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Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and informative
Review: Anyone who has gardened in the hot, humid and drought proned Southeast will smile knowingly as they read about Harper's 30 year experiences in her Virginia garden. This woman loves plants and it shows. She writes candidly of the plants she loves and she is not afraid to dismiss the ones that are duds. The book is a showcase of her garden, arranged by season, and she discusses her successes and failures along the way. It covers a wide range of plants including perennials, shrubs, bulbs, vines and trees. The photographs are wonderful and truly provide inspiration for design and plant combinations. Gardeners in this region should find this book to be an excellent tool for choosing plants.
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Summary: Beautiful table top book....
Review: Pamela Harper's new book TIME-TESTED PLANTS is beautiful, and a gift to those who garden in USDA Zone 8. Ms Harper, originally a native of the U.K., has proved that we can have comparable gardens in the States, and not just in the Pacific Northwest. I first discovered Ms Harper a few years ago when she co-authored a book with Frank McGourty, a New England writer, on PERENNIALS. Of course, I wanted McGourty's New England garden, and tried my best in the Coastal Virginia heat to grow Delphiniams, Phlox, Bee Balm, and other cold winter, mild summer plants, all of which succumbed to one thing or another, or were so destroyed by powdery mildew that I had to uproot them. Okay, I should have followed Ms. Harper's example, and recognized sooner rather than later that things work out a lot better if you grow plants in Tidewater Virginia that like the coastal climate. Ms. Harper has done exactly that, and her thirty years in a four-season garden shows just what can be done in Virginia or any Zone 8 location across the country with hot summers, mild winters, and lots of humidity. Beginning with Spring, which is probably the high season in most Southern gardens, Ms. Harper covers bulbs and flowering spring bushes which do exceedingly well in Tidewater Virginia. Shown in one of her many lovely photographs of her own garden are Leucojum (summer snowflake) and heirloom Narcissus 'Sir Watkin' growing happily side by side under a spreading branch of Corylopsis sinensis at the edge of a wood-bark mulched path (she has a very large work space). Ms Harper moves on through the year and we see Hydrangea vines climbing very tall pine trees, and other vines climbing over cedar tree stumps, old buildings, or even rose bushes (Clematis). She reveals which types of vines, roses, and other perennials have served her needs best in each season. She explains the strategy of successive planting, the uses of hardy and tender bulbs year-round, and the concept of creating understories (layers of plants growing under each other as is found in nature--think of the tropics). Her book includes sections on annuals, grasses and other plants, shrubs, and trees. The book is large, glossy, slippery and unwieldy, so you probably won't read it in bed. It has plenty of text, so you will want to read it, as well as look at the many beautiful photographs. I have to lay it on a hard surface to handle it, but it is worth handling over and over.
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Summary: A well-rounded view
Review: The author has been gardening for over forty years now, with thirty years in the same garden. Time-Tested Plants considers the perennials, annuals, vines and trees in her garden as a unit, rather than as separate entities: chapters provide a well-rounded view of building and maintaining a complete garden environment, along with many tips on plant qualities and use. Color photos pack her presentation.
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Summary: Time Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four Season Garden
Review: The title of this book led me to think it was just another listing of plants with notes on height, hardiness etc. It is far more than that, as I realized when I read in the acknowledgements "A stroll around my garden is a bit like telling the rosary, with each bead a friend remembered by a plant they gave me." Now that I can relate to. The author gives a great deal of information in this 350 page book, but she also shares herself and her love of her garden with the reader. We learn WITH her rather than from her. This is a really good read if you loved gardens and the book is beautifully illustrated with the author's own photographs. The material has been organized by season so you can curl up and enjoy a year's worth of garden beauty and wisdom. There are short but useful resource and reference lists. This book contains a wealth of information, but the pleasure of reading it comes from the warmth of the author. Her voice, her ideas, her thoughts on plants and gardening come through clearly and gently to the reader. This is a sharing of wisdom rather than as sharing of knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Time Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four Season Garden
Review: The title of this book led me to think it was just another listing of plants with notes on height, hardiness etc. It is far more than that, as I realized when I read in the acknowledgements "A stroll around my garden is a bit like telling the rosary, with each bead a friend remembered by a plant they gave me." Now that I can relate to. The author gives a great deal of information in this 350 page book, but she also shares herself and her love of her garden with the reader. We learn WITH her rather than from her. This is a really good read if you loved gardens and the book is beautifully illustrated with the author's own photographs. The material has been organized by season so you can curl up and enjoy a year's worth of garden beauty and wisdom. There are short but useful resource and reference lists. This book contains a wealth of information, but the pleasure of reading it comes from the warmth of the author. Her voice, her ideas, her thoughts on plants and gardening come through clearly and gently to the reader. This is a sharing of wisdom rather than as sharing of knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Time-Tested Plants by Pamela J. Harper
Review: There are very few gardening books for Southern Gardeners that are so readable. This book feels like visiting with your best gardening buddy: walking through her gardens and talking about plants frankly and enthusiastically. Ms. Harper introduced me to many plants of which I had limited or no previous knowledge, and gave lots of great information on the care, propagation, and placement of them. She is not just a cheerleader. She also gives any drawbacks or limitations to each plant, with ideas for how to overcome them. The illustrations are fabulous, detailed, and filled with plant combination ideas. This book will have a valued place on my bookshelf for many years to come.
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Summary: My favorite gardening book
Review: This is easily my favorite gardening book. Already it is dog-eared and well-worn. A lovely combination of useful information, beautiful photos, and very good writing. The author tells you what she has learned over 30 years of gardening in the hot and humid southeast and does so in a way that is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite gardening book
Review: This is easily my favorite gardening book. Already it is dog-eared and well-worn. A lovely combination of useful information, beautiful photos, and very good writing. The author tells you what she has learned over 30 years of gardening in the hot and humid southeast and does so in a way that is a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it.
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