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas' (the NFWF has similar documents for other areas, but this monograph will work for most of the Eastern Seaboard). Another source is the Plant Conservation Alliance www.nps.gov /plants (202-452-0392).
We will deal with invasive plants one person at a time. Next week I am having Euonymous, Buddleia, Privet, and Bayberry removed from my yard. I will substitute Fothergilla, Clethra, and Aronia arbutifolia (Chokeberry), considered as of this writing as okay for my neck of the woods.
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