Click Here To Purchase Armitage's Garden Perennials: A Color Encyclopedia

Author: Allan M. Armitage

Publisher: Timber Press

ISBN:0-88192-435-0

Visiting a perennial nursery for the first time can be an overwhelming experience because choosing plants can be a challenging decision- making process. Even seasoned gardeners report that they lose all sense of rationality when confronted by a sea of blooming nursery inventory.  Most report taking home more plants than they can place and some admit to buying perennials that are unsuitable for their growing conditions, simply because the plants were so appealing. This book helps to avoid such errors by allowing new and seasoned gardeners to research prospective plants in order to make wise decisions before travelling to the nursery.

In this updated edition of a best seller, the reader is introduced to no less than 136 reliable and satisfying perennials that the author has observed or grown himself in disparate climates from temperate Montreal, Canada to hot Florida, USA. This experience has allowed Mr. Armitage to offer appropriate guidance to readers residing in a wide variety of climates. It is most reassuring to read specific plant advice based on ones geographic location. Few garden writers make the effort to be that considerate of their readers.

While the publisher would like to call this book an encyclopedia, I am more inclined to consider it a journey to visit with a beloved gardening mentor. Scanning the text is like enrolling in a private tutorial with a master teacher who is also a warm, approachable friend. Mr. Armitage addresses the readers as welcome guests in his own garden, as he stops to talk anecdotally about each plant and readily explains why he likes or dislikes a plant.

The invaluable selection of perennials covered by the book represents those that are reliable, with a proven record of growing successfully. Each plant has the potential to bring gardeners pleasure, depending on individual needs and preferences. It is helpful, too, that the author’s own photos of these perennials were shot in realistic, unstaged settings.

In addition to the concise, encompassing presentation of perennials, a chapter listing plants for specific characteristics, rounds out the book. These include aggressive plants, those that are suitable for consistently moist conditions, cut flowers, drought tolerance, fragrance, ground cover, foliage, fruit, crawlers and evergreens.

Mr. Armitage is a professor of horticulture at the University of Georgia where he teaches and conducts research on new garden plants. He is also an internationally respected consultant and lecturer and the recipient of numerous awards from nursery trade groups and horticultural societies. If one is restricted to buying only one book about perennials, this is the one to get.