Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Guides) [Vinyl Bound]

Frances Tenenbaum (Editor), Steve Buchanan (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Taylor's Guides | Publication Date: March 10, 1994

This comprehensive guide addresses one of the most common problems for gardeners. Shade Gardening has over 250 color photographs of the 350 best trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, bulbs, ground covers, vines, ferns, and grasses for shaded areas. Articles cover the basics of growing plants in the shade as well as such subjects as city gardens, flowers, foliage plants, pests and diseases, and lawns.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Taylor's Guides are the best, most authoritative guides on the market." Garden Design

About the Author

Frances Tenenbaum is the author of several garden books and the editor of the Taylor's Guide series at Houghton Mifflin.

Product Details

• Vinyl Bound: 512 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (March 10, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395651654
• ISBN-13: 978-0395651650
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 4.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #228,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Resource Book, March 23, 2000

By 

Chloe (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Guides) (Vinyl Bound)

I bought this book without knowing what a great help it would prove to be. My lot is mostly shade, acidic soil and clay below. The publisher got it right with the size and layout of this series, you can put the book in a pocket, head out to the nurseries and while viewing their selections, check the book for the finer details. There are vast listings of shade plants shown in color, with detailed qualites listed as well, including zone, dryness, soil ph. The fabric spine keeps the pages from falling out after many flattenings. Excellent reference and buying guide for shade gardening. My copy is getting nicely dog-eared and soil stained. Well worn.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great idea book with pictures of shade lovers, March 21, 2001

By 

Linda LeBoutillier "lindaleb" (Eagle, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Guides) (Vinyl Bound)

The Taylor's Guides are very reliable sources for gardening information and great pictures, and the Shade Gardening Guide is one of the best. Shade gardening is difficult for many reasons. There are not that many very showy flowers for seasons other than Spring, and there are many types of shade. The descriptions are very specific and helpful: light shade, dappled shade, "the more shade, the less moisture is needed," and so on. The soil and shade descriptions for each plant are excellent and detailed.

Although the plants are listed alphabetically for the cultural requirements, the pictures are listed by groups: trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, summer bulbs, ground covers, vines, grasses, and ferns. I would recommend that people using the book for plant selection read the "Encyclopedia of Plants" part as well as the brief but good descriptions with the color pictures.

Keep in mind too that the flowering times are primarily for New England (zone 5). Furthur South you may get earlier and more flowers. For example, Ceratostigma is listed as an Autumn bloomer, while in PA, it blooms from July through October. So you get more than the book suggests. Not bad. Anyone with shade should experiment with the plants in this book. As a gardening professional, I see so many great and underused plants listed and described in this book.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a good resource for Southern gardeners, September 8, 2000

By 

Lisa Garvin (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Guides) (Vinyl Bound)

Having recently purchased a condo in Houston with a north-facing porch, I eagerly awaited delivery of this book. However, I was quickly disappointed. This book should be titled "Shade Gardening in the North," since virtually all of the plants listed are for Zones 5 and lower...not much help for my Zone 9 garden. It did contain a couple of pages of information for shade gardening in the South (which they consider to be North Carolina!), but I was really looking for specific information on the types of shade plants I could plant here. This would have been a great book if I lived in Ohio, but not so good for us Texans.