Please help with finding a perennial book

[Molli526]

I need help finding a perennial book - I would like it to be organized by color. Please help! Thanks!

[testkitchen45]

It's so important that you use one with perennials well-suited for your area, if you're planning a garden. Where do you live?

[jphilg]

I think it'll be hard to find a perennial book by color, because most flowering perennials have been hybridized to be available in many colors. I have a huge shelf of gardening books, and the ones I reach for the most when planning/"designing" (as if!) are

Perennial Combinations by C. Colston Burrell, and
The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, by Traci DiSabato-Aust (which is mostly proper care of perennials, but is really useful in planning a garden with multi-season interest.

And while I was on Amazon looking up the authors (because I'm too lazy to go downstairs and look) I noticed a very well-reviewed book called Creating a Perennial Garden in the Midwest, by Severa and Stoga, which might be good for you. No personal experience; I just noted it.

The big thing with perennial gardens is that half the fun is experimenting and moving stuff in and out and around.....it takes YEARS for a perennial garden to fully mature (at least 5) so you learn a lot along the way. If you plan and plant and sit back, hoping for your dream garden, you'll probably be disappointed for the first couple of years. I know that I have to re-set my expectations every year. It takes a while to find the right plants for the right spot, even if you do all of your research and it SAYS that a given plant with do fabulously in your light, water and soil conditions.

Have fun! It's a great time of year to pour over books and get out the quadrille paper.

[Molli526]

It is for my mom - she has many perennial books and is quite experienced in gardening. She saw a book that was organized by color and didn't remember the title or author. I should have been more clear :o

[rosen]

Arghhhh! I know just what book your mother saw, but I can't remember the name of it! I even flipped thru it 'cause I often have clients that want drifts of only 1 or 2 color flowers. I skipped buying it 'cause I decided I had better books already. It wasn't cheap or on the sale table, either.

Maybe a trip to a bookstore is in order? Meanwhile, I'm thinking & searching......

[charley]

I agree with Testkitchen ... it depends on your area. I won Traci DiSabato-Aust's book in an iVillage contest years ago, but it was pretty worthless since I live in the deep south. I ended up giving it to someone who lives in the Midwest.

[Molli526]

Is it this book by chance?

The Mix & Match Color Guide to Annuals and Perrenials (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0737006293/ref=wl_it_dp/002-6695584-3066437?ie=UTF8&coliid=IZDJBB0LHWL9T&colid=19RHVSBVAMAG3)

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/0737006293.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I am also going to stop in Barnes tomorrow

[ewatkins]

You want Taylor's Guides published by Houghton Mifflin.. They have one on Bulbs, one on Perennials, etc. It's the greatest-- organized by color, shows height, has a chart of seasons of when flowers are in bloom. It is indispensable in planning a garden. It is easy to check the zones before you fall too much in love. And it is a handy size to carry around.

[gardenmom]

I second Taylor's Guides recommendation, but that might not be the new book your mom was hoping for, they've been around forever, and she probably has them, but these are the ones I sometimes use when I'm stuck for a color combo perennial idea.

I just got a great new pruning and training book by the American Horticultural Society at Barnes and Noble, so if you can't figure out the color book, how about another type? (I own a jillion books, this one was the one I gave myself and my mom this Christmas.)

Good Luck. (gift receipt your guess, you can't go wrong!)

[barbara-cook]

I missed this thread earlier - perhaps you've found your book. I was going to suggest: "The Gardener's Palette" by Sydney Eddison. She suggests using a color wheel. Good book.

[rosen]

Molli: that is one of the books I saw & it would be a good one... but it's not the one I was thinking of. Sorry I didn't get back to you! I've been cruising around on Amazon & nothing looks familiar to what I saw. I can see the dang thing in my head... pages w/ photos of beds w/ nothing but yellow flowers, or nothing but purple flowers. I went "cool!" then really looked at it & decided that I never would recco that a garden client of mine do that (although if they really wanted that I would do it). Too many of the plantings wouldn't do well in our humid/drought/flooded zone 7. So I passed on it & obviously forgot it!

So. What did you get her?? Us gardeners need our pre-Spring vicarious new garden book fix!

[Molli526]

Sorry for not coming back to this thread.

I found the exact book she was looking for at B&N - it is a spiral bound book, called something like Gardening by Color. It is organized by color and height and the pages are split into 3 sections. Really cool.