Restoring the Garden of a Harlem Renaissance Poet

        One of the most interesting historic gardens I’ve ever visited is that of Anne Spencer, a little-known African-American poet who lived in Lynchburg, Virginia. Starting in 1905, Anne and her husband Edward transformed their narrow backyard into a highly personal garden with an aqua-blue pergola, a small pool filled by a cast-iron African head spouting water (a gift from W.E.B. DuBois), and beds overflowing with roses, iris, larkspur, poppies, and other flowers. After Anne’s death in 1975, the garden that she’d called “half my world” was all but lost – but, remarkably, it wasn’t, and the story of its unlikely rescue is told in a fascinating new book, Lessons Learned from a Poet’s Garden by Jane Baber White.
        “Lessons Learned” are the key words in that title, because as Jane told me in a recent email, the book isn’t just “the 28-year story of a garden restoration by a group of garden club ladies. The names could be changed and it could be anywhere. Indeed, that is sort of the point. I hope the book will be helpful to anyone, anywhere, who might be planning a garden restoration. These are the steps we took that might be helpful to them.” It’s not a dry how-to manual, though. It’s a richly illustrated book laid out something like a scrapbook with all sorts of bits and pieces clipped together and overlapping one another – old family photos taken in the garden, notes Anne scribbled on seed catalogs, receipts, newspaper clippings, snapshots of the restoration, and evocative photos of the restored garden today. Although I could argue with some of the things Jane and the garden club ladies did – I don’t think any restoration, for example, should start with a bulldozer – the bottom-line is that this compelling garden was in dire need and they saved it. For that, all I can say is bravo, and thanks!
        To buy a copy of Lessons Learned, visit the newly-upgraded website of the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum which is full of excellent photos and information. And since proceeds from the book will help fund the ongoing care of the garden, and the “lessons” it offers are so valuable, please consider asking your local library, garden club, or historical society to buy a copy, too. (Jan. 2012)

Founding Gardeners

        Our first four presidents weren’t just fiery revolutionaries, authors of the Constitution, and saviors of the new nation, they were also avid gardeners. In Founding Gardeners, British author Andrea Wulf explores the intertwining political and agricultural/horticultural lives of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison. All four were farmers who believed that citizens who worked their own land were the foundation of democracy. All four had a deep love of the American wilderness, and they found comfort and inspiration in cultivating their own home grounds.
        Even readers who are familiar with the garden-lives of Jefferson and Washington will find a lot of new information in Wulf’s book. When the Constitutional Convention was on the verge of breaking down, for example, James Madison and several other delegates took a break to visit Bartram’s Garden, the nursery of the famous colonial botanists. There they saw native plants from all of the colonies growing happily together, with trees from big Southern states like Virginia sheltering woodland shrubs from small Northern states like Connecticut. Returning to the Convention with a fresh perspective and renewed commitment, they brokered a compromise that established the Senate and House as we know them today, with representation that protects both large states and small.
        Although Founding Gardeners disappointed me in some ways – the narrative bogs down at times in too much political detail, Wulf makes several misstatements about plants (tuberoses are from Mexico, not Europe), and almost 40% the book’s 350 pages are end-notes – I finished it with a better understanding of a fascinating era in American history and of four great men who, like me (and you?) loved to putter around in their yards. (Dec. 2011)

One Writer’s Garden

        Here’s a book to put at the top of your gift list – for you and anyone who loves gardening, history, American literature, independent women, or the South. Eudora Welty is one of the most revered American writers of the 20th century, and her home in Jackson, Mississippi is now a historical museum visited by pilgrims from all over the world. But when Welty first gave the property to the state in the 1980s, the garden which she had helped her mother plant and tend since the 1920s, and which offered her comfort and literary inspiration for decades, had all but disappeared from neglect.
        This book is the story of the rediscovery and restoration of that garden, guided by author Susan Haltom and based mostly on family photographs, old letters, and Welty’s memory. What makes the book truly outstanding, though, is the way Haltom and co-author Jane Roy Brown integrate the story of the Welty garden into the broader social history of gardening and America – street-car suburbs, garden clubs, civic beautification, Progressivism, the conservation movement, and so on – and illuminate the many connections between Welty’s gardening and her writing. It’s also an especially attractive book, with big, full-color shots of the restored garden interspersed with a wide array of old photographs and historic images from books, magazines, and seed catalogs. We’re proud that many of our historic bulbs grow today in the Welty garden (Susan even thanks us in her acknowledgements), but even if they didn’t I’d be telling you this is a book you don’t want to miss! (Nov. 2011)

A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden

        The Wild Braid isn’t exactly a compelling title (except maybe for hippie hairdressers?), but its subtitle definitely caught my interest: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden. Published a year before he died in 2006 at the age of 100, this slim volume interweaves a dozen poems by Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz with excerpts from his conversations with co-author Genine Lentine. For Kunitz, gardening and poetry had a lot in common. Both deal with immense, wild forces – nature and emotion, to oversimplify things – that human beings have a deep-seated need to explore and shape. That may sound a little grand, and Kunitz is definitely a deep thinker, but he’s also a down-to-earth guy who found enormous joy puttering around in his yard. The garden was never just a metaphor for him, although in his simple, accessible poems, compost piles and garter snakes take on much deeper meanings. If your gardening includes more than deck furniture and the latest supertunia, you’ll find in The Wild Braid a kindred spirit, an enjoyable read, and plenty to reflect on. (Sept. 2011)

