Customer Reviews

Ferns for American Gardens

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book has excellent photographs and drawings, and describes in great detail the may species of ferns. The beginning of the book is technical, and defines the structural differences between fern types, how to recoginize the parts of a fern, etc. Anyone interested in growing wild or nursery-grown ferns should have this book in their collection. It will allow you to identify the ferns you have, or see in the forests.

I love ferns and this is a great book full of usful info on where the plant comes from and how to grow them. The intro sections of the ferns are great, giving general info on the genus. The Photos are just fantastic and not just few but tons of them. Most of the entries have a little cheat sheet that gives the basics on every plant before the description. I especially liked the availability entry. It was all good and it felt easy to read. If I saw a fern in a book or store I could look it up and see if I should get it. A great job.

John Mickel writes on ferns of the world that can be grown in American gardens. He writes first and foremost on how to grow any and all of the many ferns he describes and illustrates. This is not only accurate, it is almost a necessity for the fern or shade gardener.

Mickel's book is a treasure for fern-lovers. The opening chapters cover technical aspects of fern biology and propagation - but only to the extent necessary to familiarize the gardener. This is not a book written for botanists. The rest of the book is a description of fern species suitable for temperate gardens of North America. The information and advice is sound and the descriptions are strewn with gorgeous color photographs.

There is some good bibliographical information in the back and some contact information that might be dated, but is useful nonetheless.

This book should never have been allowed to go out of print. It is a wonderful, well-illustrated reference and is by far the best I have found so far with regard to growing ferns outdoors. The book is comprehensive enough to satisfy the fern fancier (particularly in the listing of genera and species), but has enough basic information (particularly regarding culture and propagation) to be useful to the gardener who just wants to incorporate some ferns in his or her garden.

This book contains descriptions of a very large number (over 500) of ferns organized by genera and focusing on North American species. The horticultural information goes fairly deep and appears to be very sound. Cultural information is provided for most species. If you are an amateur gardener, this is a good reference for ferns already in your garden and ones you are considering obtaining from local nurseries or from catalogs. Be advised, however, that the book is not a field guide. Although there are many color photos, not all ferns are illustrated. If you are seeking to identify ferns in the garden or the wild, there may be other books that would better serve this purpose.

Dr. Mickel's Ferns for American Gardens is the most comprehensive and useful book on ferns for the professional and amateur gardener alike. For those of us who are plagued with deer in our gardens, ferns provide alternative deer-proof plantings. The variety and beauty of these plants have often been underrated, but they fill an important element in the shade garden as they provide texture not often found in other plants. What better way to get to know these plants than with this book. Chapters show the structure of the plant, how to use ferns in the landscape, and beautiful photographs of the many genera, species and cultivars, all listed in alphabetical order. Each plant shows practical attributes such as height, hardiness zones and difficulty of cultivation. A real plus. It also has a chapter on ferns for specific conditions such as sunny conditions, rock gardens etc. The Web now allows the interested gardener to acquire more unusual ferns, and this book will steer you to make the correct decisions on what would suit your garden best. I rate this book as a must-have on ferns.

This book has a tremendous amount of information concerning ferns in America.
It is certainly well worth the sixteen dollars I paid for it. It contains a guide for flowering plants that you can partner with ferns. It gives descriptions of the flowering plants as well as their periods of bloom.
Also, in the back of the book is a glossary of terms which is very helpful and an index of common names.
If you need to identify a type of fern, this is the book to use. The pictures are very good and the descriptions are concise. Scientific names as well as common names are given. Propagating ferns is discussed as well as pests and hardiness zones. A list of mail order sources for hardy ferns is listed at the back of the book. Lots of information is given throughout. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about or grow ferns.

In this excellent book Mickel furnishes an enormous amount of information about ferns without becoming pedantic or over-bearing. It is reflective of the author's life passion and years of hands-on gardening experience with these plants. The book is nicely organized so that a neophyte such as myself can reference it easily yet it provides enough in-depth information to satisfy the more advanced "fern-aholic". There are great sections on each species detailing origin, ease of cultivation and habit. Although one can tell Mickel never met a fern he didn't like, he makes it engagingly obvious in some cases which are his favorites and why. There is a great section on Matteuccia struthiopteris(ostrich fern) which includes a recipe for preparing and cooking the fiddleheads. Differing from the cook's point of view, the gardener steps in to assure us that cutting the fiddleheads brings no lasting damage to the fern! In another section on the Himalayan maidenhair fern he shares his delight in the accidental discovery that this species is adaptable to indoor cultivation.
The general information on fern structure and reproduction is concise and easily understood. There are a host of new terms in Fern World to be grasped, such as crosier, sori and rachis but Mickel makes them all comprehensible. Gardening with ferns, their prefered habitats, companion plants and even propagation are addressed as this is far more than a field identification book. There are an assortment of good line drawings and small color photographs of the individual fern species, but if this book has a weakness I would say that the photos are undersized and there are not enough of them. However, this is not an opulent coffee-table book but a good solid reference book which is easy to use and full of helpful, practical information for the fern-garderner at what ever level. I still rate it as a solid five star garden book.

This book has excellent illustrations of a variety of ferns with an description of each. Well worth having for anyone interested in a fern garden.