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A visually beautiful guide to working with perrenials and helping them flourish, by one of today's best gardening writers.
Perennials are the basis of virtually every garden. The shelves are loaded with books that give readers the same list of plants. That "encyclopedia" is missing from this book -- who needs another one? Instead Bill Cullina has offered what he describes as the psychology of perennials -- their needs, wants, and potentials. Starting at the roots, moving up through the stems, the leaves, and finally the flowers, Cullina has written a groundbreaking book that will stand as the definitive word on the horticulture of the most important plants in everyone's garden. "A book that provides both new and seasoned gardeners the strong foundation for a lasting relationship with these plants."
As Michael Pollan said of another Cullina book, "This is one of those exceedingly rare reference books that you'll consult simply for the pleasure of its prose."
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For gardeners, for landscape professionals, and for anyone who cares about preserving the natural world, NATIVE TREES, SHRIBS, AND VINES is the first national guide to using, growing, and propagating North American woody plants.
Written in lively, informative language and illustrated with more than two hundred photographs, William Cullina's book is a comprehensive reference to almost one thousand native woody plants. An invaluable guide for naturalists, restorationists, nursery owners, landscape architects, and designers as well as gardeners, it points out that ecological gardening offers specific benefits to the individual as well as the environment. Even more than wildflowers, native trees, shrubs, and vines are essential to providing the food and shelter that attract birds and insects to the garden. And plants that are native to an area are far easier to grow and maintain than ordinary cultivated garden plants.
The author's acclaimed companion volume on wildflowers, GROWING AND PROPAGATING WILDFLOWERS, was called "an inspired effort, beautifully written and loaded with useful information" by Robert G. Breunig, director of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Along with that volume, NATIVE TREES, SHRUBS, AND VINES provides a definitive reference to the native plants of the temperate North American continent. And because Cullina writes from personal experience with the plants in his books, he offers information that is considerably more helpful (and more interesting) than the facts one finds in most plant references....
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This most complete and authoritative guide to North American wildflowers offers clear and detailed information on growing and propagating 200 genera and 1,000 species of these precious plants. No matter what your level of interest -- whether it is to introduce a few plants into your garden or to learn how to propagate them for yourself or for sales, this book will inspire as well as inform you.
With Cullina's guidance, you'll learn in which parts of the continent the plants are found in the wild, and -- even more helpful -- where and how to succeed with them in your own garden wherever you live.
As open land disappears, so too do many of the native plants that once flourished on this continent. Gardeners may be their last resort. It is the author's philosophy that a garden is not just an extension of our houses but a habitat we share with plants and the animals that depend on them for food and shelter. He writes:
"There is value in preserving wilderness, but there is equal value in restoring the suburbs and cities where most of us live to something closer to balance -- for our children's sake and the sake of all the other species around us. Growing wildflowers is not only fun and easy, it fosters a genuine connection with the region you live in."
William Cullina is the nursery manager and propagator for the New England Wild Flower Society, the oldest and one of the most widely known plant conservation organizations in North America. In 2000, the Society celebrated its 100th birthday. In spite of its regional name, their commitment is to the study and protection of all temperate North American native flowers. The Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, Massachusetts, is the popular showcase for the NEWFS. It features naturalistic displays of native plants organized by habitat and includes woodland, bog, meadow, pine barren, western/alpine, and pond side plantings....
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With this new book, William Cullina completes his three-book series on native plants. Like Wildflowers and Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines, Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses combines encyclopedic information about North American species with specific instructions on how to grow and propagate them, all written in a fresh and entertaining style.
Cullina compares a garden made up of nothing but bright flowers to the detergent shelves in a supermarket, where every package screams for attention. What makes a true garden out of a collection of flowering plants are the ferns, moss, and grasses that are the verdant canvas on which nature paints its portraits -- dark green, medium green, forest green, light green, lime green, yellow-green, blue-green, gray-green, chartreuse, emerald, teal, puce, and every shade of green in between. These plants, Cullina says, bring to the garden a level of refinement and sophistication unmatched by any flower.
On the practical side, Native Ferns, Moss and Grasses contains a thorough discussion, with several maps, of what plant hardiness means in the light of global warming. For each species, he also gives the natural range, type of soil, and habitat in which the plant thrives. In the back he provides complete information on where to buy these plants and list of the best species for various uses.
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