Book of the Month: Flowers and Herbs of Early America

        Curator of plants at Colonial Williamsburg, Larry Griffith is also an enthusiastic home gardener, and you’ll see both sides of him in this terrific new book. Covering 56 seed-grown flowers and herbs, Larry presents both scholarly history and tips for using these long-loved plants in modern gardens. The book’s many illustrations show us past and present, too, with antique images set alongside lush photographs by Barbara Temple Lombardi. Though many of the plants are well-known, others such as devil’s claw and scarlet pentapetes will be new discoveries for most gardeners.
        You can leaf through the book right now at Amazon.com. Click “search inside this book,” noodle around a bit, maybe read the chapter on cannas, and I bet you’ll agree: this is a book that every heirloom gardener will want to add to their holiday wish list. (late Oct. 2008)

Book of the Month: The Unknown Gertrude Jekyll

        Inspired by the traditional cottage gardens of England, Gertrude Jekyll in the early twentieth century became an enormously popular garden designer. Though her books have all been reprinted, most of her magazine and newspaper articles languished in obscurity – until editor Martin Wood collected the best of them in this fine book.
        Though you may have heard that Jekyll’s borders were filled exclusively with perennials and pastels, here’s an excerpt to help correct that misconception (and maybe inspire your planting!). Note that she includes dahlias, cannas, and gladiolus in this border, too, as she often did.
        “The pale yellows in the border are followed by the deeper yellow of coreopsis, helenium and some . . . perennial sunflowers. Soon we come to the splendid deep orange of African marigolds and the rich mahogany browns of the French marigolds both tall and dwarf. Then come deep orange dahlias backing fiery clumps of kniphofia, passing on to the pure scarlet of dahlias and cannas, salvias, gladioli and bedding geraniums. The use of these grand summer plants is one reason why the border had better not be called hardy or herbaceous, for there are no hardy plants that will answer the same purpose. . . . Moreover it is certainly more important that the border shall be beautiful than that it should be either strictly hardy or herbaceous.
        “At the back of the mass of rich red is a group of towering hollyhocks, blood-red, with a few of a rich, dark claret color. The whole of the red region has also an interplanting of the red-leaved Atriplex hortensis, and, nearer the front, of a French form of annual amaranthus with dull red flowers of a pleasant quality and red-tinted leaves; a much better plant than the commoner form with magenta flowers.” (Sept. 2008)

Book of the Month: Garden to Vase

        If you like picking bouquets from your own garden — and who doesn’t? – here’s a refreshingly down-to-earth guide full of great advice for getting all sorts of flowers to look better and last longer when cut. Did you know, for example, that your daffodils will stay in top shape much longer if you let them sit for twenty minutes in a bucket of water while their gooey sap drains out? And Garden to Vase goes way beyond technical advice. Author Linda Beutler writes as if she were your next-door neighbor, offering tips for collecting vases, using what you already grow, and making cut flowers an everyday pleasure in your home. She’s funny (did you catch her OHG-inspired Christmas carol in our December newsletter?), encouraging, irreverent, and real. “Don’t be afraid to get this book dirty,” she writes, and we plan to do just that. (Jan. 2008)

        Here’s a great gift book to give – or ask for – this holiday season.
        Banish that image of Emily Dickinson as a reclusive New England spinster. In Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, horticulturist (and OHG customer) Marta McDowell will introduce you to a charming young woman who loved gardening, collected wildflowers, forced hyacinths into winter bloom, and wrote witty, surprisingly modern poems that often use garden images to explore transcendent themes.
        This is not a scholarly tome but an informal exploration of gardening and nature in Dickinson’s life. It weaves together biography, history, excerpts from her many poems and letters, descriptions of her plants, and tips for gardening today as Emily did more than a century ago.
        In the Resources section at the back of the book, Marta writes, “For the best selection of heirloom bulbs in the country, tiptoe through the Old House Gardens catalog” and adds “Don’t miss their email newsletters.” But we’d love this book even without that, and we think you – and any gardener on your list – will, too. (Dec. 2007)
        [See also The Gardens of Emily Dickinson by Judith Farr.]

