Product Description

This comprehensive guide addresses one of the most common problems for gardeners. Shade Gardening has over 250 color photographs of the 350 best trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, bulbs, ground covers, vines, ferns, and grasses for shaded areas. Articles cover the basics of growing plants in the shade as well as such subjects as city gardens, flowers, foliage plants, pests and diseases, and lawns.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72816 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Vinyl Bound
• 512 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780395651650
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Taylor's Guides are the best, most authoritative guides on the market." -- Review

Review

About the Author
Steve Buchanan curently lives in Winsted, Connecticut.

Frances Tenenbaum is the editor and author of several gardening books. She currently lives in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

A Great Resource Book
I bought this book without knowing what a great help it would prove to be. My lot is mostly shade, acidic soil and clay below. The publisher got it right with the size and layout of this series, you can put the book in a pocket, head out to the nurseries and while viewing their selections, check the book for the finer details. There are vast listings of shade plants shown in color, with detailed qualites listed as well, including zone, dryness, soil ph. The fabric spine keeps the pages from falling out after many flattenings. Excellent reference and buying guide for shade gardening. My copy is getting nicely dog-eared and soil stained. Well worn.

Great idea book with pictures of shade lovers
The Taylor's Guides are very reliable sources for gardening information and great pictures, and the Shade Gardening Guide is one of the best. Shade gardening is difficult for many reasons. There are not that many very showy flowers for seasons other than Spring, and there are many types of shade. The descriptions are very specific and helpful: light shade, dappled shade, "the more shade, the less moisture is needed," and so on. The soil and shade descriptions for each plant are excellent and detailed.

Although the plants are listed alphabetically for the cultural requirements, the pictures are listed by groups: trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, summer bulbs, ground covers, vines, grasses, and ferns. I would recommend that people using the book for plant selection read the "Encyclopedia of Plants" part as well as the brief but good descriptions with the color pictures.

Keep in mind too that the flowering times are primarily for New England (zone 5). Furthur South you may get earlier and more flowers. For example, Ceratostigma is listed as an Autumn bloomer, while in PA, it blooms from July through October. So you get more than the book suggests. Not bad. Anyone with shade should experiment with the plants in this book. As a gardening professional, I see so many great and underused plants listed and described in this book.

Not a good resource for Southern gardeners
Having recently purchased a condo in Houston with a north-facing porch, I eagerly awaited delivery of this book. However, I was quickly disappointed. This book should be titled "Shade Gardening in the North," since virtually all of the plants listed are for Zones 5 and lower...not much help for my Zone 9 garden. It did contain a couple of pages of information for shade gardening in the South (which they consider to be North Carolina!), but I was really looking for specific information on the types of shade plants I could plant here. This would have been a great book if I lived in Ohio, but not so good for us Texans.