Customer Reviews

Cass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning: What, When, and Where and How to Prune for a More Beautiful Garden

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MUCH better than the highly rated American Horticultural Society pruning guide, in my opinion. I bought them both at the same time. She doesn't cover the huge variety of species that other books try to, and the book is actually a collection of short treatises she wrote for a periodical publication, so there's a lot of repetition. But the repetition is all information that you really need to learn, so it's better to get it hammered in right. Instead of a big quick listing of facts, you'll get to know the personalities of various types of plants in depth, and know how to put that knowledge to use. I definitely don't look at people's yards the same way anymore, and I feel confident that I can take care of my own shrubs and small trees now. I also enjoyed her dorky sense of humor, compete with bad puns and comic illustrations.

Now in an updated second edition, Cass Turnbull's Guide To Pruning is a no-nonsense guide to pruning plants the right way, since the wrong way can lead to "water sprouts" (stringy, hairy twigs that grow straight up on a tree) or other eyesores and disasters. Professional gardener Cass Turnbull gives step-by-step instructions for pruning more than 160 species of trees, shrubs, ground covers, vines, and more. Over 150 b/w illustrations clarify the various techniques, and new highlights of the second edition include additional chapters on pruning ground covers and hedges, expanded coverage of mounding-habit, cane-growing, and tree-like shrubs, pruning tips organized by regions of America, new illustrations, and more. Cass Turnbull's Guide To Pruning is a superb supplementary reference and resource for gardeners, homeowners, and landscapers.

I discovered Cass Turnbull's original guide several years ago through on-line research - and was amused and excited to read about her work forming Plant Amnesty, an organization with a goal of protecting plants from mal-pruing into meatballs and other boring shapes.

Her guide is structured to provide a general introduction to pruning techniques, then branching out to cover different classes of plants, finally focusing in detail on many common plants with specific guidelines for pruning. This has become my pruning bible.

Suffice to say that this second edition is more of the same, more plants covered, more photos and how-to illustrations, and more humorous stories. Well worth your investment!

Read it, refer to it, prune by it. And learn to respect your plants by pruning them naturally!

Cass Turnbull brings both her expertise and her fun spirit to this excellent book about pruning. It's a page turner, with lots of great information and insight. Turnbull's writing makes it enjoyable to read, unlike many boring gardening books. I'm glad I found it before attempting some major pruning this year.

I love this book! I have a hard time remembering what I am supposed to do in the garden and when, but Cass Turnbull makes it easy. She groups plants into types and explains how to prune each type. This makes it much easier to remember how to treat various trees and shrubs, although there is a nice index in case you forget or want to look up something specific.

She has a very fun writing style and an easygoing approach that makes you feel like the plant police aren't looking over your shoulder. Highly recommended!

Cass is like a tree guru. There are so many things I didn't know about pruning or caring for trees, bushes, shrubs, etc. But my dad's been gone for years and his Mock Orange tree was in need of help. So I got this book and, not only learned to carefully care for the tree, but also put to rest many myths that I had previously THOUGHT were true about caring for vegetation. The tree is looking better already. Although I'm going slow, so it'll take a few years to get it just right. But NOW I understand what I'm doing and why. Great resource if you want to learn to do it right!

If you want to understand and work with you tree or shrub's natural growth to create a healthly AND beautiful plant, then this is the book for you. It doesn't have color pictures but it's simple sketches and detailed knowledge of plants makes it much more informative and useful than any shiny pictured book you'll find.

This is the rare garden guide book you can actually enjoy reading cover to cover. Turnbull's style is engaging and amusing, and the explanations of techniques are descriptive and easy to follow. The general attitude that gardening is happy, dirty work with plenty of room for fixable mistakes and personal whims is refreshing when so many garden books read like religious texts celebrating the sacred beauty of the perfect planting.
Pruning and planting advice is especially helpful in illustrating how to make decisions and cuts based on the form and growth pattern of particular trees and shrubs. Seems advanced enough that most non-professional gardeners will benefit, and beginner/intermediates will learn a ton. Finally, this is probably a useful guide for any region, but she works in Seattle and I think this almost a must-read if you garden in the Pacific NW. Have fun.

I have numerous gardening books and thought that this may be a good addition to my library. Unfortunately, not so. It is poorly written, in a very "folksy" way, and I doubt some of the advice given for particular plants. Plant coverage is limited to the more common varieties. Lastly, it is not in color and there are only sketches, no actual photos.

Save your money and don't buy this book. If you really want a good pruning book, buy The American Horitcultural Society "Pruning and Training". It is well organized, great pictures and sketches demonstating what to do, expert instruction, etc.