New Perennials

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Perennials are in fashion. As a group, they’re receiving as much
attention today as they did in the Victorian era. But not all perennials
are equally popular. Even in the plant world there are fads and
fashions, trends and styles. This work is all about those fashions:
what’s in vogue in the modern garden.

There are fashions in individual species: hostas, heucheras, sea kale,
echinacea. Like ferns and pampas grass, all show up faithfully in nearly
every garden. You’ll find these “in crowd” plants described in a
substantial section of the book devoted to helping gardeners make the
right choices to be in style.

Then, moving beyond the individual plants, there are fashions in garden
types. For example, cottage gardens are the in thing today.
“Painting” with plants is another trend, with the garden laid out so
as to suggest washes of watercolors.

Colors, too, go in and out of vogue. Have the hot splashes of magenta
and orange given way to cool pastels, or has the all-white garden trend
reached your area?

Terrific color photos dominate this book, pulling the reader into the
text, where all the basic how-to information on planning and planting
perennial gardens is covered. Numerous sidebars provide intriguing
additional information, such as lists of plants by foliage shape,
perennials suitable for bog gardens and for gravel gardens, and a list
of plants to cut back mid-season.

Even if the theme of stylish gardens is merely amusing, the
comprehensive information and the great photography make this a book to
be welcomed by any gardener.