Garden Books for Yourself and Others
"More than anything, I must have flowers, always, always." - Claude Monet
While reviewing my garden library to recommend books for this holiday season, I realized that once again, I couldn’t create a neat single category of books. Similar to creating my personal garden I’m torn between serving two masters: I want to "design" my garden by combining large sweeps of single species, yet I want to collect a seemingly endless selection of plants I have yet to try. Designer or collector? Books for giving or books for yourself? So here’s a list for both (actually it’s probably even better as a list of books to give to yourself!)
So let’s start with an inspiring book for giving:
Remarkable Trees of the World by Thomas Pakenham. This book is so wonderful it is almost impossible to describe, except he takes one to another level of appreciation for trees. In brief, this is a book of photographs of 60 trees scattered throughout the world that appeal to the author in some way. Each photo is accompanied by well-written text that fleshes out the photos with historical, biological, or cultural information regarding each tree and its setting. The results are a delight - the photographs spectacular.
I found myself lost in time and space as I read this book and looked at the trees - which is probably what the author intended and why he calls these trees "remarkable".
This is not a book only for tree enthusiasts, it is for everyone and I hope that everyone everywhere will buy this book and be enriched by it. It is a blend of richly beautiful photography with insightful and haunting narrative. The trees themselves come alive, sometimes as deities. The stories behind these particular trees left me with a sense of affection for these remarkable beings. I recently gave it to a friend as a birthday present and was thrilled at how well it was received.
Ok, enough for gift giving, the following books are for you the gardener or for your friends who want to know more about developing their own gardens. These are all from leading figures in their particular expertise.
Designing with Plants by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury. Piet Oudolf is one of today's leading designers in the world. There are few plant design books that cover mysticism in the garden, but Piet Oudolf manages to tap into every aspect of designing with plants. Piet's harmonious plant compositions will dazzle, invigorate, and alternatively, calm any gardener who follows his lead with garden design. He gives us a book that is both inspiration and implementation. He inspires readers to design gardens that are carefully crafted but appear utterly natural. Then he gives us new, creative tools to make these garden designs. Oudolf focuses on plant structures and gives us easy categories for the forms of herbaceous garden plants. He emphasizes mood, light, movement, and rhythm in garden design. Always thinking outside the box, he even champions spent perennials at season's end. Gorgeous color photos illustrate all points. A must-have for both dreamers and gardeners with dirty hands.
Another book to consider from this same pair of authors is Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space.
If you’re looking to understand the importance of using native plants to support native wildlife Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants by Douglas Tallamy. We all know about the tremendous decline in biodiversity as well as the accelerating pace of development and subsequent habitat destruction. The author makes the case for gardeners having the power to make a significant contribution toward reversing this trend.
The book eloquently explains the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. Indeed, since native insects have not evolved with alien plants, as a rule they are not capable of overcoming the plants chemical defenses to eat them. When native plant species disappear or are replaced by alien exotics, the insects disappear. As the food source for native birds and other animals decline, so do their populations. For every 10 songbirds that were in the northeast when I was boy, there are only about 6 songbirds today. In the world, habitat destruction has been so extensive that scientists are talking a manmade mass extinction event not seen on this scale since a massive asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Healthy local ecosystems are not only beautiful and fascinating. To help concerned gardeners, this clearly reasoned account includes helpful lists of native plants for different regional habitats.
If you are looking for the definitive book for native plants to use in Northeast gardens you can’t do better than Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening and Conservation by Donald Leopold. If you want to have more native plants, this is the book to get. While a lot of this information can be pieced together from other books or the Internet, this is an easy-to-use, all-in-one reference for all types of plants, not just flowers that make up a well-rounded garden and wildlife habitat.
Looking for the definitive A-Z guide for all ornamental trees and shrubs check out Dirr’s Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia by Michael Dirr. This is possibly the most useful book on trees and shrubs for the non-specialist in existence (though any arborist or landscape designer worth their salt should, and probably does, have it). Here's why.
Alone among books on trees, Dirr provides not only descriptions of the trees, but he offers landscaping assessments. And he is not faint of heart. If he doesn't like a tree, he'll tell you. For example, of Pinus strobes ‘Pendula’, a strongly weeping white pine, he writes "Use as an accent plant; one is acceptable, two represent bad taste, and three a disgrace".
But it is when Dirr waxes lyrical about a tree that he loves that he achieves his apotheosis. He introduces one tree with this simple sentence: "I love this tree." He describes a beech forest as "one of the most awe inspiring sight in nature." The Silver Linden is the "Beauty Queen" among Lindens. Of the Maackii Amurensis he writes, "Unheralded and unknown, except in the gardens of the fortunate few."
Among other extremely useful features are the tree lists included in the back. He has listed trees by size, fruit, flower - you name it. The index lists trees both by their botanical name and their common name.