Buried Treasures: Tasty Tubers of the World

        Have you ever thought about adding a row of dahlias, elephant ears, or Jack-in-the-pulpit to your vegetable garden? After reading this slim volume from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, you might! Edited by Beth Hanson, Buried Treasures is an entertaining introduction to dozens of plants whose underground storage organs make for tasty eating. Several of them are North American natives such as Jerusalem artichoke, spring beauty, and Colorado wild potato (Solanum jamesii); others are exotics such as jicama; and some are common garden ornamentals such as canna and daylily. Don’t miss the back section of the book where you’ll find a dozen recipes (including one for a dahlia and chocolate-chip quick bread), a “Potatoes Versus Rice” comparison that will make you look at the lowly potato with new respect, and an excellent bibliography and source list. There’s also a chapter on wild foraging where I learned that the tiny tubers of nutsedge – one of the most pernicious weeds in my garden – “can be eaten raw, boiled, or toasted.” That’s something I’m definitely going to try. (Aug. 2011)

The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree

        Combining her loves of gardening and history, our good customer Susan Wittig Albert has launched a new series of mystery novels that are perfect for summertime reading. In the first book, we’re introduced to the good ladies of the Darling Dahlias Garden Club in the small town of Darling, Alabama, population “907 good Christian people (soon to be 908 because Mrs. Perkins is expecting any day now), and only a few Bad Apples.” Of course it’s often hard to tell the bad apples from the good, as the Dahlias discover while trying to figure out why their majestic old cucumber magnolia is dying and what really happened to pretty young Bunny Scott. The story is set during the Depression which makes for especially poignant reading these days, and in the spirit of that era it ends with some helpful tips from the Dahlias: “Makin’ Do: 12 Ways to Stretch Whatever We Have.”
        Susan’s second book in the series debuts this month with a title that’s sure to appeal to heirloom bulb-lovers: The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies. I plan to be reading it well before our naked ladies bloom, with my feet up and a cold glass of sweet tea by my side. (July 2011)

Bill and Greg’s New Heirloom Gardening in the South

        North, south, east, west – no matter where you garden, if you like heirloom flowers, you’ll want this book. Our friends Bill Welch and Greg Grant have been growing and championing heirloom plants for decades. Their 1995 The Southern Heirloom Garden became an instant classic, and although this new book is based on that landmark publication, it’s different enough to warrant the new title. Chapters on the garden influences of various ethnic groups – Native Americans, Africans, Germans, etc. – have been completely rewritten, and many new chapters have been added, including ones on naturalizing bulbs, traditional ways to multiply plants, heirloom fruits, and “Natives, Invasives, Cemeteries, and Rustling.”
        It’s a hefty book at 537 pages, and nearly 350 of those are devoted to an encyclopedia of heirloom plants for the South. Some entries – such as the one for snowflakes – are pretty much identical to what originally appeared in The Southern Heirloom Garden, but others – such as the five pages on lilies – are completely new. Following the final entry (Zizyphus jujuba, with a recipe for jujube butter) comes one of the book’s best parts, “How Our Gardens Grew,” in which Bill and Greg tell the very personal stories of their own gardens. Don’t miss it.
        The book is list-priced at $29.95, but Amazon is offering it for just $19.77 – less than I paid last weekend for two flats of annuals that will be dead by Thanksgiving. No matter how you do the math, this extraordinary book belongs on your bookshelf. (May 2011)

Sydney Eddison’s Gardening for a Lifetime

        I started reading this book for my parents, who are gardening in their 80s. But by the time I’d finished the first page, I was hooked, and I realized it was a great book for younger gardeners, too. It isn’t a dreary compendium of everything you’ll have to give up in your garden as you get older. It’s the very personal story of Eddison finding ways to change how she gardens so she can continue enjoying it instead of feeling overwhelmed by it. Busy gardeners of any age will find her tips – and perspective – valuable. Plant more flowering shrubs, she recommends, which are bigger and easier to care for than most perennials. Learn to accept imperfection – which is Nature’s way – and don’t think you have to do everything yourself.
        It’s Eddison’s story and personality, though, that really make this book shine. “In the sliding glass doors to the kitchen,” she writes in the preface, “I catch glimpses of an old woman hobbling around my garden, and I realize in amazement that it’s me.” Reading that, I knew I was in for more than just another book of garden advice. By the time I reached the last chapter, I felt like I’d not only found a Yoda-like mentor but a new friend. (March 2011)

Hundreds of Discounted Garden Books

        If you like gardening, books, and saving money, check out discount bookseller EdwardRHamilton.com. Although their website is a bit clunky and they don’t accept credit cards, I’ve been ordering from them for years and the only time I had a problem – they sent the wrong book – they rectified it immediately. Shipping is a deal, too, a flat $3.50 no matter how many books you order. Among their broad inventory you’ll find:
        Garden history books, including Denise Adams’ essential Restoring American Gardens: An Encyclopedia of Heirloom Ornamental Plants for just $15 (original price $40), and reprinted classics such Louise Beebe Wilder’s 1935 What Happens in My Garden, $3 ($15),
        Bulb books, including Rod Leed’s Autumn Bulbs, $8 ($30), and Peter Goldblatt’s Crocosmia and Chasmanthe, $9 ($30),
        How-to books, including Stephen Scanniello’s modern classic A Year of Roses, $4 ($25), and many other books about garden design, fruits and vegetables, herbs, trees and shrubs, houseplants, wildflowers, and on and on.
        For their January 2011 “Home and Garden Bargain Books” catalog, ignore the link to request their general catalog and instead use the “Contact Us” form to request that specific, 68-page catalog. Happy reading! (Feb. 2011)

Monet’s Garden: Through the Seasons at Giverny

        Though it looked like just a coffee-table picture book, it only cost a few bucks at a local used-book shop, so I took it home – and not only enjoyed it but learned a lot from it. Writing in an engagingly readable style, author Vivian Russell tells the story of Monet’s life, art, and gardening with a focus on his horticultural masterpiece, the gardens at his home in Giverny. Through the text, Monet emerges as a gardener much like the rest of us – digging plants to share with friends, worrying about mixing up the labels on his dahlias, inspired by accidental combinations in the garden, and always looking ahead. The book is richly illustrated with period photographs, color plans, and plenty of lush, coffee-table photographs. If you’re interested in Monet, garden history, or even just gardening, period, I think you’ll like it. Read an especially interesting excerpt here. (Nov.2010)

