Product Description

All gardeners have favorite plants, but they often get stumped when it comes to knowing which plants to put beside those favorites. Confidence in which combinations work can mean the difference between a mediocre garden and one that sings. The Encyclopedia of Planting Combinations is the perfect tool to help gardeners create a stunning garden.

This inspiring planting guide features:
- More than 4,000 combinations for beautiful and successful plantings
- Over 1,000 plant descriptions with full color photographs and cultivation needs
- Extensive information on suggested combinations and complementary plants, all fully cross-referenced
- At-a-glance symbols
- How to assess a site, choose plants and plant borders
- How to combine form, color, texture, size and foliage
- How to combine plants according to location, soil, climate and seasons

With authoritative and imaginative text, superb photographs and hundreds of planting combinations, The Encyclopedia of Planting Combinations is an exciting sourcebook for gardeners of all experience levels.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #602173 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 416 pages

From Library Journal
Lord (Designing with Roses) and Lawson (Great English Gardens) have produced a stunning book that is destined to become an essential reference on combining plants. A practical introduction to that art covers analyzing the site; choosing plants with form, texture, and color in mind; planting borders; and providing aftercare. More than 1000 individual species are organized into chapters by type: shrubs and small trees, climbers, roses, perennials, bulbs, and annuals. Each entry includes the plant's botanical name, common name, genus, species, and variety. Symbols are used to indicate light level, soil water content, soil conditions, hardiness zones, pH, flowering season, height and spread, and a list of planting partners. Beautiful color photographs show each plant in subtle harmony-or in bold contrast-with one or more plants. Each entry is cross-referenced to other entries illustrating other combinations with this plant. The hardiness zone maps cover North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. One caveat: although most plant combinations are adaptable to diverse U.S. climates, the range of plants is best suited to conditions similar to those of the United Kingdom. Still, books on combining plants are scarce, so this authoritative text is appropriate for horticultural libraries. The clear advice and vivid photographs render it equally suitable for public libraries in the appropriate regions. [Garden Book Club selection.]-Nancy Myers, Univ. of South Dakota Lib., Vermillio.
--Nancy Myers, Univ. of South Dakota Lib., Vermillion
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Perennials paired with trees, trees teamed with shrubs, shrubs surrounded by bulbs: good garden design exists when several elements coexist serendipitously. Achieving such harmony doesn't have to be hard work, according to Lord, who covers all bases with concise yet comprehensive commentaries on the design characteristics of more than 1,000 individual plants. Accompanied by Lawson's crisp photographs of more than 4,000 visually compelling garden combinations, Lord succinctly illustrates each plant's design capabilities, then thoughtfully suggests a roster of complementary plants to take the guesswork out of good design. If there is a better organized gardening book available, its existence is unknown. Indeed, Lord could set a new standard for the term user-friendly, for few guides could rival his treatise for the practicality of its structure or for the quality of its information. Each entry contains at-a-glance information on plant companions and cultural requirements, and helpfully lists photographic cross-references. For professionals and amateurs alike, this guide is a godsend. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
A book of rare quality, this tome ought to be in every serious gardener's library. -- Globe and Mail 11/23/2002

A stunning book that is destined to become an essential reference on combining plants ... Clear advice and vivid photographs. -- Nancy Meyers, Library Journal 10/15/2002

A wealth of creative ideas... enough innovative combinations to be of value to more experienced gardeners and landscape designers. -- Mark Miller, The American Gardener 09/2003

The most important lesson I took from this book is that form ... is paramount to creating perfect plant pairings. -- Christina Selby, Canadian Gardening 11/2002

Unique among gardening books available today with its practical recognition of what makes garden-scapes beautifully tranquil. -- William Johnson, E-Streams Vol. 6, No. 4

Very good reference book whether or not you are trying to find successful combinations ... a book of exceptional value. -- Paul Williams, Gardens Illustrated 06/2003

What a wonderful resource... truly encyclopedic. -- Kerry Moore, Vancouver Province 08/22/2003

[Andrew Lawson's] exceptional images alone make this plant encyclopedia a pleasure to own -- Steve Whysall, Vancouver Sun 11/29/2002

Customer Reviews

Fantastic Reference Book; definitely will provide inspiration.
I have this book on my wish list so am still borrowing it from the library. It takes about 5-10 minutes familiarizing yourself with the layout and symbols but once you've invested the time, it is an awesome reference. A perennial problem in gardening/landscaping is figuring out what plant(s) work with a given plant--this book helps solve that problem. It will take some time and another reference book to look up a possible solution's zone, light, soil requirements etc but this book gets you headed in the right direction. Even if you don't find the perfect partner for a given plant, it gives you ideas. For example, lets say you want something to go with a purple-leaved barberry. You may not like the plants it recommends but you discover that a plant with yellow-green foliage will look great. Therefore, you may then discover that a sweet potato vine will look superb with it.

Is it one-stop shopping? No. Is there a better book for this purpose? If there is one, I haven't seen it.

Fantastic Book!
I can't figure out what book the first reviewer was looking at, but it couldn't have been Lord & Lawson's! This is a meticulous and comprehensive compilation of creative combination ideas replete with gorgeous photographs. My wife is an expert gardener and this is among her favorites! She used to take it out of the Brentwood Public Library every week till I bought her a copy from Amazon.

Where are the combinations?
With high hopes I picked up this hefty book, hoping for some ideas about how to combine the new plant materials in a zone 4 or 5 garden (instead of my former lifelong very temperate zone 8).

What I found was quite a lot of information about discrete plants. Not what I was looking for! The promise of the title eluded me, either in the organization or in the presentation -- I am not sure which. Where the information about planting combinations was laid out, I am still unsure, and I am not a particularly uncareful reader.

In addition, this is a very large and heavy book. Alas, its production values (at least in the copy I had) did not support the pages very well. The glue was not sufficient to hold everything in place.

Color photos are plentiful and from the photos I certainly could see notions of combinations, but I wanted many more words.

I do not recommend this as a gift. First, one worries that the book itself would fall apart far too soon. Second, I am unconvinced that the content lives up to the title. Third, I quibble with the accuracy of some of the horticultural information (relating to zones, for instance).

If you are considering this book for yourself, try to get a good look at it before you buy; perhaps you'll find it entirely adequate for your interests or needs.