GARDENING WITH PERENNIALS Creating Beautiful Flower Gardens For Every Part of Your Yard

This fully illusrated guide shows readers how to use perennials to solve landscape problems, create fabulous theme gardens, and introduce four-season color in their beds and borders. Over 100 color photos of perennial combinations showcase the most versatile, easy-to-grow, and popular perennials for home gardens. Includes 14 fully illustrated garden plans.

Of particular interest to intermediate gardeners who have caught "perennial fever," as Bradley puts it, this well-organized manual outlines an abundance of strategies for beautifying a home landscape with the help of hardy plants. The contributors cover such basics as soil amendment and starting plants from seeds, but they move on to propose well-designed planting schemes for every conceivable corner of the garden, from shady spots and wetland nooks to slopes, hot spots and high-traffic areas. Such horticultural fantasies as creating an evening or fragrance garden are also indulged. The requirements among a generous range of hardiness zones are addressed (Far North, Desert Southwest, etc.), and an abbreviated but thoughtfully selected encyclopedia of 75 "classic" perennials is included. Written with more clarity than finesse, the book is a real boon to those ready to tackle design projects in the garden. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Four sections make up this lavish book, which has 225 color photographs, 125 black-and-white illustrations, and dozens of color illustrations. Part 1 is a collection of garden designs, photographs, tables, and tips about how to use perennials to create theme gardens, to landscape special sites, and to solve landscape problems. Part 2 is a list of seven easy-to-grow perennials, arranged alphabetically by their botanical names. Each plant's hardiness zones, height, shape, color, blooming time, and light and soil requirements are included. Part 3 tells how to create your own garden designs, and part 4 explains how to prepare garden sites and how to produce a stock of perennials by dividing, taking cuttings, and starting seeds. An illustrated care calendar guides gardeners from season to season. George Cohen