Reviewer Allan Becker: Allan has been designing and planting flower gardens, since he was a teenager in the 1960's. Now retired from the soft goods industry, where he held several positions in design, product development, and marketing, he has turned his passion for gardening into a second career, as a garden designer for private clients in Montreal, Canada.
Editor: Marilyn Rogers
Authors: Scott Aker and Laura Deeter
ISBN-10: 0696236648
ISBN-13: 978-0696236648
Publishers: Meredith Books
Amongst some gardeners, the Miracle-Gro company is reputed to have created some of the most eye catching TV commercials and print ads that have ever targeted plant lovers. They are very good at visualizing the successful results of proper feeding and care. However, the detail lavished in the preparation of this basic primer on growing perennials surpasses anything that they’ve done in their marketing department.
Editor: Marilyn Rogers
Authors: Scott Aker and Laura Deeter
ISBN-10: 0696236648
ISBN-13: 978-0696236648
Publishers: Meredith Books
Amongst some gardeners, the Miracle-Gro company is reputed to have created some of the most eye catching TV commercials and print ads that have ever targeted plant lovers. They are very good at visualizing the successful results of proper feeding and care. However, the detail lavished in the preparation of this basic primer on growing perennials surpasses anything that they’ve done in their marketing department.
This is a popular priced book targeting a mass audience and yet the information between its covers and the quality of its color photographs are worthy of a book twice its cost. Not only is it comprehensive and illustrated in clear detail, but almost everything one needs to know about growing perennials may be absorbed by studying it’s pictures. In an age of instant messenger, a book that can instruct with such immediacy is a significant achievement.
With an economy of words, the editor and writers amply cover basic topics such as garden design, plant selection and planting instructions. Great attention is paid to every detail as the reader is guided, unambiguously and step by step, to becoming a perennial expert.
The chapter on perennial care is a wonderful bonus because this is an area of expertise that determines the difference between a beautiful garden and a perfunctory collection of plants. Here too, the editor makes it so easy to follow. Another surprise is the inclusion of a ninety two page encyclopedia of perennial plants, enhanced with in depth information and color photos. This alone is worth the price of the book.
The greatest challenge facing any gardener of perennials is how to keep a garden in bloom from spring until autumn. Most perennials have a blooming period of no more than three weeks, and each plant has its particular time to bloom. For that reason, creating continuous blooms throughout the growing season requires strategic planning. Many of us have spent countless hours juggling planting blueprints to ensure that there are no gaps in blooming time. I wish that I could have read this book back then because it contains a brilliant bloom time guide that takes the guesswork out of creating a continuously colorful garden.
The secondary title of this book is called “Techniques that guarantee a fabulous garden” Believe it!
Click Here To Purchase or To Find Out More About Complete Guide to Perennials (Miracle Gro)