The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Flowers from Seed to Bloom

by Eileen Powell

Book Overview

Plan a flower garden for season-long beauty and color with this comprehensive guide to growing 541 annuals, perennials, and bulbs. Plant-by-plant descriptions include specific growing instructions and precise information on regional suitability, so you can pick the species that will bloom brightest under your garden's unique conditions. With at-a-glance design planner lists and full-color photographs of more than 500 flowers, this essential reference...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580175171
• ISBN13: 9781580175173
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Storey Publishing
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book, but NOTE...

This book is exactly what I was looking for-- a no-nonsense, complete description of how to start each of the many kinds of seeds that I can never resist buy, collecting, or trading for. One thing that people should note, though: the plants are listed in alphabetical order by their Latin names. There is an appendix that has the common names and what the Latin name is for each, but I can't imagine doing that for every single plant-- what a pain! I like to know both Latin and common names, so I was fine with this system. But for someone who's only familiar with the common names of plants, this book is going to be a lot harder to use. (On the bright side, learning the Latin names can be a lot of fun, so if you're at all open to the idea, go for it!)

Really and truly useful

When a friend recently asked me to suggest a book that would tell her the soil preferences of different flowers, I knew exactly what she needed. The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Flowers from Seed to Bloom has all the answers. In addition to concise profiles of 500 bloomers, there's a handy gallery of color photographs and my favorite section, a 50-page chart that lists major and minor species along with their bloom times, colors, and cultural requirements. This book is designed to be useful, and it is!

Follow the directions and get results

Eileen Powell's The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Flowers from Seed to Bloom provides detailed information on germination, growing and care in a format that is easy to read. She also provides the growing zone in large print, so you can quickly skip the plants that will not grow in your area. The information useful for planning a garden is in a separate section from the care of each plant. This allows the planning information to be organized into tables that allow the reader to easily choose plants for time of bloom, height, color, light and soil requirements. She also lists the hardiness and heat zones in the planning tables.I only wish I could find a similar book for unusual vegetables and herbs.

A truly superb reference for gardeners

Compiled and organized by gardening expert Eileen Powell, The Gardener's A-Z Guide To Growing Flowers From Seed To Bloom is a 528-page encyclopedia-style guide to gardening 600 genera of plants, and features a full-color picture gallery, quick reference information of requirements and characteristics unique to each species, specific information on climate tolerance and requirements, and a great deal much more. The Gardener's A-Z Guide To Growing Flowers From Seed To Bloom is a truly superb reference for gardeners of all skill and experience levels.

A "must have" for every gardener's library

Eileen Powell's book is my gardening bible. It's extremely comprehensive in covering all aspects from growing the over 500 different plants from seed. Not a "seed grower"? ... no problem - the detail on care, growing conditions, water, soil, pests, etc. is why this book is my number one garden library resource. I highly recommend it - and it won't ever go out of date!