Encyclopedia of Annuals and Perennials

by C. Colston Burrell

Book Overview

If your dream is one full of flowers, color, and scent, then Th Encyclopedia of Annuals and Perennials is the ideal reference. This book shows you how to make the most of versatile, easy-care annuals... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1876778660
• ISBN13: 9781876778668
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Fog City Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Good intro and update for the gardener....

Colston Burrell and others have developed an extremely useful guide for the early-intermediate gardener. This book is not gardening for dummies, but neither is the content so complex the relative newcomer cannot use it. The contents consist of a compendium of pertinent topic-based articles and an approximately 100 pages (three per page) of photographs and descriptions of "popular" perennials and annuals. (Hence, the odd or unusual item may not be covered.) The text opens with a basic botany lesson reminiscent of the chapter you read in college Biology 101 and goes on to discuss some of the properties of selected annuals and perennials as well as bulbs which can be recurring (become naturalized) or not. The next section encourages the reader to consider where he or she is building a garden. Aspects such as climate, terrain, sun exposure and growing zone are discussed. Next the authors discuss the flower garden, which most folks want to create. Various considerations such as planning and design, the layout of beds, borders and the items to fill the interstices are addressed, along with various types, such as cutting, meadow, and cottage gardens. Annuals and perennials not only present problems, they can be used for problem solving. Using the garden with various land features such as hills, shade and drought and bogs is discussed. When one becomes conversant with the aesthetics of the garden plot, the next step is to address the mechanics such as soil preparation, plant fit, and timing. In this arena, tool choices are critical, as well as the application of mulch and water, pruning and training your plants and facing winter requirements. When you become skilled you will want to consider propagation not only as a cost saving measure, but a way to obtain otherwise difficult or impossible to acquire plants. The book closes with what I consider to be the encyclopedia portion-annotated entries for selected perennial and annuals. No one section of this book is as comprehensively covered as it might be in a text designed to cover a subject in depth, but the book is a good synopsis of the most critical topics every gardener addresses eventually.