Hostas (Gardener's Guide) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Diana Grenfell (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gardener's Guide | Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Highly prized for their clean sculptural leaves in an extraordinary range of colours, hostas are one of the most popular of all foliage plants. Varying in hue from matt blue-grey to glossy apple green, and in size from those no bigger than a thumbnail to others as large as dinner plates, there is a hosta for almost every situation and effect. They look stunning when a number of varieties are planted together as the greens gently complement each other, but are also invaluable as planting companions in the mixed border, associating particularly well with ferns, astilbes, sedges and hellebores. Although generally grown for foliage, hostas also carry equisite stems of delicate flowers.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

For a compact and invaluable reference that delights time and again at an eminently affordable price, I cannot recommend this book too highly. -- Peter Kendall, Journal of the Am. Rhododendron Society, Spring, 98

The book is beautifully presented. It is full of practical information required to grow hostas, and you will find yourself dipping into it time and time again.(Jean Sambrook, The Garden, (Royal Hort. Soc.) Jan. 1997) -- (Royal Hort. Soc. - Jan. 1997)

This comprehensive survey of the genus in the popular series style is illustrated with stunning color photography for accurate identification. -- Readers Digest Catalog

This is the best book on hostas that Ive seen. I thoroughly recommend this book, both to the beginner and the experienced hosta grower. -- American Gardening, by the Unknown Gardener --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

Hostas, grown mainly for their beautiful foliage, are shade-loving perennials & good companions to daylilies & other flowering plants.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press, Incorporated (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881925187
• ISBN-13: 978-0881925180
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,229,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book covered all aspects of growing hosta., June 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hostas (Hardcover)

I read every book on hostas that I could find. When I read Grenfell's book I knew it was one I needed to own, and I purchased it. It covered ever aspect of growing hostas. Elemaniting a lot of bad hearsay advise. The information is consice and easy to read. The technical information is all there as well as information for novice gardners.

There is a well written chapter on propagation that will help any gardener increase their number of plants. Its not just for professionals.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent subject coverage without being too technical., December 31, 1998

By 

[e-mail] Charles Diem (South Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hostas (Hardcover)

Just the book I was looking for. After collecting and growing hostas for some years now, Diana Genfell's book zeroed in on the questions I still had. It's a perfect companion to Paul Aden's hosta book, but if I had to own just one--this book would be it.

45 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars So Many Hostas So Little Planet, February 23, 2000

By 

Jonathan Justice (Logansport, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Gardener's Guide to Growing Hostas (Hardcover)

Buy this for the plant list. It is easy to spend more than the book price on a modest bunch of Hostas at some garden center, or a lot more, if you are in a big hurry. Grenfell tells us more than those pretty tags do, and even says some of the things they are likely to neglect. I would wish that she had been more explicit about the range of what one is likely to get in the way of plant sizes as one tries to compare garden center, nursery, and catalog prices and outcomes. Hosta "August Moon," p. 99, for example, is a wonderful plant here, pretty much as described, but the late-season potful I got at a garden center in the late 1980's took more than five years to get there; "Large," from what had looked, "Miniature" to "Small" when I bought it. The author may wish to pretend that the people she wishes to address do not haunt the close-out tables at regional garden centers and discount retailers or catalog web sites, but those are places where good information can help you find the good stuff. Likewise for dividing the mature clumps of unlabeled Hostas in the garden of the old house my sister bought in 1998. (Yes! Those purple shoots are Hosta "Patriot," p. 130.) Grenfell grows her Hostas in England, where USDA Zone 6 is thought to be rugged and my Zone 5 is thought to be a howling Russian or alpine wilderness, so she misses out on the strengths that Dr. Rieth was able to deploy so effectively in the cold of Upper Penninsula Michigan, but the advice she gives on growing perfectly awesome Hostas,in Chapter Five, is worth paying attention to.

Grenfell pulls in essays by other experts to cover some of the territory she is not entirely familiar with, but the coordination between the text she wrote and what they wrote is not as tight as I would wish. When Dr. Pollock addresses the H. plantaginea's need for heat and some sun on p.86, he does not contrast North American performance, where long hot summers bloom them right up into Zone 4, to the English performance that Grenfell reports as; unlikely to bloom most years because the growing season is so much cooler. Less careful readers might follow her advice to plant warm, and end up with plants that get frost bitten for coming up too early, and then fried in July and August, or even June.

(Well, it is long and talky. Editing is ok, to be sure, but I do like to put some content in to support my assertions. It would have been helpful to have a word count utility pop up here or in the Perview version so I could get a better sense of how far I have gone here. Paragraphing would be nice too.)