Holiday shoppers with gardener friends or family may want to remember their plant-loving relations with a new garden book for a holiday gift. As soon as Christmas holiday celebrations give way to wintertime doldrums, gardeners take up plant books and other horticultural reading material to supplement the seed catalogs they are anxiously awaiting. Here is a booklist to peruse through for inspiration when shopping for a gardener.
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Plant books written by horticultural professionals have a long shelf-life on the bookcases of gardeners. Horticulturalists write in-depth about plants, and gardens they can be grown in, the dedicated gardener will crave, never becoming bored. So consider choosing the author, then the book and the copyright year; these types of books are cherished by gardeners long after the first printing.
Bloom’s Best Perennials and Grasses: Expert Plant Choices and Dramatic Combinations for Year-round Gardens was written by Adrian Bloom and was published in April of 2010, by Timber Press. The English Bloom family is well-known in the plant world, even in the United States, going back to the Victory Garden show days.
Another book by a horticultural professional out this year was authored by Allan M. Armitage, called Armitage’s Vines and Climbers: A Gardener’s Guide to the Best Vertical Plants. Allan M. Armitage is from Georgia, but like Adrian Bloom travels at length to experience plant life. Taking advantage of vertical space in the garden, outside or indoors, is a popular and wise trend most plant lovers are exploring for their own gardens.
For the history and biography gardener types, consider a story about an individual who worked his whole life to bring plants to the public. Bobby J. Ward’s biography called Chlorophyll in His Veins is self-published and worth the read for gardeners who value the history of plants and public gardens.
Whether it is about specific plants or the overall gardens, plant musings by regional garden writers are helpful for gardeners growing plants with climate challenges. Garden books by northern or southern garden writers are wise choices for holiday gift giving.
Water-wise Plants for the Southwest was written by Nan Sterman, Mary Irish, Judith Phillips and Joe Lamp’l and published by well-known garden books publisher, Cool Springs Press. This read focuses on the southwestern United States and includes strategies for gardening as well as containing a plant index.
Proven Plants Southern Gardens by Erica Glasener, also by Cool Springs Press, is more appropriate for gardeners in the southeast. Mainly a plant book, it is filled with unusual garden ideas too.
Tomatoes Garlic Basil by Doug Oster is a fun and useful garden book choice for anyone that is at once, fresh food grower and cook. The foodie will be well satisfied with the number of recipes and photos included in the book. The gardener will find useful details for growing tomato plants, garlic cloves and fresh basil.
Fresh food growing is a popular way to garden these days and mixing that hobby with cooking food is a natural link. Garden books that are filled with kitchen garden planning ideas or growing vegetables are wise investments.
The National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Wildflowers of North America was published in April, 2010. A botanist author, David Brandenburg wrote this comprehensive field guide for wildflower and native plant enthusiasts. For the home gardener, it is an excellent research tool.
Regional field guides are appropriate for native plant gardeners to gleam accurate identifying plant characteristics. The field guide, as a resource tool, will be used over and over out in the field whether that is in the home garden or in a state forest park. Holiday shoppers should look for field guides that are made with sturdy book covering material and include plant identification keys and distribution maps.
Holiday shoppers can take advantage of shops selling gently-used reads to find a reduced-price garden book for their friends or family. Past garden booklist ideas are a reliable tool for finding horticultural reading material.
While at a reduce-price bookshop, another idea is to check out past issues of horticulture leaning magazines. These are excellent resources gardeners will take full advantage of, never minding the disrepair of the covers. However, for serious gardeners, avoid magazines focusing more on life-style than garden substance.
Especially for holiday shoppers that are not gardeners, finding a garden book that will be valued by a plant enthusiast can be a challenge, maybe even intimidating. Garden and plant musings abound but using these tips with a bit of out-of-the-box thinking will land a prized Christmas holiday gift that will be used for years to come.
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