Vintage Garden Books

       Reading old garden books is one of our favorite ways to learn about plants and gardens of the past. While shopping recently at AbeBooks.com, a terrific internet source for used and rare books, we stumbled upon “In the Garden: Let Your Collection Bloom.” This brief essay on collecting old garden books includes links to an assortment of classics ranging from a paperback edition of A Southern Garden for $3 to a hand-colored 1794 copy of Repton’s Landscape Gardening for $25,000. (June 2007)

1912 Tulips Book and ‘Prince of Austria’

        An email from our good customer Kathy Castillo who’s a librarian in St. Paul reminded us that many of the best books about antique bulbs and gardens can still be found on the shelves of public libraries around the country. She writes:
        “I checked out a great old book from the library here called Tulips: Garden Flowers in Color by Rev. Joseph Jacob. It was published in 1912, and in it I found some of the wonderful tulips that you offer. There are only eight color plates in the book, and one is for the ‘Prince of Austria’. Rev. Jacob describes it as ‘a grand orange-red, one of the best of all tulips.’ I am certainly glad that you saved it from commercial extinction!”
        If your local library doesn’t have Rev. Jacob’s Tulips, there’s a good chance you can get it (or any other book you can think of!) by inter-library loan. It’s a free service that most public libraries offer. Just call yours and ask. (Nov. 2007)

Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect

        Rudy Favretti has helped guide the restoration of scores of important landscapes around the country, and his Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings has been a bible to thousands of museum sites and home owners since it was first published in 1978.
        This month marks the release of his latest book, Jacob Weidenmann: Pioneer Landscape Architect, and it’s a remarkable achievement. In the nineteenth century, Weidenmann was almost as highly regarded as Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of New York’s Central Park, but since that time his name and work have been largely lost in the shadows of history. Favretti’s illuminating biography is based on decades of research and is illustrated with over 50 period plans, drawings, and photographs, most of which have never been published before. Be sure to check out the back cover, too, where you’ll see a blurb of praise for the book by our own Scott Kunst! (Sept. 2007)

The Way We Garden Now

        In this lively, practical, and encouraging new book, Katherine Whiteside offers 41 easy “pick-and-choose projects for planting your paradise,” including three devoted to bulbs. Illustrated with charming watercolors, each project includes simple, numbered steps and no-nonsense advice that’s delivered with a spoonful of humor.
        We especially like what Katherine says about storing dahlias: “Misguided gardeners steer clear of dahlias because they fear the need to dig and store the tubers in winter. Guess what? No one cares if you let them freeze to death. Then you’ll have room to try different ones each year.” She also lists OHG as one of her top three bulb sources, praising our “great catalog, wonderful choices, and fascinating information.” (Aug. 2007)

Two New Books from the Library of American Landscape History

        Reynolda Gardens in Winston-Salem is one of the South’s most beautiful and historic landscapes. In A World of Her Own Making, landscape historian Catherine Howett tells the story of Katharine Smith Reynolds, the remarkable “new woman of the New South” who created the gardens in the early 1900s as part of a visionary, 1000-acre estate and model farm.
        The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis is internationally celebrated, and I’m an even bigger fan of the adjoining Tower Grove Park which is one of America’s most distinctive Victorian parks. In Henry Shaw’s Victorian Landscapes, historian Carol Grove tells the story of these two special landscapes and the frontier millionaire and plant-lover who created them.
        Both of these richly illustrated books are published by the Library of American Landscape History, a small but terrific non-profit that produces books and traveling exhibitions about American landscape history. Browsing through their website is both a pleasure and an education! (March 2007)

        We got a preview copy of this terrific new book last fall, and I could hardly wait till its publication this month to tell you about it.
        It’s billed as “an around-the-world, behind the scenes look at the flower industry,” and though that may sound a bit dry it’s anything but! Author Amy Stewart writes with humor and an infectious enthusiasm that any plant-lover will recognize, traveling the globe from California to the Netherlands to Ecuador to weave a truly illuminating story that will remind many readers of the best of John McPhee. Much of the book focuses on the people behind the flowers we love today, from old-timers like the maverick breeder of ‘Black Beauty’ and ‘White Henryi’ lilies and California’s last commercial grower of Victorian violets to the whiz-bang entrepreneurs who are bringing us organic roses and hydroponic gerberas at supermarket prices.
        Looking through the book again as I write this review, I’m tempted to read it all over again! If you’re a gardener with an inquisitive mind, I highly recommend it. For more info and an excerpt, visit amystewart.com/books.html. And while you’re there, check out Amy’s entertaining, wide-ranging blog, too. (Jan. 2007)

