Garden Bulbs for the South

This is by far the absolute best book for those who garden in the steamy south! I have the first edition and snapped up the 2nd as soon as it came out. I definitely recommend this book. Scott Ogden blends history and horticultural requirements into something that is far more than just a good read!

Author Scott Ogden, a freelance garden writer and photographer, lives in New Braunfels, Texas, near San Antonio. That's considerably farther south than where I garden in Charlotte, NC, but nonetheless, I believe the book provides a helpful resource for "historic, neglected and little-known bulbs whose beauties belong rightly and traditionally to the South" (2). Ogden contends--and I am in full agreement--that for the "average home dirt dauber there are more rewarding activities" than planting, digging, refrigerating and re-planting bulbs. Says Ogden, "The effort and expense invested in temporary bulb displays might as readily be employed on something new, exotic, or extraordinary--even on flowers that like the South" (2). Ogden provides us with a list of more than 200 warm-climate bulbs. Now, that's worth a closer look! Following discourse on the traits and differences between true bulbs, tubers, corms, rhizomes and tuberous roots, Ogden organizes this resourceful book into nine sections, featuring: Rain Lily Day; Petite Afrique: Winter Blooms; Jonquils and Kin; Spring Treasures; Irises, Gladioli, and Shellflowers; Crinums and Spider Lilies; Summer Glories; and lastly, Cannas, Arums, and Gingers. Next, in the Appendix, Ogden distinguishes between Southern bulb culture, Mediterranean beds and hog wallows. The author knows and respects clay soil, a bane of Piedmont gardening. (See also his book, Gardening Success with Difficult Soils.) Finally, after providing a review of garden bulbs for the South where full botanical names are provided, as well as family designations and cultivars, Ogden closes the book with a resource list where bulbs may be ordered and purchased. Ogden's remarkable color pictures abound, providing grand illustrations to the printed text. The text is exceptionally and beautifully well-written, easy to read. Despite its appeal, not every word needs to be read in succession, making the book a valuable resource for a gardener's bookshelf when specific research is wanted and needed. Descriptions and advice abound, including how and where to plant, water and sun growing requirements, soil needs and amendments, and periods of bloom. Just as Ogden shares his recommendations for bulbs "for any need and any season," I can also recommend this inviting and handsome book. Deborah Moore Clark August 14, 2006

This is an excellent book for reference. I've come back to it time after time over the years.

My copy of Mr. Ogden's book is already dog-eared from use. Any gardener in the South who is interested in adding perennial bulbs to the garden must read this book. The information on every type of bulb, tuber or corm, including those of wild Southern heritage, is generous, well written and easy to understand. Garden Bulbs for the South is useful not only as a gardening reference but as a field classification manual when trying to identify that lily blooming at the old farmhouse down the road. After reading the chapter on rain lilies, I was finally able to determine what that tiny little lily growing wild in my front yard really is. Highly recommend.

From Sarah B. Duke Gardens' Flora newsletter: "Ogden is a plantsman familiar with all the bulbous (and cormous and tuberous) plants that can be grown out-of-doors in the South. He imparts his erudition lightly and with a flair uncommon in garden books today. This book is worth buying for its 30-page chapter on Crinum and Spider lilies alone, a subject never treated properly in the usual books on bulbs because these beauties can't be grown in the North... The author also discusses myriad species of Gladiolus, Hippeastrum, Iris, Lycoris, Trillium, and Zephyranthes, as well as numerous genera with only a single cultivated representative, such as Ipheion. In addition, there are nearly 200 colored photographs, most of them smaller than a playing card, that vary from fair to excellent." Very useful to a new gardener: in addition to telling me about bulbs I'd never heard of (and then immediately noticed in all the older gardens nearby), Ogden makes variety-specific recommendation about which daffodils (not King Alfred!), tulips (very few), muscari, etc., are going to thrive i.e. multiply rather than fade away. Some bulbs need colder winters than they will find in my part of Eastern NC. I've already saved the price of the book by not buying flowers that won't be happy in my yard!