Timber Press Pocket Guide to Shade Perennials

I am a shade gardener that has been looking for a good sources for shade gardening information and I have found in this pocket guide. It provides just the right amount of information to help you decide if this plant is good for your gardening situation. I particularly liked the use of colored pictures throughout of almost every plant referenced. I have been looking for color to at to my hostas and hydrangeas and the color pictures were great in provide the visuals I needed to see how the plants would fit in to my garden. I strongly recommend this guide to for beginner to serious gardener.

As a professional gardener, I've found Schmid's Shade Perennials the perfect quick reference and idea book for tiny city yards. As most residents of large cities and boroughs can tell you, lighting can be a real difficulty. It's much better to think in terms of contrasts and textures and Shade Perennials provides many choices for those wondering just how to rennovate their gloomy yard. My two complaints: I felt that the pictures were only so-so and there aren't picture examples of all the plants listed. In fact, there are only 2-3 small photos per page, yet generally about 5-6 listings for species. In that regard, it could be more comprehensive. I've found it slightly better than Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening, simply because it has more photos and when it comes to garden design, I'm reliant on visual stimulus. All-in-all, a useful guide and to help get you out of the hosta rut.

In Timber Press Pocket Guide To Shade Perennials, botanist, horticulturalist, landscape architect, and gardener W. George Schmid draws upon his immense expertise and experience to provide a thoroughly "user friendly", profusely illustrated guide to more than one thousand readily available shade perennials along with their individual growing conditions including definitions of shade intensities, basic information on cultivation, maintenance of shade perennials, dealing with their pests and diseases, as well invaluable lists of plants for specific landscape uses. The handy size of Timber Press Pocket Guide To Shade Perennials makes it the ideal take-along reference guide for non-specialist general readers wanting to "do it yourself" with respect to landscaping and gardening their properties, while at the same time, Timber Press Pocket Guide To Shade Perennials is an ideal reference for personal, academic, community, and professional library horticultural and gardening reference collections. If you want to have a shade garden that will maximize plant diversity and esthetics, then you need George Schmid's Timber Press Pocket Guide To Shade Perennials!