Best Garden Color for Florida (Florida Gardening) [Hardcover]

Pamela Crawford (Author)

Book Description

Series: Florida Gardening | Publication Date: November 2003

"Best Garden Color for Florida" is a must-have for Florida gardeners and professionals who love garden color! It is not only loaded with 575 spectacular photos, but also includes reams of easy-to-understand information about use and care of 150 terrific Florida plants. The plant information is complemented with chapters filled with ideas about color for butterflies, sun, shade, salt, and wind.

The book is a result of decades of plant research by the author to determine which plants and planting strategies give the most color for the least amount of care. The author personally grew most of the plants, giving her practical experience with all aspects of the plants’ use and maintenance. It is a companion to the best-selling "Easy Gardens for South Florida", which will be adapted to cover the whole state in 2004. No information is repeated in either book. The two work together to give you the best garden color for Florida.

"Best Garden Color for Florida" covers all of Florida, with special emphasis on zones 9 through 11. It gives detailed information on annuals, perennials, shrubs, vines, and flowering trees.

The book is large-format, hard-cover, reference book with top-quality binding and paper. It is designed to be a useful, long-lasting book that goes with you to the garden center and into your backyard for many years to come. "Best Garden Color for Florida" belongs on the book shelf of every Florida gardener!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Pamela Crawford began gardening at age 3 with her English mother in Mississippi. She moved to Florida in the 70’s, planning a gorgeous garden filled with color. The next few years brought more blunders than blooms, as she made every gardening mistake in the book! These early errors started a three-decade saga to learn everything she could about Florida gardening. She got a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from Florida International University, followed by starting a nursery and garden design business. While designing 1500 gardens, she also started trial gardens to determine which plants gave the highest performance with the least amount of care. Of the 2500 plants tested to date, only 230 passed her difficult trials. These are truly tough plants!

10 years ago, Pamela began shipping plants to Mississippi to learn more about the cold tolerance of her plants. These results have great applicability to the northern parts of Florida.

Pamela is planning three books in her Florida Gardening Series. The first book, "Easy Gardens for South Florida", was published in 2000 and features 100 easy plants as well as all you ever needed to know about how to plant and maintain your Florida garden. "Best Garden Color for Florida" is the second volume. "Containers and Accessories for Florida Gardens" is the third volume, which should be released in early 2005.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: Color Garden Publishing; Florida Gardening Series Volume 2 edition (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971222010
• ISBN-13: 978-0971222014
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #585,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pamela Crawford, author of ten gardening books, is considered one of the most accomplished garden experts in the country. In addition to designing gardens for over 1500 residences, her work has been featured on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens publications as well as in Southern Living, HGTV Magazine, Fine Gardening, Country Gardens, Country Almanac, Small Gardens, and in over four hundred newspapers. As an expert in her field, she has appeared on the Fine Living Network, gardenloverstv.com, Fox News affiliates and numerous local tv shows.

Pamela has an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University and a masters degree in landscape architecture from Florida International University, where she received the prestigious "Torch Award' as an outstanding alumnus from the school of architecture.

Pamela has been heavily involved in trial gardens, both on a university and private level. Her goal is to find plants that give the most color for the least amount of care. Learn more about Pamela from her web site, www.easygardencolor.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and incredibly helpful, November 20, 2003

By 

mayer a berg (Ft. Myers, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Garden Color for Florida (Florida Gardening) (Hardcover)

I found this book to be very useful in helping me to improve my butterfly garden in the Ft. Myers area. The author has used gorgeous pictures that allowed me to determine whether the specific plants she recommended would be appropriate to my garden and where they should be planted.

The book has categories such as blooming season, planting tips, size and dimensions of specific plants, possible pest problems and much more which I found very useful.

The author's previous book, Easy Gardens for South Florida became a "bible" for me as a newcomer to Florida gardening. The combination of both of these books is allowing me to create a garden that is the "wonder" of our neighborhood and a place of great peace and satisfaction for me.

I would highly recommend these books for anyone who wants to plant successfully and with beauty, anywhere in Florida.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FANTASTIC, March 12, 2004

By 

Marietta Brown (DAVIE, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Garden Color for Florida (Florida Gardening) (Hardcover)

This book is great. Easy to read and understand, many pictures, author lists good and bad plants, saves you tons of money in deciding what to purchase. I have owned this book a few months and have gone back to it dozens of times for reference.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous for Floridians!, June 7, 2005

By 

Cindy Lou (Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best Garden Color for Florida (Florida Gardening) (Hardcover)

This book is geared toward our Florida gardens. I am a South Florida landscaper and use this book constantly on sales calls. It is a super reference book chock full of pertinent info & color photos. It is easy to read and covers all aspects of plant needs from lighting, watering, soil & space requirements, fertilization & even pest cautions. The variety of plants listed by Ms. Crawford are readily available in most local nurseries and do well here in Florida. This is exactly the kind of book we Florida landscapers have been waiting for!