Gardening with Heirloom Seeds

        Just last month we celebrated with our friend Lynn Coulter the release of her exciting new book, Gardening with Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables for a New Generation. Lynn calls herself a “laid-back kind of gardener” and her book reads like an over-the-fence conversation with a friendly neighbor who loves gardening and just happens to know a LOT about all sorts of heirlooms and how to grow them from seed. Though her book doesn’t include any bulbs (that’s next, we hope!), it tells the story of some 30 flowers and 30 vegetables that have long and interesting histories in American gardens. Specific varieties like our favorite bachelor button ‘Emperor William’ are described, often with a date of introduction, and there are extensive growing tips, some recipes, and space on every page to add your own notes so you can make the book an heirloom to hand down along with your favorite seeds. (July 2006)

Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile

        Here’s a springtime treat for you from our good customer Verlyn Klinkenborg of The New York Times. With the very old-style title of Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile, this unique, charming book paints a rich picture of 18th-century English country life as viewed through the eyes of a real tortoise that lived for 13 years in the garden of naturalist Gilbert White, author of the celebrated Natural History of Selbourne. Reviewers across the country have been praising it:
        “A dazzling riff on human beings and their weird ways. . . . Timothy the tortoise is a splendid social critic, a keen-eyed anthropologist.” (Kirkus Reviews)
        “How does he make all those little things . . . add up to such big ideas about beauty, grace, and the mysteries of natural life?” (Los Angeles Times)
        “Told in terse sentences that can read like stanzas of poetry. . . , this brief but powerful book is unforgettable.” (Chicago Sun-Times)
        As a special offer for our newsletter readers, Verlyn will inscribe a copy especially for you. To order, click here [no longer available]. (April 2006)

Old Time Gardens Newly Set Forth

        Winter is for reading, and a good garden book can be especially warming. Published in 1901, Old Time Gardens Newly Set Forth by Alice Morse Earle was one of the most popular garden books of its era. Long out of print, it’s now been republished in an affordable paperback edition with an enlightening introduction by our friend Virginia Lopez Begg. Earle writes in an affectionate, almost poetic style and offers a wealth of information about the plants, designs, and ornaments of early American gardens. This inspiring classic belongs in every public library (ask yours to order a copy!) and on the shelf of anyone who loves gardens and history. (Jan. 2006)

Winter Reading: A Passionate Gardener’s Favorite Magazines

        Over the years, our good customer Annetta Kushner of Annapolis has sent us so many articles that mention us from so many different magazines that finally we asked her, “What are your favorite garden magazines?” Here’s her wide-ranging reply, to inspire you:
        “Ones I read cover to cover: Gardens Illustrated, Hortus, Pacific Horticulture, Green Scene, Dirk van der Werff’s Plants.
        “Ones I read selectively: Garden Design, the RHS’s The Garden, the Southern Garden History Society’s Magnolia, the American Rose Society’s American Rose, the South African Botanical Society’s Veld and Flora, and the American Horticulture Society’s American Gardener, which has improved immensely over the past few years.
        “Ones that I subscribe to and read the articles that interest me: Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and American Nurseryman. I subscribe to the Times of London on-line for Katherine Swift’s splendid articles and the British House and Gardens for Tania Compton’s. I do miss The Bulb Newsletter. I have probably skipped a few, but that about covers it.” (Dec. 2005)

A Brief History of Gardening

        Here’s a bit of light reading we recently enjoyed. Written by Neil Fairbairn, A Brief History of Gardening offers fascinating highlights and tidbits from as far back as 40,000 BCE. Each of its ten short chapters opens with a timeline to tempt you followed by a half-page or so about each item, from “Sowing the First Seeds” through “Lawns Before Lawn Mowers” to “Earth Gets a Day” and beyond. Many period illustrations add to the book’s appeal. As Michael Pollan writes on the back cover, “Popcorn for the horticulturally inclined mind, this attractively illustrated time line of garden history manages to be both irresistible and nourishing.” (Feb. 2005)

        Emily Dickinson wasn’t just a richly original poet, she was also an enthusiastic gardener who, like many of us, found transcendent meaning in her flowers. A third of her poems and half of her surviving letters refer to flowers, with hyacinths and lilies being two of her favorites. The first book devoted to her intertwining passions is Judith Farr’s new The Gardens of Emily Dickinson. Though marred somewhat by Farr’s limited garden knowledge (she says, for example, that Emily grew ‘Casa Blanca’ lilies, which weren’t introduced till 1987), it offers a fascinating new look at a woman who ought to take her place alongside Jefferson as one of the patron saints of American gardening. (Nov. 2004)
        [See also Emily Dickinson’s Gardens by Marta McDowell.]

