The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer

by Cohen, Stephanie; Ondra, Nancy J.

• ISBN13: 9781580175432
• ISBN10: 1580175430
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-15
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC

Summary

Every gardener loves perennials. Buy them and plant them, and most will flourish and even expand year after year. But in addition to reliability, perennials offer gardeners a wonderful opportunity to make a stunning visual statement in their home landscapes--if you know how to combine and arrange them. In The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer, Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra, two top garden writers and teachers, offer fun, organized, and--most important--attainable advice on how to create gorgeous gardens using these beloved plants. Cohen and Ondra walk the gardener step-by-step through the process of creating new gardens, as well as of bringing new life to gardens that have lost their luster. They explain how to pick perennials that suit the site by making the most of plant color, shape, size, and texture and how to create eye-catching plant combinations. Beautiful illustrations accompany the new garden plans, and stunning photographs capture how Cohen and Ondra have redesigned their own gardens. Throughout the book a lively dialogue between Cohen and Ondra encourages readers to experiment and to create their own satisfying designs. The authors also offer down-to-earth design solutions for 20 specific types of gardens, including everything from a minimum maintenance garden to a more complex container garden, from planting a formal border to indulging in the controlled chaos of a cottage garden. Whether you are breaking ground for a new garden, or revitalizing an existing bed, The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer can help every gardener achieve great results--year after year.

Author Biography

Stephanie Cohen, “The Perennial Diva,” has received awards from the Philadelphia Horticulture Society, was elected a fellow of the Garden Writer’s of America, and was named a Garden Communicator of the Year by American Nursery and Landscape Association. Cohen founded the aboredum at Temple University and served as the director for five years. She has written for Country Living Gardener, Blooms of Bressingham Perennial Program, American Beauties Program, The Pennsylvania Horticultural Magazine, Organic Gardening, Fine Gardening, and Green Profit. 

Nancy J. Ondra, author of Container Theme Gardens, is a garden writer and editor as well as the former owner and operator of a small rare-plant nursery. She is the author or co-author of a dozen gardening books, including Foliage (winner of the 2008 Book Award from the American Horticultural Society), The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer (winner of a 2006 Silver Award from the Garden Writers Association), Five-Plant Gardens, The Perennial Care Manual, Fallscaping, and Grasses. She currently gardens in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and blogs at www.hayefield.com.

Table of Contents

Part One: Perennial Design Demystified

1 Getting Started

2 Selecting Your Perennials

3 Exploring Perennial Partners

4 From Dream to Reality

5 It's All in the Details

 

Part Two: Putting Perennials to Work

6 Problem-Solving with Perennials

7 Creative Color Effects

8 A Year of Perennials

9 Gardens for Special Effects

 

Part Three: From Theory to Practice

10 Building a Border from Scratch

11 Expanding an Existing Garden

12 Reworking an Old Garden

 

Appendix: USDA Hardiness Zone Map, Planning Chart, Recommended Reading, Please Don't Eat the Delphiniums!, Acknowledgments, Photo and Garden Design Credits

 

Index