Plant Personalities [Paperback]

Carol Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 2006

Plants can be entertaining. Some of them are funny. They can be wistful, cheeky, shy and retiring or flamboyant and voluptuous. We may think we choose plants for their height or habit, or the colour of their flowers, but they are much more than a collection of physical characteristics and often there is something so engaging about a plant that we feel we just have to grow it. Combining Carol Klein's sublime text with Jonathan Buckley's superb pictures, Plant Personalities reveals why certain plants capture our imagination. Describing plants by personality group is not a scientific system but an entertaining way of appreciating them and an informative way of rating their contribution to the garden. Whether you delight in a Cinderella who shoots to stardom before the clock strikes twelve or a Drama Queen who grabs all the attention, the plant portraits provide an inspirational new way of appreciating the magic of the garden.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Are your plants giving you attitude? Need a manual to choose more compliant foliage? Klein's guide to choosing plants based on "personality" may sound hokey-and to a certain degree it is-but this richly illustrated book also contains a treasure trove of useful gardening information. In her introduction, "passionate plantswoman" Klein admits that hers is not a scientific system, "but it is an entertaining way of appreciating plants and... of rating the contribution they make to the garden." Rating flowers is certainly her long suit. A chapter on Gatecrashers, for example, explores the hidden virtues of those pesky plants "at the garden party who were never asked." Ever mindful of her role in educating, as well as entertaining, Klein emphasizes that these self-seeding weeds, though interlopers, can pack all the punch of purposefully planted ones. The upside of aggressive growers such as Sea Holly, for instance, is its ability to grow virtually anywhere when cultivated. By the time readers encounter the chapter on Seductive Sophisticates, they'll be sold on the book's unusual concept and agree that the foliage surveyed here, including the downright sexy crimson Trillium chloropetalum and the frisky fritillaries, "have the power to induce sighs and make knees go weak." In a standout A to Z index, Klein revisits each plant species, offering descriptive details and cultivation tips. This useful information, combined with accomplished garden photographer Buckley's striking photos, make this beautiful gardening book a necessary indulgence for those who are already planning next spring's big show.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Landscape designers might select Canna for their unique height and bold color; Klein would use them because they are "drama queens," showy plants that demand attention. Likewise, pale yellow Primula that bloom and then disappear are known by horticulturists as "ephemerals"; to Klein, they are demure Cinderellas, shyly fading away according to a genetic clock. If this seems like so much semantic garden game playing, perhaps it is, but as Klein charmingly and convincingly shows, there are also sound horticultural and design principles behind her premise that plants, like other living creatures, display distinct characteristics that can be couched in terms to which we humans can relate. Drawing on her extensive horticultural experience, and using both stunning close-up photographs and solid scientific information, Klein demonstrates how developing such an anthropomorphic approach to garden design can unlock a wealth of creative opportunities. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group (April 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844034895
• ISBN-13: 978-1844034895
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,689,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Five stars as a gift; far fewer as a practical guide, May 3, 2005

By 

Patricia Tryon (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Plant Personalities: Choosing and Growing Plants by Character (Hardcover)

First, I think this would be a marvelous gift for a gardener. The color photos are lush and lovely as the plants themselves and the text entertains -- at least, it would entertain gardeners.

Unfortunately for me, I picked up this book because I thought it would contain more than the generalizations (prickly customers, drama queens, and seductive sophisticates) of the categories. You can see the problem immediately: one gardener's "dainty and detailed" is another's "gatecrasher". This is an interesting idea to play with and the close-up photos provide an opportunity to get to know a number of plants (though you should not expect anything very exotic here), but I think the book was not intended to be deep in information and, indeed, it is not. If one were to say that this is a "novel" approach, by contrast I might say that although I am happy to receive such things as gifts, I prefer to spend my own money on books that are more like textbooks or references.

As usual, Timber Press has published a sturdy book that should hold up well. The binding is tight and the format itself is not so large as to endanger the binding.

Three stars, then, which I am quite willing to have read as a metric of my own rather stodgy and bookish gardening personality.

5.0 out of 5 stars Given as a gift , I ordered one for me., July 11, 2008

By 

Albert I. Reiner (Steamboat Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Plant Personalities: Choosing and Growing Plants by Character (Hardcover)

I love to shoot flowers, I bought the book for photos, and found text well written, and valuable. It took me 1 day after gifting it to order one for myself