Product Details
Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide)

Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants (Brooklyn Botanic Garden All-Region Guide)
By C. Colston Burrell

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Product Description

The biggest enemy of any garden is not a pest, disease, or poison—it’s any plant with tougher survival skills than the plants it competes with. The best way to weed out the invaders is with this fiendishly clever guide to native plants that can seek and destroy the top 100 most unwelcome perennials, grasses, vines, shrubs, and trees. While replacing the invaders, the beautiful, hardy native plants described here also attract native birds and butterflies, while turning away their own enemy invaders. Word-and-picture guides provide tips on care and maintenance, while helpful “at a glance” boxes depict shapes, sizes, best locations, and most attractive features of each native alternative.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #49216 in Books
  • Published on: 2006-09-28
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 240 pages

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Customer Reviews

One to buy5
I typically take books like this out of the local library when I need them, but I've bought this one, because of a combination of factors: low price, great readability, good pictures, good comprehensive overview of the plants. It is not really useful to me in quite the way the authors might have intended, that is, "Don't buy plant X, buy plants Y or Z or W instead..." One's likes/dislikes for plants can be so finessed, that I don't think anyone else could choose substitutes like that for what I might like.

Rather, I just use it to read about the native plants (which is 98% of the book anyway -- it gives very little or no description of the "bad invasive" plants, doesn't explain why or how they're invasive... you must take on faith that those plants are bad.) The book is primarily an inexpensive, well-written description of native plants you should like to use, rather than describing invasives. Very, very good descriptions of the plants, from authors who not only know the plants well, but can pick out the very specific things about each plant that a gardener will like to know when cultivating them. E.g. "can't tolerate extreme heat" or "goes dormant if no moisture" or "has a long taproot so once established shouldn't be moved" -- these are the specifics about plants you've really got to know, and this book seems to tell me much more of those details than others like it.

It's another of many great books from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Incidently, it's not just for east coasters... seems to cover the entire country and all zones fairly well.

Great Book5
This book is kind of like two books in one - it provides the Federal List of Invasive Garden Plants by plant name and state, then takes some of those plants and gives good native alternatives for them.

The natives are good selections and come with photos, descriptions and growing tips. Usually several native options are offered for each invasive.

Aside from being a good resource for identifying invasive plants, it's great to have an easy way to find better plant options.

This book is a bargain at $9.95, even if Amazon isn't discounting the price. And it's a nice way to help support the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

Very informative!5
I purchased this book because I was interested in replacing some very aggressive, invasive plantings we inherited when we purchased our current home 4 years ago. I was so very pleased with the depth of information contained regarding native alternatives to common invasives found in a great many regions of the country. Not only did the book describe the native plant's attributes but where best to place them within your landscape as far as soil and light requirements. I enthusiastically recommend this book for serious gardeners anxious to return their properties to a more natural balance. My only disappointment was that there were not more entries! Hope the author writes a second book on the subject!