Product Description

Every gardener wants to create breathtaking designs with color, form, and texture. But perennial combinations present challenges: How do I know all plants will bloom at the same time? How do I pick plants that have interest in each season? Most perplexing -- which plants look good together in the first place?

Perennial Companions takes away the guesswork by providing Tom Fischer's 100 proven picks. New gardeners will learn how to create simple pairings with two plants and gardeners with a bit more experience -- or beginners looking for a challenge -- will find complex arrangements with four or more plants. Arranged chronologically by season, spanning the earliest spring to the onset of winter, each entry identifies all the main plants by both common and botanical names, specifies the care and conditions each requires, and indicates when the combination reaches its peak of beauty.

Love flowers? You'll find both quiet compositions and bold blends. Prefer the texture of leaves? You'll find ferns and soft sweeping grasses. Better yet? Combine both for sophisticated tapestries that beguile and dazzle the eye.Whether you want to create a small-scale sanctuary, a welcoming path, or a bewitching border, you'll find an abundance of inspiration in this perfect package.

---

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #293573 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780881929393
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"100 recipes for perennial plant combinations with succinct descriptions." (Library Journal )

"100 recipes for perennial plant combinations with succinct descriptions."

(Library Journal )

Review

“This little gem…takes a new approach to guiding gardeners toward success.”

(Muskogee Phoenix Daily Online )

“Other books have presented companion-plant suggestions, but Fischer’s seasonal approach is particularly handy—added insurance that a carefully composed arrangement of plants will actually bloom at the same time.”

(Hartford Courant )

“This book simplifies garden design by suggesting plants that not only complement one another in color, form and texture, but also bloom at the same time and have like requirements for sun and moisture.”

(Akron Beacon Journal )

“Fischer gives as much attention to texture as he does to color, and the results look doable as well as desirable.”

(Valerie Easton Seattle Times )

"Provides readers with a multitude of plant combination suggestions."

(Salem News )

"Combining plants … is not easy. [This book] can help."

(Cleveland Plain Dealer )

"Filled with helpful photographs of plant combinations."

(Garden Gate )

"A great little book for helping a gardener to create or enhance borders and beds."

(Chronicle Herald )

"Takes away the guesswork of gardening."

(Houston Lifestyles and Homes )

"Whether you want to create a small-scale sanctuary, a welcoming path, or a pretty border, you can find ideas in this handy guide." (Michigan Gardener )

"This book is much more than eye candy … [It] is compelling—one beautiful combination after another."

About the Author
Tom Fischer is editor-in-chief of Timber Press. Before moving to Portland, Oregon, in 2004, he was the editor of Horticulture magazine in Boston, Massachusetts. His experiences as a bi-coastal gardener and his inexhaustible curiosity about plants have both shaped his new garden, which in 2008 was profiled in the Oregonian. A prolific writer as well as an editor, his articles have been featured in magazines such as Garden Design, Gardens Illustrated, and Martha Stewart Living.

---

Customer Reviews

Photos of perennial plant associations.
Any one with a passion for perennials will be thrilled to find this small size book on 100 photos of plant associations. Every photo shows a combination of plants, and these are identified with their botanical and common names.
Easy to know which plants are at their best; as all photos are arranged in their season of perfection. Tom Fischer gives a commentary relating to the photo opposite. The photos are full page, superb, clear and the colours are true to the plants.
The small size of the book could be a small point against the publication, but would make a great gift to that special person interested in perennial border gardening and designing.
I find that Helianthella quinguenervis on page 178 appears to be the same as Helianthus 'Lemon Queen'. Difficult to tell them apart; if there is any difference!
Most photo locations are given in the front of the book, which I find extremely helpful. Lots of the photos are taken at Bressingham Gardens in Norfolk UK; which is great to see these famous borders so well photographed by the Bloom family and presented in book form.
Well worth owning.

Not delivered in condition promised
The book was very nice, and arrived on time. However, there was a large crease in the cover, as though it had been bent backwards while being inserted into the envelope (it was a new book). What was otherwise a nice Mother's Day gift was effectively turned into a second-hand afterthought.