        For about 11 cents a piece, you can enjoy 54 essays by one of the smartest – and funniest – gardeners I know, Greg Grant. If you’ve ever heard Greg speak, or read his modern classic The Southern Heirloom Garden (co-authored with Bill Welch), you know how laugh-out-loud funny he can be. But he’s a world-class horticulturist, too. His new book, In Greg’s Garden: A Pineywoods Perspective on Gardening, Nature and Family gathers together the first nine years of his columns from Texas Gardener magazine. Topics range from “Heirloom Bulbs” and “The Lure of Nocturnal Flowers” to “Confessions of a Plant Rustler” and “White Trash Gardening.” Most are engagingly personal, and though they’re Texas focused I think any gardener anywhere will find them well worth reading.
        The price is amazing, too: $5.95. But here’s the wrinkle: the book is only being published electronically. Don’t panic, though. If – like Greg and I – you don’t own an e-book reader, it’s easy to download the book to your computer at Amazon. Our easy instructions will guide you. (Oct. 2010)

ADS Offers Rare 1930s Daffodil Yearbooks on CD

       Fans of historic daffodils will be happy to hear that four rare volumes of The American Daffodil Year Book from 1935-1938 are now available on CD. The 300-plus pages of text include a wide variety of articles such as “In Praise of Old Daffodils,” “Daffodils in Texas,” “Naturalizing Narcissi,” and – our personal favorite – “A Daffodil Parade in Michigan.” Even better, the full 325 pages are completely searchable. That means if you want to find references to, say, ‘Argent’; or fragrance or daffodils for the South, just type those words into the search box and voila!
       A collaborative effort by the American Horticultural Society and the American Daffodil Society, the four-volume CD is available from the ADS website for just $10 – and worth every penny. (Aug. 2010)

Tiger Lilies and Dahlias in The Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright

        Beyond his iconic Fallingwater, few of us know anything about the gardens and landscapes that were always an important part of Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision. Now Derek Fell, the renowned garden photographer, sets out to change all that in The Gardens of Frank Lloyd Wright (2009). It’s a beautiful and informative book, and any gardener with a taste for art, history, or nature will find plenty to like in it.
        Be sure to check out the photos of our 'Bishop of Llandaff' dahlias and Wright's favorite flower, tiger lilies, at Taliesin, Wright’s home and studio in rural Wisconsin. Tiger lilies, which are native to Japan and have been pictured in the country’s art for centuries, may have reminded Wright of the months he lived there during the construction of his landmark Imperial Hotel.
        Dahlias figured in one of the saddest episodes of Wright’s life. While he was away from Taliesin, his live-in companion, Mamah Cheney, and her two young children were murdered in a fire set by an employee gone berserk. The next morning as Wright walked among the smoldering ruins with a Chicago Tribune reporter, “a crushed dahlia flower attracted his attention and seemed to raise his spirits. He picked up the flower and stirred the earth around its roots to give the plant a new lease on life.” Later, Wright “gathered all the flowers he could salvage from the garden and made piles of dinner-plate dahlias, summer phlox, long-stemmed zinnias, and armloads of peppery-scented nasturtiums” to fill Mrs. Cheney’s casket. (June 2010)

Proven Plants: Southern Gardens

        You may know Erica Glasener as the host of HGTV’s A Gardener’s Diary. She’s a hands-on, backyard gardener from Atlanta, and her brand new book Proven Plants: Southern Gardens is terrific. Erica says she wrote it “especially for those who are new to gardening in the South,” but experienced gardeners all over the country will find a lot to like in it. For a start, it’s beautiful, with Catesby’s iconic image of a Southern magnolia on the cover and other antique images scattered throughout the book. It’s neatly organized, too, with ten “proven plants” – each with a clear photo, essential facts, and Erica’s comments – in twenty different categories such as “Perennials for Shade,” “Trees with Colorful Bark,” and “Flowering Bulbs for Summer and Fall.” Tucked in between the categories are short essays on a wide range of topics: “The Container Bog Garden,” “How to Attract Butterflies,” and “Heirloom Bulbs,” which we’re proud to say spotlights Old House Gardens – another good reason to buy this book! (April 2010)

The Wild Garden of 1870 Updated for 2010

        “One of the finest books of the year was first published in 1870.” So begins Saxon Holt’s recent review of The Wild Garden, William Robinson’s ground-breaking work which has just been reissued in an “expanded edition” by one of the most inspired wild gardeners of our time, Rick Darke. Robinson’s wild garden wasn’t a natives-only preserve but rather a breaking free from traditional garden beds to plant wild and nearly wild plants in areas where they could naturalize with little care. Darke brings Robinson’s ideas into the age of sustainability with 70 pages of new text and 125 photos that are both spectacular and convincing. (March 2010)

Better Together: An Easy Combo for Your Spring Garden

        The wine-red, newly-sprouting foliage of peonies is always a treat, but our friend Tom Fischer’s Perennial Companions: 100 Dazzling Plant Combinations will show you how to make it look even better. As he writes, “The emerging foliage of peonies can be as spectacular as the flowers. . . . Planted among the vivid blue of glory-of-the-snow, it practically glows.” For the inspiring full-page photo, go to http://books.google.com/books?id=VxXh56ql0BAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=perennial+companions+100&cd=1#v=snippet&q=santa%20fe&f=false, click on page 16, and scroll down to page 17.
        And while you’re thinking of it, why not order these two fall-planted treasures from us right now – at LAST year’s prices. (Feb. 2010)

