Best Garden Plants For Iowa [Paperback]

Chuck Porto (Author), Laura Peters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2005

We've taken some of the work and a lot of the worry out of your next trip to the garden center. In this book you'll find over 160 accounts featuring the best plant varieties in nine categories: annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, vines, climbers, roses, bulbs and herbs. You'll also find information about each plant's special features, its habitat, height and spread, best soil, light and water conditions, and tips about the best use of the plant in your garden. Color-coded bars at the top of each page make it fast and easy to find what you're looking for.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

CHUCK PORTO is host of KXIC AM 800's Saturday morning gardening show and retail manager at Iowa City Landscaping. An Iowa Certified Nursery Professional, Chuck also teaches Integrated Pest Management at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. His horticultural roots began as a child while working in his family's West Des Moines, Iowa garden where they cultivated 1.5 acres and sold vegetables out of their garage. Chuck graduated from the University of Iowa in 1987 with a Science degree in Biology. LAURA PETERS is a certified Master Gardener with 27 gardening books to her credit. She has gained valuable experience in every aspect of the horticultural industry in a career that has spanned more than 16 years. Laura especially enjoys sharing her practical knowledge of organic gardening, plant varieties and gardening products with fellow gardeners.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Lone Pine Publishing (April 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551055201
• ISBN-13: 978-1551055206
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,544,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brown thumb turned green, September 20, 2005

By 

mountain mama "Deb Schmalz" (Iowa, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Best Garden Plants For Iowa (Paperback)

Usually most books start with "you can propagate with root tip cuttings". Well, if I knew what that was & how to do it it wouldn't need your book. Bless Chuck (who grew up in Iowa) for laying it all out for me - tallest to smallest, length of flowering, what type of dogwood & magnolia will grow here (I'm from WV & miss my dogwoods & magnolias). Sure we've got an Earl May store down the street, but their assumption that my basic knowledge matches theirs
makes me feel stupid. I need something 6 ft tall & green as a N windbreak & to cover up my neighbors ugly chain fence - Chuck had the answer right away, without offering me so many choices in names that I've never heard of that it makes me want to hit them with all the 'medicalese' I'm used to. They're kind folk, but Chuck's book tells me what I need and want to know. I stuck a 4 in pussy willow that had been under freezing conditions without water all winter and now I've got this huge tree - wish I'd known that earlier. This is an absolutely, positively, without a doubt wonderful book. And I thought I was stuck with those ugly solid orange day lilies for ever. I hate 'em. Pictures showed varieties that were gorgeous. Wish I'd also known that lily of the valley would take over my whole yard. This book is solid gold and a must have for an experienced IA gardener or one like me who thought a peony was a weed and yanked it out.

4.0 out of 5 stars i like it...but i don't love it., September 7, 2009

By 

M. Allen (iowa city, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Best Garden Plants For Iowa (Paperback)

really, it is a 3.5 star book. this book is a very cursory glance of garden plants in iowa. it is pretty shallow, so don't expect anything more than a brief description. very pretty pictures, though. needs to include more care information for the plants (sunlight requirements on all plants, soil, how to maintain). also doesn't differentiate native species from non-natives. it is a good, basic book but not terribly thorough.