Customer Reviews

Gardening with Perennials Month by Month

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The instant I saw this book I knew I had to have it. It is an essential guide for any gardener growing perennials. With its index & extensive lists it allows anyone to easily find plants to suit their landscape.

Flowers are listed for each month from March through September. Conveniently, at the start of each chapter, there is a list of flowers by color. Plants are then listed alphabetically by scientific name.

For each plant there is information on its common name, flowering span, physical description, zone & culture. Other data may include native habitat, cultivation, bothersome diseases or pests & small color photos.

A great reference section in the back lists plants by characteristics, including those that bloom all season long, 6 weeks or more & in the winter. Fruit bearing, drought resistant, moisture loving & shade tolerant varieties are also listed.

This is a guide for the serious perennial gardener. It is useful as a reference for planning a perennial garden that will always have some feature of interest, no matter what the season. Many of us (myself included) tend to plant gardens that reach their peak in May and June, and after that, only the occasional aster or sedum lights up the landscape. "Gardening with Perennials Month by Month" allows you to plan out your garden from March through September, without any dead spots in the blooming season.

A calendar of blooming times and available colors begins each monthly chapter, and the author's suggestions are geared to Zone 6 American gardeners (he is a resident of Massachusetts). Gardeners in different zones will have to adjust accordingly.

There are over 400 color photographs, focused primarily on a particular species, rather than how that species appears in a landscape. In fact, if I were allowed to make a suggestion for the next edition of "Gardening with Perennials Month by Month" it would be to include information on which plants look and do well when grouped in close proximity.

Suggestion for other gardeners: use "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden" by Tracy Disabato-Aust in conjunction with "Gardening with Perennials Month by Month." Disabato-Aust is more informative about the impact of a particular perennial in the landscape as a whole. She also includes useful information on how to extend the blooming season (mainly by pruning).