Link of the Month: Well-Loved Books from Heiko

        Winter is for reading, and for 20 years now we’ve been turning to Calendula Horticultural Books to help us learn more about antique flowers and gardening. In his December catalog, owner Heiko Miles (who by day works in a small accounting office) wrote that “the hard economic conditions that caused a significant drop in book sales made me decide to scale back somewhat with the book business this year.” But, he adds, “I would rather sell old and rare books than do any other work. I love the wonder books create, the dreams they ignite, and the pleasure they provide. Books are my friends that smile to me from the shelf, full of memories of time shared together. They beckon me to read them again and start the adventure afresh. . . They provide me with a sense of belonging.” And Heiko feels the same way about plants. “Our books and our gardens,” he writes, “both fill an almost primal need within.”
        For hundreds of old, soul-satisfying garden books priced from $5 to over $1000, visit Heiko at calendulabooks.com. And please tell him we said hello. (Jan. 2010)

Ann Pavord’s 600 Favorite Bulbs

        Put this fabulous new book on your holiday wish list! Bulb by Anna Pavord (author of The Tulip) is “a book all bulb aficionados, fanatics, and obsessives must have,” according to our friend Elizabeth Licata. We’ve been savoring it page by page for the past few weeks, preparing to rave about it here, but Elizabeth’s review and interview of Pavord at Garden Rant is so entertaining that we figured you’d be better off reading that instead: gardenrant.com/my_weblog/2009/11/anna-pavord-loves-bulbs-more-than-i-do.html. Enjoy! (Dec. 2009)

Bringing an Old Cemetery Back to Life

        Once Upon a Time . . . A Cemetery Story is so full of beauty and energy and people having fun that you may find yourself forgetting it’s about a cemetery – which, in a way, is what it’s really about.
        Cemeteries today are no longer a central part of most of our lives, and many are moldering into ruin. As our friend Jane White will tell you, the key to reviving them is to get people visiting them for something other than graveside services. For nearly 30 years Jane spearheaded efforts to restore, replant, and revitalize the Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, turning it into America’s liveliest “gravegarden” with bird walks, concerts, workshops, parties in period dress, heirloom daffodils, a cookbook, four mini-museums and archives, twelve self-guiding brochures, a chapel that’s popular for weddings, a composting education center (how fitting!), and hundreds of volunteers.
        As attractive as any coffee-table book and full of charm, Once Upon a Time is an unconventional how-to manual for anyone who wants to bring new life to a neglected historic place. Do yourself and your community a favor and ask your local public library to purchase a copy. It’s an extraordinary, yes-we-can success story that, with a little help, could inspire similar efforts all across the country. Save the Cemeteries! (Nov. 2009)

Trick-or-Treat Reading: Wicked Plants

        I’ll read anything Amy Stewart writes – she’s that good. But even non-gardeners will get a kick out of her latest book, Wicked Plants. Opening it is like stepping into a haunted house. Shrouded in dark brown endpapers, it’s printed on sepia-toned paper and illustrated with superb drawings and etchings that make even house-plants look menacing. From aconite to yew, Stewart offers bite-sized morsels of a dizzying array of over 200 plants that “kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend,” along with theme chapters such as “The Devil’s Bartender” (where I learned that too much sweet woodruff in May wine could kill me) and “Social Misfits” (stinking Benjamin, slobber weed, and more). It’s a book that invites dipping into rather than reading from start to finish, but it’s definitely not for bedtime reading. Stewart’s intent isn’t to terrify (though at times she does) but to educate and entertain – and she does a killer job of that with this quirky, fascinating Halloween treat. (Oct. 2009)

A Rose by Any Name

        If you’ve ever heard Stephen Scanniello speak, you know how interesting and entertaining he can be. It’s not enough for him to simply grow great old roses, he wants to know their personal histories, too. And many of them are fascinating! Now with the help of Douglas Brenner, former editor of Martha Stewart Living, Stephen has collected hundreds of these stories into A Rose by Any Name. It’s a charming little book, beautifully illustrated with antique images, and written for a broad audience rather than history geeks. Whether your taste runs to wild roses such as our native Cherokee, medieval roses such as ‘York and Lancaster’, Victorian roses such as ‘Gloire de Dijon’ (“the caviar of roses”), or 20th-century classics such as ‘Chrysler Imperial’, any heirloom gardener will find a lot to like here. And when you sit down this spring with sore muscles from a day of gardening, it would be a great book to relax with. (Mar. 2009)

Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

        My wife loves Barbara Kingsolver’s novels (best-sellers like The Bean Trees, etc.), but this is the first of Kingsolver’s books that I’ve read – and I loved it. A diary of sorts, it tells the story of Kingsolver’s family and the year they decided to turn their backs on fast food and out-of-season asparagus and “eat locally” instead.
        Though sympathetic to the cause, I worried that I might be in for a sappy or polemical read here. But Kingsolver is funny as heck, never pretends to have all the answers, and loves gardening. You’ll learn a lot from her about the science, history, and socio-economics of food, and you’ll have fun doing it! Like many people, Kingsolver is convinced that eating locally is good for our health, our neighborhoods, and our planet. I know this: she’s got me looking at what I eat from a whole new perspective, and at the end of the book I got a little emotional rooting for the family’s first turkey eggs to hatch.
        For an excerpt from the book, click here. (Jan. 2009)

