Customer Reviews

Southern California Native Flower Garden, The: A Guide to Size, Bloom, Foliage, Color, and Texture

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The Southern California Native Flower Garden by Susan Van Atta is the most comprehensive guide for determining sustainable landscape plants for your Southern California garden that I have ever read. Water needs, beneficial insect and bird attractors, growing habits, soil requirements, sun and shade needs, color palette, companion plants, it's all there. The unique three segment pages allow for quick comparisons for all of the above.

The author, Susan Van Atta knows her plants and knows Southern California. She designed the new rose garden at Lotusland, attempting to "channel" the style of Madame Ganna Walska, the donor of the world reknowned Botanical Garden in Santa Barbara.

I love this handy size, you can take it anywhere and it isn't heavy! I really like the organization of plants by color, size, which animals are attracted, drought tolerance, and texture. You can actually design a garden yourself with this small book easily, layering plants to create shapes and contrast. I have always been interested in landscape design, this book gives me an understanding of how to actually create a sun and shade garden in California with native plant life. I couldn't be happier!

This is a wonderful, practical garden book! The organization of the native plants according to size is very helpful for planning a garden with the 3 split page format. It's a handy size easy to carry either to nurseries or when hiking in the back country to identify plants. The descriptions are thorough and helpful. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in planting native flowers and concerned with drought tolerant plants.

As a recreational hiker, and an average backyard gardener, this is the perfect book for my library. It now sits right between my bird books and trail guides. The descriptions and pictures in Van Atta's book make it easy to "discover" new plants with only a few moments of research. I have been waiting for this one!