Customer Reviews

Hardy Herbaceous Perennials: Two volumes (Gardener's Guide)

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I have a modest horticultural library, including the AHS A-Z mentioned in another review, and I was thrilled to be able to add "Hardy Herbaceous Perennials" to my bookshelf. The authors are well known experts in the field of herbaceous perennials and they've compiled a truly remarkable book on the subject.

Whereas "A-Z" has as many pages as this work, it includes every type of plant - woodies, vines, conifers, annuals, perennials, water plants - you name it. Obviously you're getting a lot more entries on the narrowed down topic of herbaceous perennials in Jelitto & Schachts' book. You'll find more obscure perennials included in this work than in A-Z.

The entries are also more interesting than A-Z's. Each entry is from the author's first hand knowledge of the plant, more along the line of what you might find in Dirr's and Armitage's writings. However, they do also stick to the facts as in A-Z, so you do get the information you need, as in in origin, zone, plant requirements. A-Z is more clinical.

Since the book was written many years ago (this edition was updated in 1990 when it was translated from the German), some of the photos are black and white, though many are color. And, since the translation was done in 1990, taxonomic changes that occurred after that date are missing. Neither of these points is a drawback to buying this book. All the photography is excellent and, well, names change all the time, so even A-Z needs updating.

One last point to be made is that we in the United States tend to feel perhaps a little too self important. This is why A-Z is considered the 'best' by many US readers. While I wouldn't give up my copy of A-Z, I don't restrict my library to US publications. There is a huge amount of information originating in Europe and on other continents that never makes its way here. This does not reduce its value, just makes it less available unless we reach beyond the US. I have a friend who bought a shrub here in a US nursery and could find no info on it. It wasn't in A-Z or Dirr. The first 3 books I pulled off my shelf had it; two from the UK and one from Australia.

In conclusion, "Hardy Herbaceous Perennials" is one of the best additions I've made to my library in a long time. The price is a bit steep, but worth it.

I purchased this book as a recomendation of my teacher in Hort Science, at The Ohio State University. When i recieved it, their was only 1 of 2 copies, which was outrageous for the price. The pictures were of poor quality, the information was in small amounts, and there was no detail. I showed this book to my teacher since he had never see it himself, and he laughed. He showed me a book he and I thought was going to be, infact The American Horticultural Society A To Z Encyclopedia Of Garden Plants is one of the best in his collection of over 2000 books on Horticulture. This book shows 6000 color photos, full descriptions on each plant, trees, details, and everything else I thought the Hardy perennial book was going to be. If you want to know the truth, their are many other books out there better than this one. For instance check out TimberPress.com, the maker of this book. It shows many other titles related to this title.

This book was supposed to have two volumes. I only received one. I'm still awaiting Amazon's response to this, but for one volume this is way overpriced.