Customer Reviews

Alabama & Mississippi Gardener's Guide

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This is a handy reference for Alabama and Mississippi gardeners and one that you'll refer to again and again. It is especially great for beginning gardeners who are often confused with the large variety of plants profiled in general gardening guides. The plants profiled here are wise choices for AL and MS although some will perform better in the northern areas of the state and vice-versa.

There are 186 tried and true individual plants featured, organized in sections of "Annuals," "Bulbs," "Groundcovers," "Herbs," "Ornamental Grasses," "Perennials," "Roses," "Shrubs," "Trees," "Vines," and "Water and Bog Plants. Each plant's profile covers an entire page and includes sections on "When, Where and How to Plant," "Growing Tips," "Care," "Companion Planting and Design," and "Personal Favorites." A color photograph, common names, bloom period and seasonal color and mature height and spread of the plant is included. Chapters in the back of the book include "The Low Maintenance Lawn," "General Pest Control," "Landscaping with Native Plants," "Plants to Attract Butterflies and Hummingbirds," "Landscape Tips for Winter Months."

This is a guide that can ease the pain of choosing plants appropriate for the area for beginning gardeners and experienced gardeners will appreciate the practical advice of caring for the plant. I would hope that future editions would include even more plants (there are some that are mysteriously absent) - that would make this an invaluable reference indeed!

I bought it for my wife. We moved to Alabama 18 months ago. The wife loves flowers but doesn't know the blooming rotation for the local flowers.
This book has great pictures of the pants and good explanations. Just thumbing through it, it answered many questions about the many flowering plants, bushes, and trees that we see blooming all around us.
I'm an engineer and wouldn't know a daffidill from a dalhia. - Heck, I can't even spell them. Nor do I care to. But, my wife does and she likes this book very much.
We bought a second book by the same author. It has more explanation but no color pictures.
My wife is very happy and can cross reference between the two books.
Next year, I will get more involved and this book will be the first one that I will pick up to read and learn.
With this book, my wife will make our yard beautiful this year and I will work toward "Yard of the Month" next year.

Agian, this book has great photos.

This is an invaluable book for the novice and experienced gardener alike. Rushing, a plain-spoken champion of native plants, offers here concise, practical advice for the care, choosing and aesthetics of landscape plants. Any gardener will appreciate the simple, clear, yet beautiful and easy-to-understand format.

Alabama & Mississippi Gardener's Guide (Gardener's Guides)
The photo of the pink perfection camellia (perfectly named) on the front cover caused me to purchase the book, as I recognised it in my front yard. I immediately began pouring over the wonderful photographs and discovered many plants in my rescue yard. Beautifully printed on quality paper (which is holding up well four years later); the books format: one plant per page with excellent photographs (which are quite difficult to find outside of planting/seed catalogs) and information is consistently laid out as follows:

In the left column of each page:
the plant name
the plant photo
and a general and often poetic description
Other Common Names
Bloom Period and Seasonal Color
Mature Height Spread

In the right column of each page:
When, Where and How to Plant
Growing Tips
Care
Companion Planting and Design
Personal Favorites

The best part of living in an older neighborhood is the plants and trees. Helped by this book I am able to identify many of my shrubs, bulbs and other plants that are native and local; this type of planting often means drought resistant, flood resistant, (the best and most cost savings part (saving me the price of the book many times over)) INFREQUENT FEEDING AND WATERING, companion plantings for other local native plants, and frequently deer resistant (which is not often a problem as we are downtown less than 2 miles from the state capitol, but you never know, rabbit resistant would actually be more helpful;)

Now, I will digress for a moment to say that a green thumb is not genetic and often when your parents are good at a thing you take it for granted and do not learn it yourself. With grandparents on both sides natural gardeners: florist and nurseryman, and parents who are both excellent gardeners, I knew that we had a lot of native plants in the yard but that was all I could determine.

Until I came across this book.

We bought a rescue dog from the Animal Shelter. Then we bought a rescue house (nicely built in 1949 (then in 1975 sold to second owner who told us they did not maintain it)). We loved the bones of the house and bought it anyway. The yard was very private (pronounce that terribly overgrown). We love it. Upon moving in we realized that doing justice to renovating a rescue house includes rescuing and RENOVATING the YARD. I later found out that the previous owner had been a Master Gardener. There were pass along plants everywhere, all over the yard.

I spent months begging gardener friends and neighbors to help me decipher what plants I owned with some success. But this book helped me more than anything else. Very basic. Easy to use. Excellent for a beginner like myself and packed with helpful information. This 52 year old Alabama girl found it quite useful. I had much to learn and this book has been my sidekick! I love it and frequently pull it out to show and recommend it to friends.