Centaurea montana - mountain bluet

With their abundance of flower, handsome foliage, robust constitution, and frequently stunning fruits, viburnums are among the most beautiful and versatile hardy shrubs available to gardeners. Yet despite these outstanding qualities, there has never been an entire volume devoted to them—until now. In this definitive, comprehensive, generously illustarted guide, internationally renowned woody plant expert Michael Dirr provides a wealth of information about every species and cultivar worthy of horticultural consideration. Never one to pull punches, Dirr bestows praise on viburnums that deserve it and is frank in his evaluation of other plants' occasional shortcomings. These finely judged appraisals make it easy for the gardener or designer to choose the right plant for the right situation.

Whether you're a home gardener in search of a four-season shrub; a nursery professional seeking woody plants with proven appeal; or a designer looking for specimens that are both functional and guaranteed to impress clients, Viburnums will acquaint you with a group of plants capable of meeting all these requirements.

Michael Dirr has said that a garden without viburnums is like a life without the pleasures of music and art. After reading just a few pages of this unparalleled work, you're sure to agree.

Piet Oudolf's gardens excite the senses and stir emotion with an approach to gardening that emphasizes form, texture, light, movement, and color. Designing with Plants is both inspirational and instructive-an informative and visually breathtaking study that shows readers how to create the same effects in their gardens. This paperback reprint includes four main parts. "Planting Palettes" shows the range of plant choice available in form, texture, and color. "Designing Schemes" shows how to combine these elements to create stunning and sculptural gardens. Through stunning photography, "Planting Moods" shows how to create a particular atmosphere. And "Year-Round Planting" emphasizes the importance of choosing plants that have value throughout the seasons.

In the traditional mixed border, shrubs, climbers, perennials, bulbs, and annuals defy mortality; when one plant passes its best, there's always another in the wings, waiting to grab the eye. But such borders have very little impact: there is too little at any one time to hold one's attention. Oudolf wonders why we fight the unavoidable. Why not create borders that bring out the beauty of plants throughout their natural cycles?

Oudolf also thinks our obsession with color is another deadening influence on current gardening practice. Plants have form: leaves, flower heads, and stems have beauty and variety, too, and last far longer than any bloom. Why not create gardens that use the whole plant, not just its genitals? This, as you've probably already guessed, is a recipe for perennials, and without any of that anxious autumn rush to cut down those perfectly lovely bare stems and seed heads.

With these versatile plants, Oudolf would have us all create gardens that change month by month, week by week, even day by day. It's a radical, beautiful vision that's absurdly easy to achieve. In Designing with Plants, Noel Kingsbury has done a terrific job of bringing Oudolf's work within reach of the rest of us. --Simon Ings, Amazon.co.uk
Publisher: Timber Press (2008-09-01)
Price: $19.95