Flower Gardening in the Hot Midwest: USDA ZONE 5 AND LOWER ZONE 4 [Paperback]

Linda Hillegass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2000

The Midwest presents special challenges to the aspiring flower gardener. Hot winds, intense sun, and unrelenting summer heat, combined with bitter cold in the winter and sudden shifts in temperature, call for hardy blooms and careful planning by those who tend them. In this practical, charmingly user-friendly guide to gardening success, veteran gardener Linda Hillegass outlines her tried-and-true strategies for outmaneuvering the midwestern climate to cultivate a thriving garden. Addressing both aspects of this distinctive climate, where plants must be resistant to extended periods of very high heat as well as to subzero winters, Hillegass catalogs the flowering plants best suited to the extremes of a region that extends from South Dakota and Nebraska east to Indiana (USDA zone 5 and the southern half of zone 4) and also includes Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois.She offers guidance on preparing and enriching the soil, composting, planting and transplanting, watering, pinching and pruning, and combating pests. She also provides a gardener's chronology of how long and how frequently specific plants can be expected to bloom. Her tips will help maximize each plant's beauty over the course of the season and, for the many perennials she discusses, from year to year. If visions of daffodils, dahlias, and daylilies dance in your head through the long months of a midwestern winter, this is the book for you. The novice gardener, the experienced gardener new to the Midwest, and the midwestern gardener who has despaired at delicate flowers withering under the unforgiving sun will all welcome Hillegass' friendly, encouraging, and eminently practical guide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"For gardeners who have been burned... Packed with solid, specific advice and plant suggestions from a gardener who knows that 'our Midwestern summers make New England weather look like sissy stuff.' She knows about the winters too." -- Chicago Tribune "The ideal manual for beginning and intermediate Midwest-based flower gardeners... An essential reference for all gardeners and horticulturalists seeking to raise flowers in this difficult agricultural zone." -- Wisconsin Bookwatch

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (August 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252068858
• ISBN-13: 978-0252068850
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,215,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ideal manual for beginning Midwest flower-gardeners, January 10, 2001

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flower Gardening in the Hot Midwest: USDA ZONE 5 AND LOWER ZONE 4 (Hardcover)

Flower Gardening In The Hot Midwest: USDA Zone 5 and Lower Zone 4 is the ideal manual for beginning and intermediate Midwest-based flower gardeners. Linda Hillegass draws upon her more than twenty years of Midwest flower gardening experience to write a practical, encouraging, "user friendly" guide covering all the basics for flower gardening in the difficult climate of the American Midwest. This is a region that extends from South Dakota and Nebraska east to Indiana and is hallmarked by searing winds, intense sun, unrelenting summer heat, as well as bitter cold in the winter and sudden shifts in temperature. Flower Gardening In The Hot Midwest offers the aspiring flower gardener effective strategies for choosing plans, preparing the soil, watering, pruning, and combating pests. There is also a gardener's chronology of how long and how frequently specific plants can be expected to bloom. Flower Gardening In The Hot Midwest is an essential reference for all gardeners and horticulturalists seeking to raise flowers in this difficult agricultural zone.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal resource for a hard climate in which to garden, March 30, 2009

By 

Eric Dunning "Omaha Guy" (Omaha, Nebraska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flower Gardening in the Hot Midwest: USDA ZONE 5 AND LOWER ZONE 4 (Paperback)

This book is a great resource for gardening on the great plains. Her point that gardeners don't give enough consideration to heat stresses on plants was really thought provoking. I've bought a couple of copies of this book over the years, because it is such a great resource for gardeners dealing with a difficult climate. The in-depth discussion of individual plants is particularly good.