What Grows When in Canadian Gardens: 1,000 Plants Recommended for Seasonal Interest and Variety

Pleasance Crawford is the co-author of The Canadian Landscape and Garden
History Directory and Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian Garden
Writing.

These books first appeared in 2002 and 2001, respectively. Although
respected Canadian horticulturist and garden writer Trevor Cole served
as editor-in-chief for these new Canadian editions, it’s unlikely that
he was involved in the overall design. What Grows When presents colour
photographs and brief descriptions of 1,000 plants (two per page),
organized by times of year and then, within those categories, by colour
of flower and/or foliage. What Grows Where is similarly ambitious, but
its categories have to do with soil, site, and garden types. Both books
include perennial plants of every description: woody and herbaceous,
deciduous and evergreen, flowering and non-flowering, bulbous and
otherwise. Small symbols indicate the habits and cultural requirements
of each entry. Many plants appear in both books.

Like all plant reference books directed at a country the size of
Canada, these volumes contain a lot of entries that gardeners in certain
zones and regions simply can’t grow. If the text flowed beautifully,
one might enjoy reading it anyway; but that is unfortunately not the
case here. Nor could one do much else with these odd-shaped tomes. They
are heavy and thick, each weighing nearly 600 grams and measuring 110 by
140 by nearly 40 millimetres. Most gardeners (even if wearing cargo
pants) would dispute the publisher’s claim that either book is
“handy ... the perfect pocket-sized guide for trips to the garden
center, the nursery and the backyard.” Librarians might question the
use of a hard-to-shelve format that is usually reserved for gift and
inspirational books.