An American Cutting Garden: A Primer for Growing Cut Flowers Where Summers Are Hot and Winters Are Cold [Hardcover]

Suzanne McIntire (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2002

In An American Cutting Garden Suzanne McIntire describes how to plan a cutting garden, choose suitable plants, keep the garden in good order, and harvest a bountiful crop -- all with charm and humor. Using both common and botanical names, she discusses in depth a wide variety of herbaceous perennials, biennials, annuals, and bulbs. McIntire includes information on topics such as the length of stems one might expect from the cutting garden, how many plants are needed of any one kind, when and how to sow seed outdoors, the heat-hardiness of plants, and strategies for coping with the effects of hot summers and cold winters.

Suzanne McIntire is a freelance writer and seasoned veteran of gardening in northern Virginia. She is the editor of The American Heritage Book of Great American Speeches for Young People.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A useful addition to every flower arranger's bookshelf, this is a book to have at hand when you place your seed/plant order.

(American Gardener )

"A refreshing 'how-to' book for creating a cutting garden. McIntire writes with a wonderful sense of humor and provides continually useful information throughout the book.

(Holly H. Shimizu, cohost of PBS's The Victory Garden and Executive Director, U.S. Botanic Garden )

]"For those who would rather grow bouquets than buy them.... First buy the ultimate primer for growing cut flowers, An American Cutting Gardenby Suzanne McIntire. This book offers everything you need to know about growing a cutting garden -- preparing a site, laying it out, coordinating bloom, harvesting. It covers the culture of hundreds of annuals, biennials, bulbs and other perennials. Its appendixes include instructions for starting seeds under lights, lists of plants and resources for materials.

(Washington Post )

About the Author

Suzanne McIntire is a freelance writer and seasoned veteran of gardening in northern Virginia. She is the editor of The American Heritage Book of Great American Speeches for Young People.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press (January 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813920620
• ISBN-13: 978-0813920627
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource for all gardeners, July 9, 2002

By 

Amy Barton (Charlottesville, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An American Cutting Garden: A Primer for Growing Cut Flowers Where Summers Are Hot and Winters Are Cold (Hardcover)

An American Cutting Garden provides in depth information for anyone interested in growing his own cut flowers. Whether you are a novice or a pro, this book offers practical advice that gardeners of all experience levels will enjoy. You'll no longer have to pour through book after book to decide what to grow and how to grow it. Everything you need to know about a cutting garden is contained in these pages.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cutting Gardens by Your Best Friend Who You Never Met, February 11, 2006

By 

Bramman M. Avery - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An American Cutting Garden: A Primer for Growing Cut Flowers Where Summers Are Hot and Winters Are Cold (Hardcover)

So many garden books so little time! Yet take time for McIntire's hands on common sense. McIntire has spent 14 years experimenting and learning. It's as if your friend had decided to help you get started. And she can write. No matter where you are gardening, McIntire's got tips to get you started and to increase your expertise if you have already begun. If you are a real novice get a copy of the American Horticultural Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (ISBN 8789419432) which has all the pictures of all the plants. But, if you want to learn what to plant under what conditions and how to succeed no matter how small, how shaded, how unfavorable your conditions might be, McIntire will, with writing which approaches the garden writing greats in style, lead you in the right direction. Skill is not the secret. But McIntire will provide you with the skills she has developed and the love for the process of gardening that nurtures every gardener, new or old. Best of all she will not send you out to buy 18 irises at $18.00 each. You can start with packets of seed. She follows in the footsteps of Henry Mitchel and Elenor Perenyi. Yet she provides simple access. Any latin or common name can be found in her Index of Plants. If you wonder how to coordinate various plants so that you have things in bloom over the season, there is a Sequence of Bloom for all the plants mentioned. Now the paperback has 28 color pictures (buy the A to Z). Gardening is much more than the photos in books and catalogues. We don't have Vita Sackville West's gardeners. We don't live at White Flower Farm. We have a small plot of mediocre soil and hope. Suzanne McIntire will provide you with both the knowledge and the intangible sprit to produce a cutting garden with flowers you will love and cherish. Try it. Try it. You will see!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An American Cutting Garden, September 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: An American Cutting Garden: A Primer for Growing Cut Flowers Where Summers Are Hot and Winters Are Cold (Hardcover)

Finally a book that helps me navigate through the garden with a bit of information that is useful.I had great success using this text as a tool to prepare my beds for spring and summer. My garden looked beautiful. I experimented with new plants well.