Ornamental Grasses (Hardy Plant Series) [Hardcover]

Roger Grounds (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1990 | Series: Hardy Plant Series

This is a study of the ornamental grasses in cultivation at present, together with a number of attractive varieties which the author feels deserve to be more widely grown. There are a large number of line drawings to help guide the newcomer to identify them correctly with easy to follow descriptions which the author has tried to put in precise, but non-technical language. There is also advice on cultivation and propagation and how grasses can be used in the garden and for arrangements. The grasses are presented according to height and there is an appendix giving hardiness ratings.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Grounds (The Small Garden, 1994) takes on the plant world's largest family with an articulate and methodical presentation of grasses that includes horticultural history, botanical descriptions, cultural instructions and design recommendations. Readers will examine grasses as they fit into boundaried English gardens-as-art schemes and the flowing gardens-as-nature tradition imitating the American prairie. The vocabulary of grasses includes references to forms of leaf ("tufted," "fountain-like") and flower ("spike," "whisk," "plume"). Grounds divides his design chapters between colored-leaf grasses and flowering grasses. Segueing from the tradition of the contained English garden, with its static structure, defined edges and focus on blossoms and high maintenance, Grounds advocates visual drifts and rustling movement of flowering lawns, discussing "modern grasseries" in formal gardens, container grasses and the wild gardens of wetlands and dry woodlands. Swarms of Latin nomenclature may cloud the minds of some readers, but the abundant color photos will inspire the design instincts of others.

Copyright 1998 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Review

'If you are to buy one book on grasses, this should be the one' - Gardens Illustrated; 'Combines inspiration with sound practical advice' - Gardening Which? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Batsford Ltd (January 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747012199
• ISBN-13: 978-0747012191
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,203,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book on grasses with excellent illustrations., December 11, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Westford, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ornamental Grasses (Hardcover)

This book offers a fine overview on grasses and is particulaly strong in the range and quality of the photos. If you have trouble choosing or identifying grasses from descriptions or line drawings this book will help enormously. My particular interest is the bamboos. There are photos of bamboos not often seen in this country (USA). The photos make the book a valuable addition to the books available on bamboo. But the text dealing with bamboo has many errors, surprising with an author with Roger Ground's experience. The book is published in this country by Timber Press and in the UK by David & Charles Publishers but is clearly a UK book reworked for the US market.