Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Ellen Phillips (Author), C. Colston Burrell (Author) "When you look at a beautiful perennial garden, you may find yourself wondering how the gardeners did it..." (more)
Key Phrases: sow fresh seed outdoors, sow perennial seeds, bareroot perennials, Landscape Uses, Daisy Family, Lily Family (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Perennials are the most challenging and rewarding of all garden plants, and most gardeners need all the help they can get to grow them well. Perennials emerge from the ground in early spring, grow to full height, bloom, bear fruit, and then disappear with the first frost, only to do the same thing the following year and again the next. Add this to the fact that for the first year or two, perennials don't do much above the ground (they are growing their root structure), but after that they burst forth with amazingly vigorous growth, and you get an idea of the pleasures and tribulations of perennial gardening. The rewards, however, are rich: a wide array of flower forms and colors, structure and leaf, an ever-changing mid-level tapestry in the garden, plus a celebration of seasonal change. Few gardeners can resist perennials, but how to grow them better and more effortlessly?

Readers can count on Rodale books to be practical and detailed and to advocate organic gardening. While Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials does give information, as you would expect from Rodale, on soil building, climate, propagation and nontoxic pest and disease control, its emphasis is on design. The advice is down-to-earth, as in a sidebar entitled "Evergreen Perennials: Myth or Reality?" that points out that although some perennials are touted as evergreen, and do keep their leaves through the winter (such as Epimedium, Ajuga, and Bergenia), they are often so tattered by winter storms that they shouldn't be counted on to beautify the garden off-season.

Though packed with all sorts of useful information, the meat of the book is the encyclopedia of perennials. From acanthus to yucca, each comes with a color photo, cultural and cultivar information, as well as suggestions on use. Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials is an invaluable reference for anyone interested in these rewarding, though somewhat demanding, plants. --Valerie Easton

Review
An excellent reference book for all gardeners, from the novice to the expert. IIt will definitely be on my bookshelf. -- Dr. Allan M. Armitage, author of Herbaceous Perennial Plants --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 533 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Pr; illustrated edition edition (January 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875965709
• ISBN-13: 978-0875965703
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #257,440 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful addition for the new perennial gardener..., September 7, 2000

By	Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials (Paperback)

Have you reached the point in your gardening career where you'd like to move on from lawns and beds of gaudy annuals to the more refined art of perennial gardening? This guide book provides an overview of what you might consider.

The Rodale press has been publishing ecologically responsible books and magazines for a number of years (at least 30 -- I first subscribed to "Organic Gardening" in the early 1970s). Their committment to promoting environmentally friendly ways to garden is evident in this publication. Sections that will prove most instructive for "green" gardeners cover: 1) pests, weeds, diseases and ecologically sound ways to cope with them; and 2) soil composition and how to improve it with organic materials including compost.

The garden designs found in Section 1 are tricky. In my experience, it is useful to plan a bit, but as John Lennon said, life is what happens when you're making other plans. Most of the designs are a bit complicated for experienced perennial gardeners let alone the new gardeners. Juggling plants for size, color, height, blooming time, soil composition, water, light needs, PH and other requirements is no small task. The authors have presented plant combinations that will work together, but they will not work everywhere. If I was starting out, I'd plant a few perennials and add more as I became confident the first plants were going to make it. Also, many gardeners forget that plants grow. I would start with a combo of perennials, bulbs, and annuals and remove the annuals as the perennials take over.

The authors have provided a good A-Z list of perennials in Part Three of the book (many can survive the blackest thumb for at least one season). None of the plants listed is impossible to find--in fact many can be found in the larger nursery. Whether you can find the colors or type you want is another matter. The authors suggest using seeds for some plants and mail order companies for others. A list of resources (plant and bulb suppliers)can be found in the back of the book.

Since not all plants do well in all areas, you may want to take time to look at other people's gardens and your local botanical gardens before you do anything. Also, many areas have master gardener programs and state agricultural extension services that you may find useful.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Pictorial Perennial Reference Book, February 8, 1998

By A Customer

This book is one of the best and easiest to use reference books. The encylopedia section is alphabetical and provides beautiful pictures of many plants with pronunciation, description, growing, and uses sections.

Also included are sections on designing and growing perennials with pictures and helpful illustrations.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Makes Getting "Serious Gardener" Results Much Easier, May 16, 2006

By	Greg Robertson (West Quincy, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials: 10th Anniversary Revised and Expanded Edition (Paperback)

This is the one book about perennials to own if you can only own one -- part growing manual, part plant reference encyclopedia, and part garden design guide. I stumbled into gardening by accident, having avoided it throughout my youth, but once I caught "the bug," I wanted to learn in a hurry how to do it correctly. This book was (and is) the perfect choice.

Actually, I discovered the advantages of this book backwards: I began by just using it to look up the dozens of plants that I began to bring home from nurseries with the word "perennial" on their hangtags. After a while, I noticed that it had great advice on how to keep the ones that were dying under my care from, well, dying under my care. And eventually I saw that Phillips and Burrell were also smarter than me about how to plan out my garden, for both improved aesthetics and healthier plants.

One aspect of this book that I liked from Day One is that the authors speak the non-gardener version of English, so it's easy to understand and follow. One would think all gardening books would be down-to-earth (pun intended), but no...not like this one.

If you have a garden already, you might want to start using this book by charting out the current layout of the garden and labeling each plant. Don't worry - the book is filled with full-color photographs to help you identify anything that you don't recognize by name. And pretty soon you'll not only see options you hadn't considered before, you'll even know what to ask for at the nursery or home center.

Have fun with it. I know I do.