Customer Reviews

Dwarf & Unusual Conifers Coming of Age: A Guide to Mature Garden Conifers

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This book is a rare work of art. The extensive and excellent photography shows plants in garden settings; photos are numerous and clearly defined. The cultural descriptions, including things like explanations, size, form, zone and suggestions for companion plantings are also very well written-complete and easy to understand. If you are a serious landscaper or love unusual conifers, this reference book is a MUST!

The title of this book is misleading, although perhaps not intentionally so. A more accurate title would have been, "Dwarf and Unusual Conifers in the Gotelli Collection of the United States National Arboretum". (What this title lacks in elegance it makes up for in accuracy.)

"Dwarf & Unusual Conifers Coming of Age: A Guide to Mature Garden Conifers" appears to be a self-published (and self-designed) guide to the remarkable collection of conifers originally assembled by New Jersey businessman William Gotelli and transferred, legally and physically, to the USNA in 1962. Existing material on this collection is incomplete and scattered, so a guide to the collection and its individual specimens is a valuable addition to the literature, and a great help for visitors.

The book falls short in several regards. Its design and typography are not up to professional publishing standards. Distracting and inconsistent, they obscure the very real informational value of the descriptive, historical, and cultural sections. The photography is adequate, but does not do justice to the specimens, and lackluster reproduction values diminish its value further. There are numerous errors of spelling and nomenclature (Botanical nomenclature is admittedly complicated and prone to error, but this book has more than its share.) Finally, the target audience for this book is somewhat unclear. It is too detailed and intimate for the casual visitor, and insufficiently serious and authoritative for the true expert.

These defects aside, " Dwarf & Unusual Conifers Coming of Age" fills an interesting gap in the lore of collectable conifers. The history of the Gotelli collection, and especially the photos of Gotelli's original plantings, are fascinating. The panoramic views of the current beds are very useful to the contemporary visitor. Finally, the sections on culture and integrated pest management, largely authored by USNA staff, provide practical and tested advice for growers and collectors. For serious conifer enthusiasts, this book is probably a must-have, since much of the material presented is not available elsewhere. Others should be guided by the real focus of the book - if they plan to visit, or have visited, the Gotelli Collection in Washington, DC, this book will add significant value to the experience. I'm still waiting for a definitive guide to mature forms of dwarf and unusual conifers.