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This 'n That
Many of the design books on the market today come to us out of Britain even though they have been published in N.A. Much of the timing is off, and some of the plants are ones we can't grow in our climate.
Ideally, we could have it all - a beautiful book, by a top designer, at an affordable price, for our sized garden, that only includes plants hardy in our zone. Unfortunately, economics dictate that publishers just can't produce such a book.
While we tend to think gardening books from Britain are useless, I feel a good garden design book can come from anywhere a good gardener happens to live. Design ideas are adaptable with the help of a good plant reference book, and many of the hardscape elements are not climate specific to begin with. Just like in a good interior design book, we can pick and choose the elements and ideas we can use, and dream about the ones we can't. After all, even our best Canadian books include gardens in B.C. and Niagara that we, up in zone 4/5 Ontario can only enjoy in our mind or on the book page.
I see no reason to exclude books by some of the world's most accomplished gardeners and designers simply because they have a climate advantage! I'd like to think that we all appreciate a larger view of plants, gardening, and good design as it is practiced by experienced gardeners everywhere.
Listed and recommended here are good books from all over the world, with its being a good book as a first criteria for inclusion.
Evelyn
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In Brief -
BOLD AND EXOTIC PLANTS: Using form and shape to create visual impact in the garden, by Noel Kingsbury  111pgs / 7 x 12 / full colour photos thruout / $19.95hc
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This is the time of year when all planting plans prepared carefully during the past winter get thrown out the car window on the rush to the garden center where all of the new "must have" perennials have arrived. Oh well - we'll happily revise the plan to fit in the dozen new plants we're sure to come home with. But, next year we will definitely, for sure, absolutely, stick to the prepared plant list! (Yeah, right!)
Evelyn
Books are in alpha by author order.
| ... | | YEAR ROUND GARDEN by Adrian Bloom. Beautiful photographs with practical advice on creating stunning combinations that work year round. Divided into two main sections "The Quiet Season" - autumn -winter-early spring, and "The Busy Season" - late spring-midsummer -late summer, the book provides a highly educational tour through his garden, Foggy Bottom, through the entire year, and over the 20+ years of its development. Bloom has an exceptional skill for creating all-season
interest in his many island and border beds, using perennials, grasses, conifers, trees and shrubs in sharp ordered contrast, resulting in an intricate, textured look. The book focuses on these beds, but he also shows us his alpine scree, his unusual conifer collection, and gardens he has designed for others. Sample plans to copy and ideas for both large and small gardens throughout. 287pgs / 9 1/2 x 10 3/4 / $59.95hc
~ | PERENNIAL COMBINATIONS: Stunning Combinations That Make Your Garden Look Fantastic. by C. Colston Burrell. Rodale Press and author Burrell do it again with a book that is both beautiful and crammed full of ideas. Full colour photos; themed planting plans; suggestions for difficult sites; lots of ideas for individual creative combinations. This is a perfect book for the experienced perennial gardener looking to expand their design skills, and makes a good gift for any perennial gardener. 352pgs / 8 x 9 1/2 / colour photos throughout / $46.95hc
~ |  CONSIDER THE LEAF by Judy Glatstein. An excellent book that teaches the principles of designing with foliage from groundcovers to the colours of autumn. Glatstein is a garden designer and author of many books and magazine articles. While this book has really excellent quality photography, the real value is that it is a teaching book, not simply inspirational photos. Colour theory, structure, texture, plant form, etc. is discussed and design concepts taught. 227pgs / 6 1/4 x 9 1/4 / 80pgs colour photos /$34.95hc.
