Time-Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden [Hardcover]

Pamela Harper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

In this remarkable book, Pamela Harper takes us on a walk through 30 years of gardening, focusing her attentions on those trees, shrubs, and perennials that have earned her trust and affection for a decade or more-plants that have stood the test of time. Over 250 color photographs of the author's garden are included.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Harper, a highly respected garden writer whose books are mostly out of print, surveys the plants that thrive in her Virginia garden. In sections on spring, summer, autumn, and winter, she profiles notable plants in categories such as bulbs, vines, grasses and ferns, autumn flowers, berries, and more. She is opinionated in her preferences (nix to buddleia, yes to chartreuse leaves) but informed and discriminating as only a reigning garden expert can be. She abounds with tips and eye-opening ideas, such as training an unruly honeysuckle to be a front-of-the-border small shrub. She also isn't afraid to admit when a certain plant just won't do for her. This book will have most relevance in the Mid-Atlantic region, but a work by a gardener of Harper's stature belongs in sizeable horticultural collections everywhere.DBeth Clewis Crim, Prince William P.L., VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...the author doesn't just list her favorite plants: she tells us what it takes to grow them even under less than ideal conditions." -- Gardener, March/April 2001

"A digressive survey of plants worth growing, written by someone worth paying attention to." -- Verlyn Klinkenborg, New York Times Book Review , December 3, 2000

"[This book] is full of such engaging descriptions and photographs." -- Peter Loewer, American Gardener , January/February 2001

'Time-Tested Plants' is the next best thing to having a garden guru on call. -- Rebecca Sawyer-Fay, Country Living Gardener, March/April 2001

...In this paradise she's created...her sumptuous photographs, which burst with heat and humidity or winter's chill reveal how successful [Pam Harper] has been. -- Publishers Weekly

Beautifully illustrated with [most] of the photographs taken in the author’s garden. . . . Well-written and is recommended to all plant lovers. -- Michael G. Messina, American Reference Books Annual, 2001

Like having an expert gardener as a private tutor in the ways of plants and gardening. -- Jude Lowe, The Christian Science Monitor, August 1, 2001

My choice for a recently published plant book that a landscape-design-oriented person will want to have on [their] coffee table. -- Joel M. Lerner, The Washington Post, November 25, 2000

The year’s most helpful design book for hands-on gardeners. -- The Boston Globe, February 22, 2001

This remarkable book has plant combinations and cultural tips galore, so beginners and experts alike will enjoy it. -- The Garden Club of America Bulletin, December 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press, Incorporated (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881924865
• ISBN-13: 978-0881924862
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,431 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful table top book...., December 10, 2000

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Time-Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden (Hardcover)

Pamela Harper's new book TIME-TESTED PLANTS is beautiful, and a gift to those who garden in USDA Zone 8. Ms Harper, originally a native of the U.K., has proved that we can have comparable gardens in the States, and not just in the Pacific Northwest. I first discovered Ms Harper a few years ago when she co-authored a book with Frank McGourty, a New England writer, on PERENNIALS. Of course, I wanted McGourty's New England garden, and tried my best in the Coastal Virginia heat to grow Delphiniams, Phlox, Bee Balm, and other cold winter, mild summer plants, all of which succumbed to one thing or another, or were so destroyed by powdery mildew that I had to uproot them.

Okay, I should have followed Ms. Harper's example, and recognized sooner rather than later that things work out a lot better if you grow plants in Tidewater Virginia that like the coastal climate. Ms. Harper has done exactly that, and her thirty years in a four-season garden shows just what can be done in Virginia or any Zone 8 location across the country with hot summers, mild winters, and lots of humidity.

Beginning with Spring, which is probably the high season in most Southern gardens, Ms. Harper covers bulbs and flowering spring bushes which do exceedingly well in Tidewater Virginia. Shown in one of her many lovely photographs of her own garden are Leucojum (summer snowflake) and heirloom Narcissus 'Sir Watkin' growing happily side by side under a spreading branch of Corylopsis sinensis at the edge of a wood-bark mulched path (she has a very large work space).

Ms Harper moves on through the year and we see Hydrangea vines climbing very tall pine trees, and other vines climbing over cedar tree stumps, old buildings, or even rose bushes (Clematis). She reveals which types of vines, roses, and other perennials have served her needs best in each season. She explains the strategy of successive planting, the uses of hardy and tender bulbs year-round, and the concept of creating understories (layers of plants growing under each other as is found in nature--think of the tropics). Her book includes sections on annuals, grasses and other plants, shrubs, and trees.

The book is large, glossy, slippery and unwieldy, so you probably won't read it in bed. It has plenty of text, so you will want to read it, as well as look at the many beautiful photographs. I have to lay it on a hard surface to handle it, but it is worth handling over and over.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and informative, October 13, 2000

By 

W. Oliver (Alabama) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Time-Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden (Hardcover)

Anyone who has gardened in the hot, humid and drought proned Southeast will smile knowingly as they read about Harper's 30 year experiences in her Virginia garden. This woman loves plants and it shows. She writes candidly of the plants she loves and she is not afraid to dismiss the ones that are duds. The book is a showcase of her garden, arranged by season, and she discusses her successes and failures along the way. It covers a wide range of plants including perennials, shrubs, bulbs, vines and trees. The photographs are wonderful and truly provide inspiration for design and plant combinations. Gardeners in this region should find this book to be an excellent tool for choosing plants.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite gardening book, June 18, 2001

By 

m walls (McLean, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Time-Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden (Hardcover)

This is easily my favorite gardening book. Already it is dog-eared and well-worn. A lovely combination of useful information, beautiful photos, and very good writing. The author tells you what she has learned over 30 years of gardening in the hot and humid southeast and does so in a way that is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it.