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The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting and Pruning Techniques | 
 enlarge | Author: Tracy Disabato-aust
Publisher: Timber Press, Incorporated
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $23.07
You Save: $11.88 (34%)
New (6) Used (10) from $15.03
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 2826
Format: Illustrated
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.1
Dimensions (in): 10.5 x 7.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0881928038
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.932
EAN: 9780881928037
ASIN: 0881928038
Publication Date: July 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks
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Product 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
Perennial Favorite about Perennials July 24, 2008
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!
My new gardening bible June 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As a fairly new gardener I discovered this book at the library last year and it is wonderful. It really gets into how and when to pinch and prune (and what these terms mean) plants which I now realize is such an important part of how your flowers will look when they bloom...The author mostly talks about tried and true perennials, but we see them in a whole new light, you can control the height of your plants and even the bloom time. Excellent drawings and color illustrations are very helpful. I really enjoyed the "before and after" photos of gardens that the author has designed.
 Easy read but not as informative as I would like June 20, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is written in a very casual way that I find very easy to read. The author, from reading the book, probably has very extensive experience and knowledge with gardening and plants. However, I think the author tries to stress her key points too much by repeating what she thinks is important and thus, the book suffers from not providing the information I would like. I think I'll be more happy with a plant encyclopedia.
great resource to have in your library June 18, 2008
i ordered this book after we moved to a new home and were faced with the monstrous task of identifying (and subsequently managing) the numerous perennials in unkempt beds around the property. this book is filled with useful information about pruning, thinning and transplanting, and has a wonderful picture index at the back. this book does not really cover garden design, so you may want to purchase a different book exclusively dedicated to that subject. nonetheless, it is well written, organized and a great reference book to have.
A Great Perennial Gardening Book May 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was looking for a book to give me some practical insight into setting up and managing a perennial garden and I think I found the book. Seven chapters are devoted to designing, bed preparation, planting, pests, diseases, staking and division issues. I wish I had this book before starting my garden; the bed preparation chapter would have saved me a lot of effort in planting. Five more chapters are devoted to pruning, deadheading, cutting back, pinching, thinning, dead-leafing, and winter/spring preparation. The book contains many pictures and diagrams to accompany the instruction provided.
I found the encyclopedia section to be very helpful in giving specifics for individual plants, and it contained pictures of the plants discussed. The listing of plants is in alphabetical order by genus/species with the common name listed beneath. This is good; however, for someone accustomed to using common names, it would have been helpful to have an appendix with a cross reference to common names. I generally don't memorize genus or species names for most plants.
The book also contains three helpful appendixes on grasses, maintenance and pruning requirements. I found the glossary helpful to me (not being a plant expert) when it was necessary to look up terminology used in the text.
Overall, I found this book to be very helpful on the subject of perennial gardening.
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