The Complete Guide to Perennials for Amateurs and Experts

Esther Fisher is a professor of English at the University of Toronto and
a former food critic for The Globe & Mail.

Gardners, especially Canadian novices, will welcome this reference guide
to planting and caring for perennials. Although it is part of the
Pacific Gardening series, and devotes a chapter to the Pacific coastal
region (which includes hardiness maps of the area), the book is not
intended exclusively for the West Coast. Jones deals with perennial
plants suitable for various hardiness zones throughout the country. And
some of the information about the western coastal climate also applies
elsewhere—for example, the need to consider factors other than general
temperature (where in the garden the snow melts first and last; the
amount of rainfall; the particular month of a severe frost, and so on).

The bulk of the book is an encyclopedia of perennials, listing popular
and old and new botanical names; descriptions of the plant; spread,
light, and soil requirements; care and propagation instructions; pests
and diseases to which the plant is susceptible; and the plant’s frost
hardiness. Brief chapters deal more generally with, among other things,
the origin and evolution of perennials, suggestions for both perennial
and mixed borders, for popular color combinations and for plants that
will bloom at various seasons; light, soil, fertilizers; planting and
caring for perennials; propagation; pests and diseases.

A “Quick Reference Chart” at the end of the book provides
essentials about the plants catalogues in the encyclopedia section.
There’s an extensive bibliography of books, journals, gardening
societies, and seed catalogue and mail order houses; and several pages
of small color photographs of popular perennials.

The Complete Guide to Perennials for Amateurs and Experts is a book to
be used both for quick reference and for concentrated study to become
acquainted with a wide variety of plants. In addition to its usefulness,
it offers readers the satisfaction of knowing that the author will
donate part of her royalties to the World Wildlife Fund.