Bulbs for Warm Climates

        Thad Howard of Texas has spent 45 years collecting and growing bulbs that like it HOT. His encyclopedic Bulbs for Warm Climates is a terrific, scholarly companion for one of our all-time best-sellers, Scott Ogden’s Garden Bulbs for the South. Read them both before it’s hot again! (Jan. 2004)

Lilies: A Guide for Growers and Collectors

        For expert advice on lilies, you won’t find anyone who knows more than our good friend, Eddie McRae. After a lifetime working with lilies commercially in the Pacific Northwest, he now helps direct the Species Lilies Preservation Group. His guide offers chapters on growing, propagating, and hybridizing, along with complete information on 93 species – many long in gardens – and the development of modern hybrids. Far from an introductory handbook for casual home gardeners, this is a book that’s dense with specialized information for, as the title says, growers and collectors. (Jan. 2004)

My Summer in a Garden

        I’ve been collecting antique garden books for 20 years, and we use them constantly to research the history of the bulbs we sell. One of my favorites is this humorous Victorian classic that’s recently been reprinted as an inexpensive paperback.
        First published in 1871, My Summer in a Garden is a collection of essays that read like chats over a timeless backyard fence. Its author, Charles Dudley Warner, was editor of the Hartford Courant and a close friend of Mark Twain – and almost as irreverent, funny, and wise. “The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions,” it starts. “Mudpies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure.”
        One caution: Warner was a man of his time, so expect some decidedly non-pc comments. If you can take those with a grain of historic salt, you’ll find a big-hearted gardener, enduring truths, and a lot of laughs. (June 2003)

The Gardener’s Guide to Growing Cannas

        New in 2002, this is the first book devoted to cannas in almost a century, a testament to their resurging popularity. Written by our friend Ian Cooke, who visited us on his research tour for the book, it includes chapters on canna history, botany, cultivation, and on weaving cannas into the garden. Best of all is a comprehensive A-to-Z of cannas, including scores of both subtle and flamboyant garden forms – many historic – as well as the diverse species. With 92 gorgeous color photographs, it’s a fascinating book for connoisseurs and newcomers alike. (Feb. 2002)

The English Florists’ Tulip

        The feathered and flamed tulips of Renaissance paintings live today in the gardens and shows of the Wakefield and North of English Tulip Society, founded in 1836. In this 44-page booklet, the Society offers lots of hard-to-find information about these gorgeous living relics, from their history to show standards to growing them yourself. It’s a rare tulip lovers dream book! (1999-2000 catalog)
        [In 2002 the Society published an updated edition of this booklet under the name English Florists’ Tulips: Into the 21st Century.]

New Edition of Ortho’s All About Bulbs

        Recently revised by our friend and customer Marty Ross, this clear, colorful, inexpensive book is a handy reference for both beginners and experts. It covers 175 bulbs, with uses, care, hardiness, light, soil, and color photos for each. Best of all: a sidebar on “Old-fashioned Daffodils!” (1999-2000 catalog)

The Tulip: The Story of a Flower That Has Made Men Mad

        What a combination: sumptuous illustrations, serious history that’s actually fun to read, and a surprisingly low price. From the tulip’s early glory in the Ottoman Empire through its many incarnations in the West, Pavord tells its fascinating story with flair. With 120 full-page, antique, color illustrations, and an encyclopedia of 80 wild species and hundreds of cultivars, The Tulip is a book for every tulip lover! (1999-2000 catalog)
        [The Tulip is now available in a paperback edition which may be different than the original hardback edition which we describe here.]

Dear Mr. Jefferson: Letters from a Nantucket Gardener

        I love this book, and not just because we’re in it! It’s a collection of musing garden essays cast as letters to Jefferson, that soul-mate of all American gardeners. Though they focus on author Laura Simon’s ample kitchen garden, these lively, wide-ranging letters are really about the deep pleasures – and meaning – of all gardening. They’re full of American garden history, too, including our bulbs. Laura has been a “friend and partner” of OHG since our earliest days. (1998-99 catalog)

Naturalizing Bulbs

        Bulbs that take care of themselves, that increase and bloom more profusely year after year – that’s a dream Rob Proctor can help make a reality throughout your yard. Rob is a garden super-star who has created bulb-rich gardens at his Victorian home in Denver. In this funny, inspiring, no-nonsense book, he emphasizes choosing the right bulbs for the right spot. The photos are gorgeous and there’s a chart of 400 species keyed to sun, soil, and water needs throughout nine US climate regions. (1998-99 catalog)

