Product Description

A delightful book that encourages gardeners to pay closer attention to the subtle beauty of miniature landscapes and introduces one of the glories of Japanese gardens into American designs. The author writes entertainingly of mosses on rocks and walls, in containers, and as a lush ground cover, and he presents a gallery of his favorite moss species.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48950 in Books
• Published on: 1997-03-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 262 pages

From Booklist
Schenk, author of three other horticultural books, points out that traces of moss have been found in 400-million-year-old fossils. There are 15,000 living moss species, 1,200 of them in North America. Schenk defines the varieties of moss plants and follows with chapters on moss gardens in Japan (a garden in Kyoto was designed in the fourteenth century) and on gardens in Europe and North America. There are chapters on mossy rocks, moss carpets, alpine gardens, growing moss in containers, and the use of moss as ground covers beneath bonsai trees. Schenk lists approximatety 60 plants alphabetically by genus, with advice on propagating, cultivating, and transplanting. Includes 97 color photographs. George Cohen

Review
"Read [this book] if you want to gain a healthy respect for and excitement about mosses."
—Joel M. Lerner, Washington Post, February 17, 2001 (The Washington Post )

"Schenk has a gift of gab as great his gift of vision. He introduces his subjects enticingly, then starts to get technical ...Indeed, there is much more here than any one of us would suspect possible. The photographs, too, are amazingly varied, considering they are all of moss ...Schenk's book will open our eyes and instruct our fingers. His own dirt-stained hands are his offered proof of his right to write this book — and a most convincing one."
—Ann Lovejoy, Seattle Times, February 1, 2000 (Seattle Times )

"The book's best feature is its stunning close-up photography. High-quality color photographs by the author and others lovingly bring these tiny plants into view. These modest plants are anything but humble when seen close-up. For those of us who see beautry in a moss carpet or a lichen-covered rock, here, finally, is a book worthy of a place on the gardening shelf."
—Jim Bennett, Fine Gardening, January/February 1998 (Fine Gardening )

Card catalog description
This handsomely illustrated and thorough treatise is far more than a manual on planting and maintaining moss. The book aims to be of practical help in understanding some of the common mosses, lichens, and liverworts, and in distinguishing them from the familiar non-mosses such as Irish, Scottish, and Spanish "moss." There are descriptions for transplanting, propagating, and growing them as ground covers, in container gardens, and for bonsai arrangements. Exhilarating to gardeners and non-gardeners alike are the fine photographs, ranging from panoramas of moss carpets and temple gardens in Japan to close-ups of sea lettuce-like mosses and spore capsules. George Schenk writes that he is primarily interested in garden art rather than science, but he offers enough of each to inspire broader exploration of these minute, but certainly not minor, plants.

Customer Reviews

Gimme more.....
Another nice book with some good photos but expected a little more terms of variety of mosses reviewed. Certainly could have included more photos....

a little green magic book
Images in this book take you instantly into an green fairy tale. Carefuly chosen details speek for them self, in addition to it, text was writen with humor, and very professionaly, at the same time.

OCD: Moss
This is an excellent text for the "beginner to mid" moss apprentice. The photos are brilliantly gorgeous and add much excitement to the text. Schenk is clearly an enormous fan of moss as his pen scrolls simple, yet technical, information about moss throughout the text. The only qualm I have with this book is that Schenk keeps to the 2 major genus of moss. However, the photos, which might give the moss-lover ideas for a moss garden, pull the book into a text that is a must for the moss-"er."

I have a bit of an obsessive-compulsive disorder with moss. I collect it, use it to build moss sculptures, grow many different genus of it. 2 years ago, I fell in love with moss and the obsession hasn't stopped.