Ken Druse’s Planthropology

        If you haven’t already added this brand-new book to your holiday wish list, do! The cover features a dazzling close-up photo of a red-and-white poppy framed by deep green, and you’ll find many other “oh wow” images throughout the book. In fact the first time I sat down with it I simply turned the pages savoring the photographs. If nothing else, Planthropology should cement Ken Druse’s reputation as one of the most gifted garden photographers of our time.
        But it’s a not-to-be-missed read as well. “Planthropology” is Ken’s inventive term for “the study of plants and their particular histories,” yet this is no conventional history book. Subtitled The Myths, Mysteries, and Miracles of my Garden Favorites, it’s more like a walk in the garden with your favorite uncle, a brilliant, passionate, talkative guy who paints, collects rare flowers, has advanced degrees in botany, literature, and world history, and still manages to be down-to-earth. Follow Ken’s lead and you’ll be entertained, charmed, and enlightened – and I think you’ll never look at your own garden in quite the same way again. (Nov. 2008)

Flowers and Herbs of Early America

        Curator of plants at Colonial Williamsburg, Larry Griffith is also an enthusiastic home gardener, and you’ll see both sides of him in this terrific new book. Covering 56 seed-grown flowers and herbs, Larry presents both scholarly history and tips for using these long-loved plants in modern gardens. The book’s many illustrations show us past and present, too, with antique images set alongside lush photographs by Barbara Temple Lombardi. Though many of the plants are well-known, others such as devil’s claw and scarlet pentapetes will be new discoveries for most gardeners.
        You can leaf through the book right now at Amazon.com. Click “search inside this book,” noodle around a bit, maybe read the chapter on cannas, and I bet you’ll agree: this is a book that every heirloom gardener will want to add to their holiday wish list. (late Oct. 2008)

The Unknown Gertrude Jekyll

        Inspired by the traditional cottage gardens of England, Gertrude Jekyll in the early twentieth century became an enormously popular garden designer. Though her books have all been reprinted, most of her magazine and newspaper articles languished in obscurity – until editor Martin Wood collected the best of them in this fine book.
        Though you may have heard that Jekyll’s borders were filled exclusively with perennials and pastels, here’s an excerpt to help correct that misconception (and maybe inspire your planting!). Note that she includes dahlias, cannas, and gladiolus in this border, too, as she often did.
        “The pale yellows in the border are followed by the deeper yellow of coreopsis, helenium and some . . . perennial sunflowers. Soon we come to the splendid deep orange of African marigolds and the rich mahogany browns of the French marigolds both tall and dwarf. Then come deep orange dahlias backing fiery clumps of kniphofia, passing on to the pure scarlet of dahlias and cannas, salvias, gladioli and bedding geraniums. The use of these grand summer plants is one reason why the border had better not be called hardy or herbaceous, for there are no hardy plants that will answer the same purpose. . . . Moreover it is certainly more important that the border shall be beautiful than that it should be either strictly hardy or herbaceous.
        “At the back of the mass of rich red is a group of towering hollyhocks, blood-red, with a few of a rich, dark claret color. The whole of the red region has also an interplanting of the red-leaved Atriplex hortensis, and, nearer the front, of a French form of annual amaranthus with dull red flowers of a pleasant quality and red-tinted leaves; a much better plant than the commoner form with magenta flowers.” (Sept. 2008)

Garden to Vase

        If you like picking bouquets from your own garden — and who doesn’t? – here’s a refreshingly down-to-earth guide full of great advice for getting all sorts of flowers to look better and last longer when cut. Did you know, for example, that your daffodils will stay in top shape much longer if you let them sit for twenty minutes in a bucket of water while their gooey sap drains out? And Garden to Vase goes way beyond technical advice. Author Linda Beutler writes as if she were your next-door neighbor, offering tips for collecting vases, using what you already grow, and making cut flowers an everyday pleasure in your home. She’s funny (did you catch her OHG-inspired Christmas carol in our December newsletter?), encouraging, irreverent, and real. “Don’t be afraid to get this book dirty,” she writes, and we plan to do just that. (Jan. 2008)

        Here’s a great gift book to give – or ask for – this holiday season.
        Banish that image of Emily Dickinson as a reclusive New England spinster. In Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, horticulturist (and OHG customer) Marta McDowell will introduce you to a charming young woman who loved gardening, collected wildflowers, forced hyacinths into winter bloom, and wrote witty, surprisingly modern poems that often use garden images to explore transcendent themes.
        This is not a scholarly tome but an informal exploration of gardening and nature in Dickinson’s life. It weaves together biography, history, excerpts from her many poems and letters, descriptions of her plants, and tips for gardening today as Emily did more than a century ago.
        In the Resources section at the back of the book, Marta writes, “For the best selection of heirloom bulbs in the country, tiptoe through the Old House Gardens catalog” and adds “Don’t miss their email newsletters.” But we’d love this book even without that, and we think you – and any gardener on your list – will, too. (Dec. 2007)
        [See also The Gardens of Emily Dickinson by Judith Farr.]

Vintage Garden Books

       Reading old garden books is one of our favorite ways to learn about plants and gardens of the past. While shopping recently at AbeBooks.com, a terrific internet source for used and rare books, we stumbled upon “In the Garden: Let Your Collection Bloom.” This brief essay on collecting old garden books includes links to an assortment of classics ranging from a paperback edition of A Southern Garden for $3 to a hand-colored 1794 copy of Repton’s Landscape Gardening for $25,000. (June 2007)

1912 Tulips Book and ‘Prince of Austria’

        An email from our good customer Kathy Castillo who’s a librarian in St. Paul reminded us that many of the best books about antique bulbs and gardens can still be found on the shelves of public libraries around the country. She writes:
        “I checked out a great old book from the library here called Tulips: Garden Flowers in Color by Rev. Joseph Jacob. It was published in 1912, and in it I found some of the wonderful tulips that you offer. There are only eight color plates in the book, and one is for the ‘Prince of Austria’. Rev. Jacob describes it as ‘a grand orange-red, one of the best of all tulips.’ I am certainly glad that you saved it from commercial extinction!”
        If your local library doesn’t have Rev. Jacob’s Tulips, there’s a good chance you can get it (or any other book you can think of!) by inter-library loan. It’s a free service that most public libraries offer. Just call yours and ask. (Nov. 2007)

Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect

        Rudy Favretti has helped guide the restoration of scores of important landscapes around the country, and his Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings has been a bible to thousands of museum sites and home owners since it was first published in 1978.
        This month marks the release of his latest book, Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect, and it’s a remarkable achievement. In the nineteenth century, Weidenmann was almost as highly regarded as Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York’s Central Park, but since that time his name and work have been largely lost in the shadows of history. Favretti’s illuminating biography is based on decades of research and is illustrated with over 50 period plans, drawings, and photographs, most of which have never been published before. Be sure to check out the back cover, too, where you’ll see a blurb of praise for the book by our own Scott Kunst! (Sept. 2007)

The Way We Garden Now

        In this lively, practical, and encouraging new book, Katherine Whiteside offers 41 easy “pick-and-choose projects for planting your paradise,” including three devoted to bulbs. Illustrated with charming watercolors, each project includes simple, numbered steps and no-nonsense advice that’s delivered with a spoonful of humor.
        We especially like what Katherine says about storing dahlias: “Misguided gardeners steer clear of dahlias because they fear the need to dig and store the tubers in winter. Guess what? No one cares if you let them freeze to death. Then you’ll have room to try different ones each year.” She also lists OHG as one of her top three bulb sources, praising our “great catalog, wonderful choices, and fascinating information.” (Aug. 2007)

Two New Books from the Library of American Landscape History

        Reynolda Gardens in Winston-Salem is one of the South’s most beautiful and historic landscapes. In A World of Her Own Making, landscape historian Catherine Howett tells the story of Katharine Smith Reynolds, the remarkable “new woman of the New South” who created the gardens in the early 1900s as part of a visionary, 1000-acre estate and model farm.
        The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis is internationally celebrated, and I’m an even bigger fan of the adjoining Tower Grove Park which is one of America’s most distinctive Victorian parks. In Henry Shaw’s Victorian Landscapes, historian Carol Grove tells the story of these two special landscapes and the frontier millionaire and plant-lover who created them.
        Both of these richly illustrated books are published by the Library of American Landscape History, a small but terrific non-profit that produces books and traveling exhibitions about American landscape history. Browsing through their website is both a pleasure and an education! (March 2007)

        We got a preview copy of this terrific new book last fall, and I could hardly wait till its publication this month to tell you about it.
        It’s billed as “an around-the-world, behind the scenes look at the flower industry,” and though that may sound a bit dry it’s anything but! Author Amy Stewart writes with humor and an infectious enthusiasm that any plant-lover will recognize, traveling the globe from California to the Netherlands to Ecuador to weave a truly illuminating story that will remind many readers of the best of John McPhee. Much of the book focuses on the people behind the flowers we love today, from old-timers like the maverick breeder of ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘White Henryi’ lilies and California’s last commercial grower of Victorian violets to the whiz-bang entrepreneurs who are bringing us organic roses and hydroponic gerberas at supermarket prices.
        Looking through the book again as I write this review, I’m tempted to read it all over again! If you’re a gardener with an inquisitive mind, I highly recommend it. For more info and an excerpt, visit amystewart.com/books.html. And while you’re there, check out Amy’s entertaining, wide-ranging blog, too. (Jan. 2007)

Gardening with Heirloom Seeds

        Just last month we celebrated with our friend Lynn Coulter the release of her exciting new book, Gardening with Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for a New Generation. Lynn calls herself a “laid-back kind of gardener” and her book reads like an over-the-fence conversation with a friendly neighbor who loves gardening and just happens to know a LOT about all sorts of heirlooms and how to grow them from seed. Though her book doesn’t include any bulbs (that’s next, we hope!), it tells the story of some 30 flowers and 30 vegetables that have long and interesting histories in American gardens. Specific varieties like our favorite bachelor button ‘Emperor William’ are described, often with a date of introduction, and there are extensive growing tips, some recipes, and space on every page to add your own notes so you can make the book an heirloom to hand down along with your favorite seeds. (July 2006)

Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile

        Here’s a springtime treat for you from our good customer Verlyn Klinkenborg of The New York Times. With the very old-style title of Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile, this unique, charming book paints a rich picture of 18th-century English country life as viewed through the eyes of a real tortoise that lived for 13 years in the garden of naturalist Gilbert White, author of the celebrated Natural History of Selbourne. Reviewers across the country have been praising it:
        “A dazzling riff on human beings and their weird ways. . . . Timothy the tortoise is a splendid social critic, a keen-eyed anthropologist.” (Kirkus Reviews)
        “How does he make all those little things . . . add up to such big ideas about beauty, grace, and the mysteries of natural life?” (Los Angeles Times)
        “Told in terse sentences that can read like stanzas of poetry. . . , this brief but powerful book is unforgettable.” (Chicago Sun-Times)
        As a special offer for our newsletter readers, Verlyn will inscribe a copy especially for you. To order, click here [no longer available]. (April 2006)

Old Time Gardens Newly Set Forth

        Winter is for reading, and a good garden book can be especially warming. Published in 1901, Old Time Gardens Newly Set Forth by Alice Morse Earle was one of the most popular garden books of its era. Long out of print, it’s now been republished in an affordable paperback edition with an enlightening introduction by our friend Virginia Lopez Begg. Earle writes in an affectionate, almost poetic style and offers a wealth of information about the plants, designs, and ornaments of early American gardens. This inspiring classic belongs in every public library (ask yours to order a copy!) and on the shelf of anyone who loves gardens and history. (Jan. 2006)

