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Rating: 
Summary: nice photos, limited use
Review: Although this book has beautiful photos and snappy dialogue, realize that it is a collection of essays. This book does not have chapters, per se, and not exhaustive discussions, but the essays are by two very experienced gardeners. Gardening advice is charmingly presented, but in a piecemeal fashion. It makes for entertaining and enjoyable winter reading but for more practical advice in dry climates with hot summers and cold winters, I find Lauren Springer's book The Undaunted Garden, to be much more helpful. It has plant lists that Passionate Gardening doesn't have. I read Passionate Gardening for inspiration and for vicarious gardening experience, but when it comes down to doing things, I use other books. Realize also, that Passionate Gardening isn't necessarily Xeriscape oriented, featuring at least a few essays where plants require regular moisture(e.g. the essay on lilies, and one on roses).
Rating: 
Summary: Fun and Fabulous!
Review: I'm a beginning gardener and live in Colorado. Springer and Proctor's book has inspired me and given me reams of useful information to improve my garden. I may not be ready to plant thousands of plants a year as they do, but their short essays have given me the ideas and information to focus on bit by bit. The photos, mostly of Springer's foothills garden and Proctor's city garden, are beautiful and excellent as plant combination possibilities. I can't recommend this book enough, particularly for Western gardeners.
Rating:
Summary: A lovely, inspirational book
Review: I'm a beginning gardener and live in Colorado. Springer and Proctor's book has inspired me and given me reams of useful information to improve my garden. I may not be ready to plant thousands of plants a year as they do, but their short essays have given me the ideas and information to focus on bit by bit. The photos, mostly of Springer's foothills garden and Proctor's city garden, are beautiful and excellent as plant combination possibilities. I can't recommend this book enough, particularly for Western gardeners.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired Brilliance
Review: Passionate Gardening, specifically the photos and text contributed by Lauren Springer, is the best single source of inspiration for gardeners in the Rocky Mountain states. Though Lauren's solo work, Undaunted Garden, is perhaps more comprehensive and detailed, Passionate Gardening has dazzling photos of her current garden and is a blueprint for a spectacular success in difficult climates.I own a nursery and I am a garden designer. I see many projects that are appropriate for xeric or rock garden applications. Whenever I show the customer Passionate Gardening, the response is universally, "I want to make my garden as beautiful as that one." Lauren introduces us to plants that are hardly household names (yet), and teaches us specifically, practically and clearly how to use them. Lonicera korolkowiii 'Floribunda'
may not be known to you, but you will have no doubt how to use it when you finish this book. And since that is one of the few blue leaved deciduous shrubs, you may very well have the perfect place for it in your landscape. There is no better read than her books for those of us in cold and dry climates, and even a southern Florida subtropical gardener could glean important ideas about approaching design and color/texture combinations. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Fun and Fabulous!
Review: This book is chock full of information for challenging climates and written with a wonderful sense of humor. I've read my copy again and again! Although not written for gardeners in the OH area, there are useful ideas and plant combinations that I have used successfully in my own garden. I LOVE this book - I wish they would write more.
Rating:
Summary: A garden book that works for every level of gardener
Review: While I agree that specifics in the book are geared for western climates, the ideas and humor will appeal to most gardeners. Don't buy it as a "how-to" book, there are plenty of those around. Buy it for inspiration a la (the late)Henry Mitchell and Anne Lovejoy. The book has excellent examples of unusual color palettes for the gardener ready to venture beyond "pink, blue and white".
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