Annuals and Biennials: The Definitive Reference With Over 1,000 Photographs - Softcover

Phillips, Roger; Rix, Martyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552975665 ISBN 13: 9781552975664

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2002

Synopsis

Over ten years in the making, Annuals and Biennials is the most comprehensive guide available to these favorite and useful plants. Compiled by Martyn Rix and Roger Phillips, Annuals and Biennials includes over 1,000 types of annuals and biennials, each described and illustrated with a color photograph.

Annuals and Biennials also includes:

creating a natural look in a very short time
growing tips for successful cultivation
propagation advice
origins of plants and their varieties
plant combinations and flowering times for every phase of the growing season
natural planting associations
combinations for borders, island beds, meadow gardens
further reading and sources

With a wide variety of old favorites and an exciting selection of rarities, Annuals and Biennials is an indispensable and inspiring reference for color and variety in all sites and soil conditions.

About this title

About the Author

Roger Phillips has been photographing plants and flowers for many years. He has thirty books to his credit which have sold over three and a half million copies worldwide and has won numerous awards. He has also written and presented two major television series, BBC's The Quest for the Rose and Channel Four's The 3,000 Mile Garden.

Martyn Rix is a botanist, plant collector and gardener. He has written seventeen books and has collaborated with Roger Phillips since 1977. Martyn makes regular collecting expeditions to remote parts of the world, photographing and searching for new plants to bring into cultivation. Martyn has been awarded the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Cleome

Cleome (Capparidaceae)   A genus of around 150 species of annuals, perennials and shrubs, mainly from tropical America and Africa. A few are cultivated as summer annuals. Fruits are carried on a long gynophore, the stalk of the ovary, which elongates as the fruit develop.

Cleome aculeata L.   A stiff tropical annual with spidery pinkish flowers, native of Mexico and the West Indies to South America, flowering much of the year. Stems to 90cm. Leaves with 3 leaflets, short stalked. Petals around 6mm long. Fruits to 6.5cm.

Cleome gynandra L.   A widely branching annual with white or pink flowers and long, red filaments, native of Central America, but now found throughout the tropics, growing in rocky places, flowering much of the year. Stems to 1.3m. Leaves with 3-7 leaflets, long-stalked. Petals around 2cm long. Fruits to 10cm.

Cleome hassleriana Chodat, syn. C. spinosa auct. C. sesquiorygalis Naduin ex C. Huber   A tall, sticky and aromatic summer annual with palmate, hemp-like leaves and spikes of spidery, pink, mauve or white flowers with long stamens, native of SE Brazil to Argentina, but widely naturalized elsewhere in the warmer parts of America, growing in fields and waste places, flowering in summer and autumn. Stems to 2m. Leaves with 5-7 leaflets. Leaf stalks often with a spine at the base. Petals 2.5-4cm; stamens 6, to 6cm. Fruits 5-15cm long. This is now available in the following colors: 'Helen Campbell' syn. 'White Queen'; 'Cherry Queen'; 'Mauve Queen'; 'Pink Queen'; 'Rose Queen'; 'Violet Queen'; and 'Color Fountain' mix. Sow at 15-20°C, and plant out after the last frost.

Cleome serrulata Pursh Rocky Mountain Beeplant   A summer annual with 3 leaflets and dense spikes of small, pink flowers, native of E Washington and N California and on the Great Plains to New Mexico and N Texas, growing on plains and in sagebrush scrub in the foothills, flowering in May-September. Stems branched to 1.5m. Leaflets 2-7.5cm long. Petals 4, 1-1.2cm long. Stamens 6, much longer than the petals. Fruits 2.5-6.6cm long. An attractive species, not common in cultivation. Cleome lutea Hook., also from western North America, has smaller, yellow flowers and 5-7 leaflets. Both have abundant nectar and are beloved by bees.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1552975665
• ISBN 13: 9781552975664
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288