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Perennial Companions: 100 Dazzling Plant Combinations for Every Season Reviewed By Allan Becker of Bookpleasures.com
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Allan Becker

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.


In spring and summer, he provides his assistants, most college students, who transform his designs into flower gardens. In winter, he reviews books on garden-related topics for Bookpleasures.com and writes a Gardening Blog.

Allan earned a B.A. from McGill University, followed by two years of studies in design at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia). He lives in the Montreal suburb of Cote St. Luc, Quebec with his wife and travels regularly to Toronto and Boston to visit his children and grandchildren.




 
By Allan Becker
Published on March 5, 2012
 

Authors: Tom Fischer, Richard Bloom & Adrian Bloom

Publisher: Timber Press

ISBN -13: 978-0-88192-939-3


Follow Here To Purchase Perennial Companions: 100 Dazzling Plant Combinations for Every Season

Authors: Tom Fischer, Richard Bloom & Adrian Bloom

Publisher: Timber Press

ISBN -13: 978-0-88192-939-3

Tom Fischer never fails to dazzle us when he produces his little gems of garden books. This publication contains unusually beautiful photographs that reproduce the intense pleasure that only flower gardening can provide. There are one hundred plant combinations portrayed in this book, not only to admire, but also to inspire readers to create their own beautiful flowerbeds throughout the blooming seasons. For sourcing these exquisite images, we are grateful to the very talented Richard Bloom and Adrian Bloom.

Once the gardener has become accustomed to selecting, planting, growing, and caring for perennials, the next step is to use plants to compose visually exciting compositions. Some call it nature’s eye candy. For this project, the garden is a canvas, and the plants are paint colors and texture. This is about flowerbed design and one does not need a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Design to understand or master it. All it takes is patience and a love for experimentation. Moving plants around, until a beautiful combination is achieved, is not difficult work.

Composing with flowers and foliage is an opportunity for gardeners to connect with the creative side of their brain and to have some fun. By using one’s imagination, one’s eyes, and a shovel, the experimentation does not have to be hard work. If anything, it is quite enjoyable and rewarding. Given the thousands of perennials available for us to work with, and the extraordinary range of plants' shapes, colors and textures, the possibilities for beautiful flower combinations are endless.

The purpose of this book, therefore, is to act as inspiration, to help unleash the creativity that lays hidden deep within all of us. No one is exempt from creativity. It is there; one just has to find a way to connect with and coax it out. The visual inspiration contained within this book is for just such a purpose. Open up any page and, instantly, one may become smitten by the beauty of the seasonal compositions.

To achieve this powerful affect, Richard Bloom and Adrian Bloom photographed eye-catching flowerbeds in many world-class gardens. In the UK they found :- Bressingham Gardens, in Norfolk, Eastgrove Garden Cottage Nursery, in Worcestershire, Glen Chantry, in Essex, Hulwood Barn, in Suffolk, Lady Farm, in Somerset, Merriments Garden, in East Suffolk, The Picton Garden, in Worcestershire, RHS Wisley, in Surrey, Scampton Hall Garden, in North Yorkshire, and The Thumbit, in Suffolk.

In the USA, the gardens that were sourced are: - Chanticleer Garden, in Wayne, Pa., New York Botanical Garden, in Bronx, NY., and Dennis Schrader’s and Bill Smith’s Garden, in Mattituck, NY. Some of the designers whose work is represented in this compilation of seasonal beauty include Adrian Bloom, Judy Pearce, Tom Stuart-Smith, Piet Oudolf, and Ann James.

So that there is no mistake about the artistic purpose of the book, only some technical information about portrayed plants is provided; the author wisely recommends further online research for any needed elaboration. After all, this publication is a visual stimulant, not a primer.

Although I have written about this before, it must be repeated that the beautiful graphic design, that identify Tom Fischer’s Timber Press books, transform them into thrilling must-haves for gardeners - books so versatile that they may also serves as hospitality gifts, token presents, and stocking stuffers.


Follow Here To Purchase Perennial Companions: 100 Dazzling Plant Combinations for Every Season