Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening & Conservation [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Donald J. Leopold (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 2005

If you've always wanted to garden with native plants, this book is for you. With entries for nearly 700 species of native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers from the northeastern quarter of the U.S. and eastern Canada, its comprehensive horticultural coverage is unsurpassed by any other single volume. The natural ranges of many of the plants discussed extend beyond the Northeast; the information on horticultural uses applies to any garden. Each plant description includes information about cultivation and propagation, ranges, and hardiness. An appendix recommends particular plants for difficult situations, as well as attracting butterflies, hummingbirds, and other wildlife. Illustrated throughout with color photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Northeast of the title refers to the northeastern quarter of the U.S and all of eastern Canada. Leopold lists nearly 700 species of native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers. Illustrated with 500 color photographs, his guide provides detailed information on each plant's cultivation and propagation, height, color, natural range, and hardiness. An appendix recommends particular plants that tolerate wet and dry soil and attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and mammals such as deer, opossums, and raccoons. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"An encyclopedia of experience."
—Joel M. Lerner, Washington Post, July 23, 2005 (The Washington Post )

"This book will interest readers who, regardless of their educational background, wish to learn about using native plants for gardening."
—D. A. Lovejoy, Choice, July 2005 (Choice )

"Provides an invaluable resource for using natives in the landscape and restoration projects."
—Viveka Neveln, American Gardener, May/June 2005 (American Gardener )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press (February 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881926736
• ISBN-13: 978-0881926736
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #150,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The return of the natives, December 31, 2005

By 

Reader from Yellow River - See all my reviews

This review is from: Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening & Conservation (Hardcover)

Just giving attention to plants with showy flowers is one reason why we don't know enough about natives. Even some experts could use retraining on the subject. For example, one respected source lists as natives tatarian honeysuckle, purple loosestrife, and multiflora rose. In fact, these three non-natives are good at taking over a place and chasing out the real natives.

To know natives better, it's important to start with a good definition. Author Donald J Leopold gives a clear definition. Natives are the plants naturally occurring in the United States before European settlers showed up. It's a good definition, because a record goes with it. Early artists, settlers, scientists and visitors left us with drawings and writings on what they found and what they brought with them.

Then it's important to know the big picture of where we are and what tends to grow there. For natives are part of wider natural communities of green things, bugs, birds, and animals filling up the same space over the same time. NATIVE PLANTS OF THE NORTHEAST is about those natural communities east of the Mississippi River. That part of North America hosts eleven such communities. From south to north, those communities are southeast pine, riverbottom cypress-tupelo-sweet gum, oak-pine, oak-hickory, northeast hardwood, transition pine-aspen, mixed, acadian, boreal, and subarctic forests; and tall grasslands.

As a girl of the oak-hickory forests, I know my native trees. They are American beech; American chestnut; bitternut and shagbark hickory; black, northern red and white oak; eastern hophornbeam; eastern redbud; flowering dogwood; pawpaw; serviceberry; and spicebush.

In addition, wetlands take up about 5-10% of each state. Their plants are grouped into forested, scrub-shrub, and emergent marsh types. Each of these three types is a part of specific natural communities whose plants grow in any Northeast wetland having the same weather, soil, light and ground level conditions. For example, Professor Leopold successfully grows together buttonbush, cardinal flower, great blue lobelia, northern blue flag, ostrich fern, spotted joe-pye weed, and swamp milkweed. They're all wetland plants, but not naturally in the same wetland other than the author's garden!

Professor Leopold groups natives into ferns, grasses, shrubs, trees, vines, and wildflowers. He then separates out those that handle wet soil, shade, or dry soil. He also separates out those that bring in birds, butterflies, hummingbirds, and mammals. He also comes up with two lists of favorite ferns and fernlike plants, grasses and grasslike plants, shrubs, trees, vines, and wildflowers. One list is by beauty, challenge, and foolproof results. The other is by easy-to-grow care, with little follow-up.

For each plant in his comprehensive list of natives, Professor Leopold gives the zone they do best in, along with way of spreading, soil type, natural range, light conditions, and description. He also has helpful notes on best gardening and historic restoration uses. He identifies a shortcoming in his work as not enough attention to true grasses and grasslike plants such as rushes and sedges.

Nevertheless, the book is one-stop shopping on natives. What he doesn't cover in depth, he tells where to get more information. Also, the book has beautifully clear photographs, good index and maps, and well-written text. It's a must-have for all. But it will especially interest those sharing Virginia Tech's master gardening and advanced land care concerns over the beauty and value of our native greenery.

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only book you'll need, June 1, 2006

By 

birdmanct (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening & Conservation (Hardcover)

If you live in the Northeast and want to have an all or mostly native garden, or even just some native plants, this is the book to get. I've been planting herbaceous and woody plants to attract birds, and have only recently discovered the benefits, to myself, the birds, and the environment, of going native. While a lot of this information can be pieced together from other books or the Internet, this is an easy-to-use, all-in-one reference for all types of plants, not just flowers, that make up a well-rounded garden and animal habitat.

Way more than a "seed catalog", this book tells you what ecological niche the plant is native to, the conditions of sun, moisture, and soil it needs, how to propagate seeds, and a paragraph of "notes" with interesting personal observations by the author. There is also a lengthy and fascinating introductory chapter describing some of the many types of plant environments that exist in the NE, and the reasons to go native.

I own 10 books on trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, gardening for birds, and general gardening, but am buying this one because it tells me exactly what I need to know about all of the above, using plants that grew in the Northeast before Euopeans arrived.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Interesting and Informative, February 22, 2008

By 

Iles Fan "Gary" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening & Conservation (Hardcover)

Very informative and chocked full of valuable material pertaining to specific types of plants you may desire for your garden. I have only one complaint - the pictures of shrubs and trees show only, in most instances, just the branch containing the leave or flower. I wanted to see pictures of the entire shrub or tree since I desired to observe the fullness or lack thereof of specific species for my garden. In other words, to get an idea how the plant would look when it is in place.