Winter Reading: A Passionate Gardener’s Favorite Magazines

        Over the years, our good customer Annetta Kushner of Annapolis has sent us so many articles that mention us from so many different magazines that finally we asked her, “What are your favorite garden magazines?” Here’s her wide-ranging reply, to inspire you:
        “Ones I read cover to cover: Gardens Illustrated, Hortus, Pacific Horticulture, Green Scene, Dirk van der Werff’s Plants.
        “Ones I read selectively: Garden Design, the RHS’s The Garden, the Southern Garden History Society’s Magnolia, the American Rose Society’s American Rose, the South African Botanical Society’s Veld and Flora, and the American Horticulture Society’s American Gardener, which has improved immensely over the past few years.
        “Ones that I subscribe to and read the articles that interest me: Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and American Nurseryman. I subscribe to the Times of London on-line for Katherine Swift’s splendid articles and the British House and Gardens for Tania Compton’s. I do miss The Bulb Newsletter. I have probably skipped a few, but that about covers it.” (Dec. 2005)

A Brief History of Gardening

        Here’s a bit of light reading we recently enjoyed. Written by Neil Fairbairn, A Brief History of Gardening offers fascinating highlights and tidbits from as far back as 40,000 BCE. Each of its ten short chapters opens with a timeline to tempt you followed by a half-page or so about each item, from “Sowing the First Seeds” through “Lawns Before Lawn Mowers” to “Earth Gets a Day” and beyond. Many period illustrations add to the book’s appeal. As Michael Pollan writes on the back cover, “Popcorn for the horticulturally inclined mind, this attractively illustrated time line of garden history manages to be both irresistible and nourishing.” (Feb. 2005)

        Emily Dickinson wasn’t just a richly original poet, she was also an enthusiastic gardener who, like many of us, found transcendent meaning in her flowers. A third of her poems and half of her surviving letters refer to flowers, with hyacinths and lilies being two of her favorites. The first book devoted to her intertwining passions is Judith Farr’s new The Gardens of Emily Dickinson. Though marred somewhat by Farr’s limited garden knowledge (she says, for example, that Emily grew ‘Casa Blanca’ lilies, which weren’t introduced till 1987), it offers a fascinating new look at a woman who ought to take her place alongside Jefferson as one of the patron saints of American gardening. (Nov. 2004)
        [See also Emily Dickinson’s Gardens by Marta McDowell.]

Bulbs for Warm Climates

        Thad Howard of Texas has spent 45 years collecting and growing bulbs that like it HOT. His encyclopedic Bulbs for Warm Climates is a terrific, scholarly companion for one of our all-time best-sellers, Scott Ogden’s Garden Bulbs for the South. Read them both before it’s hot again! (Jan. 2004)

Lilies: A Guide for Growers and Collectors

        For expert advice on lilies, you won’t find anyone who knows more than our good friend, Eddie McRae. After a lifetime working with lilies commercially in the Pacific Northwest, he now helps direct the Species Lilies Preservation Group. His guide offers chapters on growing, propagating, and hybridizing, along with complete information on 93 species – many long in gardens – and the development of modern hybrids. Far from an introductory handbook for casual home gardeners, this is a book that’s dense with specialized information for, as the title says, growers and collectors. (Jan. 2004)

My Summer in a Garden

        I’ve been collecting antique garden books for 20 years, and we use them constantly to research the history of the bulbs we sell. One of my favorites is this humorous Victorian classic that’s recently been reprinted as an inexpensive paperback.
        First published in 1871, My Summer in a Garden is a collection of essays that read like chats over a timeless backyard fence. Its author, Charles Dudley Warner, was editor of the Hartford Courant and a close friend of Mark Twain – and almost as irreverent, funny, and wise. “The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions,” it starts. “Mudpies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure.”
        One caution: Warner was a man of his time, so expect some decidedly non-pc comments. If you can take those with a grain of historic salt, you’ll find a big-hearted gardener, enduring truths, and a lot of laughs. (June 2003)

The Gardener’s Guide to Growing Cannas

        New in 2002, this is the first book devoted to cannas in almost a century, a testament to their resurging popularity. Written by our friend Ian Cooke, who visited us on his research tour for the book, it includes chapters on canna history, botany, cultivation, and on weaving cannas into the garden. Best of all is a comprehensive A-to-Z of cannas, including scores of both subtle and flamboyant garden forms – many historic – as well as the diverse species. With 92 gorgeous color photographs, it’s a fascinating book for connoisseurs and newcomers alike. (Feb. 2002)

The English Florists’ Tulip

        The feathered and flamed tulips of Renaissance paintings live today in the gardens and shows of the Wakefield and North of English Tulip Society, founded in 1836. In this 44-page booklet, the Society offers lots of hard-to-find information about these gorgeous living relics, from their history to show standards to growing them yourself. It’s a rare tulip lovers dream book! (1999-2000 catalog)
        [In 2002 the Society published an updated edition of this booklet under the name English Florists’ Tulips: Into the 21st Century.]

New Edition of Ortho’s All About Bulbs

        Recently revised by our friend and customer Marty Ross, this clear, colorful, inexpensive book is a handy reference for both beginners and experts. It covers 175 bulbs, with uses, care, hardiness, light, soil, and color photos for each. Best of all: a sidebar on “Old-fashioned Daffodils!” (1999-2000 catalog)

The Tulip: The Story of a Flower That Has Made Men Mad

        What a combination: sumptuous illustrations, serious history that’s actually fun to read, and a surprisingly low price. From the tulip’s early glory in the Ottoman Empire through its many incarnations in the West, Pavord tells its fascinating story with flair. With 120 full-page, antique, color illustrations, and an encyclopedia of 80 wild species and hundreds of cultivars, The Tulip is a book for every tulip lover! (1999-2000 catalog)
        [The Tulip is now available in a paperback edition which may be different than the original hardback edition which we describe here.]

