| | |  | How-to & Home Improvements | Home » » » » The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques | | | | | | | Description: | | With more than 130,000 copies sold since its original publication, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden has proven itself to be one of the most useful tools a gardener can have. Now, in this expanded edition, there's even more to learn from and enjoy. This is the first, and still the most thorough, book to detail essential practices of perennial care such as deadheading, pinching, cutting back, thinning, disbudding, and deadleafing, all of which are thoroughly explained and illustrated. More than 200 new color photographs have been added to this revised edition, showing perennials in various border situations and providing images for each of the entries in the A-to-Z encyclopedia of important perennial species. In addition, there is a new 32-page journal section, in which you can enter details, notes, and observations about the requirements and performance of perennials in your own garden. Thousands of readers have commented that The Well-Tended Perennial Garden is one of the most useful and frequently consulted books in their gardening libraries. This new, expanded edition promises to be an even more effective ally in your quest to create a beautiful, healthy, well-maintained perennial garden. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Tracy DiSabato-Aust | | Hardcover:
| 384 pages | | Publisher:
| Timber Press | | Publication Date:
| July 24, 2006 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0881928038 | | Package Length:
| 10.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.5 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 58 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 58 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 61 found the following review helpful:
Excellent on techniques for Perennials. Buy It.Feb 16, 2007
By B. Marold
"Bruce W. Marold"
I am exceptionally pleased that 'The Well-Tended Perennial Garden' has gotten as many favorable reviews as it has, since I suspect it's charms and offerings are just a bit more subtle than your average glossy oversized gardening book. It is essential that you pay attention to the subtitle, as this is a book specializing in teaching us about setting up and planting perennials, and less about choosing or matching or even weeding perennials (the author does not like to weed!). If you flip through the book, you may be put off by the lack of illustrations accompanying the text. While I'm not a big fan of pictures in cookbooks, unless it's discussing a specific technique, I sort of miss them in gardening books. This volume is economically done, with all the glossies in a central rotogravure section. This is ok, because the real meat is in the lessons on planting and pruning. The only place I really miss them is in the encyclopedia of perennials, which is less a true comprehensive encyclopedia than a dictionary of pruning techniques by species. The final two appendices on plant maintanence schedules and lists of plants by care technique may be worth the price of the book for serious gardiners. This is easily the most useful book I've read on perennials.
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
The Gardening Book I Recomend to Everyone !!!!!!!!!Nov 05, 2006
By D. Foster
"gardendollee"
I love this book! I have both editions. What I like most about it is that new gardeners can learn some crutial skills right out the chute and experienced gardeners will learn new ways to care for their perennials.That is whay I recomend it to everyone when I give gardening lectures. Tracy has truly improved on this title with the release of the expanded version. I love the lists in the back of the book and the alphabetical encyclopedia. The fact that a lot of the info in her book is based on her experience in her own gardens and clients' gardens is important to me. Truly a book to add to your gardening library.
29 of 31 found the following review helpful:
An excellent referenceNov 05, 2006
By Janice F. Recchio
"gardener gram"
This book came highly recommended to me by garden friends. I've been gardening for some time but have just really gotten into perennial gardening. The answers to my questions are right here. What, when and how to 'deadhead', plant, move and prune. Plus some excellent techniques that I have yet to try, but I know work well for other experienced gardeners.
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Extensive list of plantsAug 13, 2007
By L. Wellner
This book has taught me many things I did not know about cutting back perennials, methods for avoiding staking, and producing healthy foliage throughout the season. The book is organized with general information followed by an alphabetical list of hundreds of plants. They are listed by their Latin name but are cross-referenced with their common name in the index. Each description includes the zone, common name, family, description, size, exposure, and flowering period. The description is especially useful if searching for a specific cultivar, especially because the author recommends different pruning techniques for various cultivars. She also indicates good plants for "beginner" gardeners as well as what she terms "high maintenance plants" and indicates methods for creating a successful garden before anything is even planted. At the end of the book she offers a valuable schedule for the growing season. This book is different from most pruning books in that it only discusses plants, no trees or shrubs. The photographs are not of glorious gardens to make one drool, they are more illustrative of pruning techniques. A wonderful book, my garden is already the better for it.
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Perennial Favorite about PerennialsJul 24, 2008
By Mary C. Gignilliat
"McGigs"
I work as a perennial salesperson in a large, family-owned garden center in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. Any time a customer asks for a book on perennials or gardening in general, I always recommend this one.
It provides a wealth of general gardening information on soil preparation, watering, diseases, pruning techniques and more. The plant encyclopedia section is the most valuable part of the book. In it, Ms. Aust discusses the most widely available and popular perennials individually and in detail. For each plant, there is a picture next to which she lists the latin name, the common name, the light, water and soil requirements, the height, width and bloom-time. After those details are presented, she discusses when to prune, cut back, dead-head, divide and fertilize that plant. She has gathered this information over a lifetime of gardening experience.
The appendix of the book contains many valuable lists of plants under headings such as "Plants to Pinch for Height Control" or "Clay Busters". I can't imagine selling perennials to others or tending to my own garden without this bible.
One complaint that customers have mentioned to me about this book (after I have recommended it)is that Ms. Aust uses the Latin nomenclature for everything. This was intimidating to me at first, too. I had to learn the Latin for my job as a perennial salesperson so I was forced to "embrace" it. I am glad that I did because it makes reading a book like this easier. My advice to anyone interested in gardening: learn the Latin! It's intellectually challenging and fun. It will open up a wide world of plants to you. Carpe diem!
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