Customer Reviews

Lois Hole's Perennial Favorites

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of a series of Lois Hole books on gardening. Based in Alberta, Lois sifts through years of experience to provide a very concise guide to the most popular and easily grown plants for northern climates. Excellent photos, tips on planting,cultivating and arranging plants in the garden. This book would be useful to all Canadian gardeners as well as those who live in the northern states. Much easier to use than those encyclopedic volumes which include plants which only grow in southern zones.

Midwest perennial gardener here! This is the easiest, most helpful gardening book I own for choosing a new perennial or figuring out what's going wrong with an older one. All the pictures are in color and show the plants in clear close-up shots and as they look when planted. The Latin names are where they should be-off to the side, and Ms. Hole recommends the best variety and explains why it's the best. She also lists the other varieties available to clear up confusion, gives thorough planting steps, includes the length of time the plant will take to mature (read "look good in your garden"), and a host of other tips. These are all beautifully written on a two-three page spread for each plant! Add chapters on planning a garden, choosing the plants, preparing soils, trying different types of perennial gardens, throw in a host of well laid-out "quick" lists, and you have a very useful guide. Handy, easy, and confidence-building for the beginner or the intermediate gardener! Recommended absolutely!

I have most of Lois Hole's books being from Canada myself, and her perennial and tree and shrub books were the first "real" gardening books I bought. When I jumped headfirst into perennial gardening about 5 years ago, I bought this book because of its straightforward approach. It doesn't overburden the beginner with highly technical information, but presents useful facts about a great variety of perennials. Small columns about height, colour and varieties, when and how to divide, how to grow and how to propagate each perennial are accompanied by close-up colour photographs. The latin name and/or other common names appear in smaller text at the top of each entry. Although I have now graduated to the technical, encyclopaedia type of reference books, Lois Hole's book will remain a treasured (and still often used) member of my perennial gardening library.

This is a great book for gardners in the colder shorter growing regions. What I like is that there are no plants included that will not grow in my region (3) so I spent no time browsing plants that only grow further south. Nice book at a reasonable price from a knowledgeble author

Great photos; laid out great; excellent for northern gardeners! I will buy more....

This is an excellent resource for gardeners. I took my copy to the garden centers last year and the staff loved it because I knew what I wanted and what I was talking about. Hole's easy to follow instructions on planting and care resulted in ALL of my perrenials coming up this year. Blogging on MySpace right now and recommending this text.

I have both Lois Holes "Perennial Favorites" and "Practical Advice and the Science Behind it" and have found both books to be extremely helpful, since I live in Saskatchewan. I carry "perennial Favorites" with me when I am shopping for perennials! It is extremely helpful to me as I am a forst-time gardener. They are easy to read,have fabulous pictures of what the plants actually look like, and have very detailed care information. I will continue to purchase her books! Thank you Lois Hole for some sound advice on Saskatchean gardening!

I have both Lois Holes "Perennial Favorites" and "Practical Advice and the Science Behind it" and have found both books to be extremely helpful, since I live in Saskatchewan. I carry "Perennial Favorites" with me when I am shopping for perennials! It is extremely helpful to me as I am a first-time gardener. They are easy to read, have fabulous pictures of what the plants actually look like, and have very detailed care information. I will continue to purchase her books! Thank you Lois Hole for some sound advice on Saskatchean gardening!

Lois Hole provides northern gardeners with a colorful and easy to use reference quide for selecting and identifying perennial favorites. Lois writes in a personal, chatty style that gives readers a sense of her as a person as well as the depth of her gardening knowledge. Her family's greenhouses in St. Albert, Alberta are an oasis from the hustle and bustle of city life and a testament to their knowledge and love of gardening which comes across in all her books. Highly recommended.