~ |  SHOCKING BEAUTY by Thomas Hobbs is a stunning book that attempts to shake up gardeners' sense of planting design. Breathtaking photographs show examples of Hobb's innovative style which makes bold and dramatic use of textural and architectural plants. His plantings are rich with colour and texture and offer many grand ideas that can be scaled to your own space and climate. 160pgs / 10 x 10 / colour photos throughout / $34.95pb
~ | COLOUR IN YOUR GARDEN by Penelope Hobhouse. A thorough lesson on the principles of colour in the garden covering how to achieve either subtle harmonies based on shades and hues of the same colour, or using the colour wheel to determine contrasts and colour moods. The bulk of the book is a catalogue of more than 1,000 plants grouped by colour and by season of bloom making it an invaluable tool when designing a planting. One of the top books by an internationally renowned gardener and garden designer. 240pgs / 9 3/4 x 11 1/2 / full colour photos throughout / $49.95pb
~ | FOLIAGE: Dramatic and Subtle Leaves for the Garden. by David Joyce. Terrific photos and thorough referencing and organizing of plants by their leaf texture and foliage colour. An unique and valuable tool to help designers create inspired and dramatic plant combinations. Spikes, feathers, straps, spoons, metalic sheen, cool variegation, glitter and sheen, tough and leathery, notched and lobed, toothed and prickly, rosettes, carpets, tufts and clumps ... the author has finely broken down the design characteristics of foliage plants and inspires pairings A beautiful AND useful book. 160pgs
/ 8 3/4 x 11 / full colour photos throughout / $34.95hc
~ | ART OF PERENNIAL GARDENING: Creative Ways with Hardy Flowers, by Patrick Lima. Suggestions and inspiration on 100's of options for plantings. The author's experience in his Ontario garden Larkwhistle, is evident on every page as he moves through the seasons showing us favourite combinations. A good design book for beginners for both the photos and informative, lively writing. Lima speaks as a gardener who has learned through trial and error, and is quick to let you know that he was once a beginner too. 176pgs / 8 1/2 x 11 / colour photos throughout / $24.95pb
~ | | DESIGNING WITH PLANTS by Piet Oudolf with Noel Kingsbury. This book showcases this well known Dutch designer's trademark style of using sculptural plants in a natural style. At the heart of his designs is the opinion that plants have something to offer in all phases of their life, from fresh spring foliage to the ghostly profile of seed heads in winter, and that only tough plants that know how to look after themselves with minimum fuss deserve a place in the garden. The form and stature of a plant plays as important a role in
his designs as does flower colour. The book design itself is noteworthy - the publisher has  created a home for these beautiful photos that is perfectly in tune with the mood of Oudolf's gardens. 160pgs / 9 3/4 x 11 / colour photos throughout / $49.95hc
Oudolf's other books include GARDENING WITH GRASSES with Michael King, one of the best books on how to use grasses in the the garden; and DREAM PLANTS with Henk Gerritson, which showcases and describes the plants Oudolf uses to achieve his trademark look. All Oudolf's books are the same format and price as DESIGNING...
~ |  PLANTING THE NATURAL GARDEN by Piet Oudolf and Henk Gerritsen. Following on the success of Designing with Plants, Piet Oudolf’s landmark first book, here is Oudolf at his finest, teaching and demonstrating his trademark style. It provides the definitive argument for the “natural garden” with hundreds of eye-catching plant combinations explained in detail, providing ideas for every garden. 144pgs / 9 3/4 x 11 / 170 color photos / $49.95hc. To be published November 2003.
~ | WELL-DESIGNED MIXED GARDEN: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, & Bulbs, by Tracy DiSabato-Aust. A complete lesson in planting design from site and soil evaluation to blending and contrasting colour, texture and plant form. Like her previous book WELL-TENDED PERENNIAL GARDEN, this is a real do-it book - one that gives you practical working tools to take action with, from plant spacing information and drawing a layout plan to a complete list of ornamental plants from all of the plant groups noting their main design selection characteristics. Very few
design books give practical guidance on designing with trees & shrubs as well as a rich palette of perennials - only one of the reasons this book is a stand-out. 460pgs / full colour photos & layout plans throughout / $54.95hc
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