Dear Mr. Jefferson: Letters from a Nantucket Gardener

        I love this book, and not just because we’re in it! It’s a collection of musing garden essays cast as letters to Jefferson, that soul-mate of all American gardeners. Though they focus on author Laura Simon’s ample kitchen garden, these lively, wide-ranging letters are really about the deep pleasures – and meaning – of all gardening. They’re full of American garden history, too, including our bulbs. Laura has been a “friend and partner” of OHG since our earliest days. (1998-99 catalog)

Naturalizing Bulbs

        Bulbs that take care of themselves, that increase and bloom more profusely year after year – that’s a dream Rob Proctor can help make a reality throughout your yard. Rob is a garden super-star who has created bulb-rich gardens at his Victorian home in Denver. In this funny, inspiring, no-nonsense book, he emphasizes choosing the right bulbs for the right spot. The photos are gorgeous and there’s a chart of 400 species keyed to sun, soil, and water needs throughout nine US climate regions. (1998-99 catalog)

Adventures with Hardy Bulbs

        Often called “America’s Gertrude Jekyll,” Louise Beebe Wilder was a curious, observant gardener who had a wonderful way with words. In this almost chatty 1936 classic that’s recently been republished, she details her adventures in her large New York garden with over 300 species of bulbs – especially small, wild, and unusual ones, including many American natives. For most, she offers history, tips for planting and care, numerous varieties, and companion plants. (1998-99 catalog)

My Garden in Spring

        E.A. Bowles was one of the greatest plantsmen – and bulb-lovers – England has ever known. (You may have noticed that we often quote him in our catalogs.) This charming book, first published in 1914, is just as erudite as his monographs on daffodils, crocus, and colchicums, but more wide-ranging and warmly personal. It’s almost like you’re chatting over a spot of tea. Entire chapters are devoted to snowdrops, crocus, daffodils, anemones, tulips, and iris, and there’s much more on perennials, shrubs, and so on. It’s fun, informative, and inspiring! (1997 catalog)

Alexander H. Ladd’s Garden Book, 1888-1895

        Alexander Ladd of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, loved tulips and planted them by the thousands. In this fascinating garden diary Ladd recorded with affection the mundane details of seven years in his Victorian garden which survives today under the care of the Moffat-Ladd House and Garden Museum. Many of his entries deal with tulips – including our ‘Duc van Tols’ and ‘Prince of Austria’ – which he dug and stored for the summer in baskets in his basement. Supplementary essays and a complete plant list add to the value of this rare document published by the Moffatt-Ladd Museum. (1997 catalog)

Bulbs for Indoors by the BBG

        This inexpensive guide is the latest in the acclaimed new series of handbooks from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Authors Robert Hays and Janet Marinelli devote close to half the book to forcing hardy bulbs, with specifics on eighteen genera such as tulips and fritillaries. A bit more covers 37 tender bulbs such as crinums and Zephyranthes. A bibliography and source list complete this fine, clear introduction. (1997 catalog)

Manual of Bulbs, Essential Reference from the RHS

        This fascinating reference work is based on the New RHS Dictionary of Gardening which has supplanted Hortus Third as the ultimate botanical authority on ornamental plants. Thousands of species are described in scientific terms (the glossary is a big help if you don’t have a botany degree), quite a few are pictured in line drawings (26 wild species along with 12 garden divisions of tulips, for example), and for most genera there are notes on planting and care as well as suggested readings. Edited by John Bryan and Mark Griffiths, it’s an essential work for the serious bulbophile. (1996 catalog)

The Southern Heirloom Garden by Bill Welch and Greg Grant

        I wish we had a book like this for every region in the country. Lively, serious, and beautifully illustrated, it starts with eight chapters, each by a different expert, on how various cultures – Native American, Spanish, French, African-American, and so on — have shaped Southern gardens. The second half is an encyclopedia of Southern heirloom plants, including many bulbs. It’s rich with historical facts, growing advice, and Bill and Greg’s entertaining reminiscences. (1996 catalog)

The Indoor Potted Bulb

        Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about forcing bulbs in a book that’s artful, wide-ranging (Rob has forced some surprising bulbs), and practical. Beginners in need of the basics and old hands looking for something new will both find it instructive and inspiring. And Rob loves antiques! (1996 catalog)

Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris by John Parkinson

        Often called one of the great herbals, this landmark work from 1629 is actually the first illustrated book in English devoted mainly to ornamental plants. Nearly 1000 are described – including the “Great Nonesuch Daffodil” and the “Lesser Purple Flame-Coloured Crocus” – and there are over 800 quaint but accurate woodblock illustrations. Republished by Dover Press under the title A Garden of Pleasant Flowers, it’s a feast for old-flower lovers! (1995 catalog)

Classic Bulbs: Hidden Treasures for the Modern Garden

        We’re proud to count Katherine Whiteside as a customer, and happy to recommend her beautiful book on antique bulbs. It showcases 26 genera, from Acidanthera to Zantedeschia. For each, she presents history and lore, entertaining anecdotes, and practical advice. Her imaginative displays of forced bulbs are especially inspiring! (1995 catalog)

Sourcebook of Cultivar Names by Art Tucker and Scott Kunst

        It’s hard to discover when a plant was introduced or first grown in gardens. Books, nurseries, and the plants themselves rarely tell you. So Art Tucker of Delaware State University and I set out to track down “check lists” and other references that included this information. We found some 900 for over 300 genera, and all are cited in this special issue of Arnoldia, the journal of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, now available to read or download online, for free. Essentially a 64-page bibliography, it’s dry reading but a gold mine for anyone researching the history of plants. (1995 catalog)