Adventures with Hardy Bulbs

        Often called “America’s Gertrude Jekyll,” Louise Beebe Wilder was a curious, observant gardener who had a wonderful way with words. In this almost chatty 1936 classic that’s recently been republished, she details her adventures in her large New York garden with over 300 species of bulbs – especially small, wild, and unusual ones, including many American natives. For most, she offers history, tips for planting and care, numerous varieties, and companion plants. (1998-99 catalog)

My Garden in Spring

        E.A. Bowles was one of the greatest plantsmen – and bulb-lovers – England has ever known. (You may have noticed that we often quote him in our catalogs.) This charming book, first published in 1914, is just as erudite as his monographs on daffodils, crocus, and colchicums, but more wide-ranging and warmly personal. It’s almost like you’re chatting over a spot of tea. Entire chapters are devoted to snowdrops, crocus, daffodils, anemones, tulips, and iris, and there’s much more on perennials, shrubs, and so on. It’s fun, informative, and inspiring! (1997 catalog)

Alexander H. Ladd’s Garden Book, 1888-1895

        Alexander Ladd of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, loved tulips and planted them by the thousands. In this fascinating garden diary Ladd recorded with affection the mundane details of seven years in his Victorian garden which survives today under the care of the Moffat-Ladd House and Garden Museum. Many of his entries deal with tulips – including our ‘Duc van Tols’ and ‘Prince of Austria’ – which he dug and stored for the summer in baskets in his basement. Supplementary essays and a complete plant list add to the value of this rare document published by the Moffatt-Ladd Museum. (1997 catalog)

Bulbs for Indoors by the BBG

        This inexpensive guide is the latest in the acclaimed new series of handbooks from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Authors Robert Hays and Janet Marinelli devote close to half the book to forcing hardy bulbs, with specifics on eighteen genera such as tulips and fritillaries. A bit more covers 37 tender bulbs such as crinums and Zephyranthes. A bibliography and source list complete this fine, clear introduction. (1997 catalog)

Manual of Bulbs, Essential Reference from the RHS

        This fascinating reference work is based on the New RHS Dictionary of Gardening which has supplanted Hortus Third as the ultimate botanical authority on ornamental plants. Thousands of species are described in scientific terms (the glossary is a big help if you don’t have a botany degree), quite a few are pictured in line drawings (26 wild species along with 12 garden divisions of tulips, for example), and for most genera there are notes on planting and care as well as suggested readings. Edited by John Bryan and Mark Griffiths, it’s an essential work for the serious bulbophile. (1996 catalog)

The Southern Heirloom Garden by Bill Welch and Greg Grant

        I wish we had a book like this for every region in the country. Lively, serious, and beautifully illustrated, it starts with eight chapters, each by a different expert, on how various cultures – Native American, Spanish, French, African-American, and so on — have shaped Southern gardens. The second half is an encyclopedia of Southern heirloom plants, including many bulbs. It’s rich with historical facts, growing advice, and Bill and Greg’s entertaining reminiscences. (1996 catalog)

The Indoor Potted Bulb

        Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about forcing bulbs in a book that’s artful, wide-ranging (Rob has forced some surprising bulbs), and practical. Beginners in need of the basics and old hands looking for something new will both find it instructive and inspiring. And Rob loves antiques! (1996 catalog)

Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris by John Parkinson

        Often called one of the great herbals, this landmark work from 1629 is actually the first illustrated book in English devoted mainly to ornamental plants. Nearly 1000 are described – including the “Great Nonesuch Daffodil” and the “Lesser Purple Flame-Coloured Crocus” – and there are over 800 quaint but accurate woodblock illustrations. Republished by Dover Press under the title A Garden of Pleasant Flowers, it’s a feast for old-flower lovers! (1995 catalog)

Classic Bulbs: Hidden Treasures for the Modern Garden

        We’re proud to count Katherine Whiteside as a customer, and happy to recommend her beautiful book on antique bulbs. It showcases 26 genera, from Acidanthera to Zantedeschia. For each, she presents history and lore, entertaining anecdotes, and practical advice. Her imaginative displays of forced bulbs are especially inspiring! (1995 catalog)

Sourcebook of Cultivar Names by Art Tucker and Scott Kunst

        It’s hard to discover when a plant was introduced or first grown in gardens. Books, nurseries, and the plants themselves rarely tell you. So Art Tucker of Delaware State University and I set out to track down “check lists” and other references that included this information. We found some 900 for over 300 genera, and all are cited in this special issue of Arnoldia, the journal of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, now available to read or download online, for free. Essentially a 64-page bibliography, it’s dry reading but a gold mine for anyone researching the history of plants. (1995 catalog)