An Encyclopedia of Shade Perennials

Rating:
Summary: A wealth of information
Review: Although I've been a shade gardener for many years, this book contains many shade perennials that I had never heard of. I liked that almost all the pictures appear to be of mature specimens, so you can see what the plant will look like. (My pet peeve is when gardening books show baby plants! What good is that?) There are sometimes many pictures of one plant: one picture will show a close-up of the flower, one picture will be a distance picture. The descriptions tell growing information, zone, size, and possible gardening problems. I was pleased with this book and am glad that I purchased it. I have been barely able to put it down, even though I have read several other shade gardening books. Thank you, Mr. Schmid, for a fantastic, wonderful resource. I enthusiastically recommend this book to any shade gardener.

Rating:
Summary: A wealth of information
Review: Although I've been a shade gardener for many years, this book contains many shade perennials that I had never heard of. I liked that almost all the pictures appear to be of mature specimens, so you can see what the plant will look like. (My pet peeve is when gardening books show baby plants! What good is that?) There are sometimes many pictures of one plant: one picture will show a close-up of the flower, one picture will be a distance picture. The descriptions tell growing information, zone, size, and possible gardening problems. I was pleased with this book and am glad that I purchased it. I have been barely able to put it down, even though I have read several other shade gardening books. Thank you, Mr. Schmid, for a fantastic, wonderful resource. I enthusiastically recommend this book to any shade gardener.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Shade
Review: I am still reading this book. There are many words of wisdom and there is a lot to digest. This book will be used often. It may not have an answer for all shade problems but it gives great information for what to do in the ground layer of a shady garden. The plant descriptions are detailed and the cultural information is extensive and complete. Add to that colf hardiness and heat tolerance as well as propagation, diseases, and anything else you must know, this volume give the nitty-gritty on many shade perennials, herbaceous as well as evergreen. This is a good book for starting and experienced gardeners. The starters may have to take time to get to know how to use the book. The photos are outstanding, albeit gathered in a bunch in the center sections, but bold printed names point to the illustrations. I'll use this book often and enjoy the many stories presented along with the plant information.

Rating:
Summary: Kudos for the Hosta Man!
Review: If a book could earn six or seven stars, this would be it. Schmid divides An Encyclopedia of Shade Perennials into two sections: a brief (but extremely important) overview of analyzing the conditions prevailing within shady areas, and the much longer encyclopedia itself. A practical man, he does not mince words on what works and what doesn't. The encyclopedia deftly conjures portraits for a species giving light, soil, and water requirements, and idiosyncratic likes or dislikes of a species or variety with growth habits, flowering season, and often advice on transplanting or dividing. And while packing all of this in, he is eminently readable. WOW!
Our county Master Gardeners now have An Encyclopedia of Shade Perennials in our reference library because of the depth of information given, and I will soon be buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Shade
Review: This book is very lacking in many types of shade plants that I have used for my very shady property. (ie. Caladium, Houttuynia and Polemonium to name a few. Ferns and Ivy are not even listed in the index!!!) This book is difficult to use. The photos and descriptions of the plants exist in separate sections of the book with no reference to one another. On a positive note, the photos do include a name below them and are in alphabetical order. Overall, a great disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Truely NOT an Encylopedia
Review: This book is very lacking in many types of shade plants that I have used for my very shady property. (ie. Caladium, Houttuynia and Polemonium to name a few. Ferns and Ivy are not even listed in the index!!!) This book is difficult to use. The photos and descriptions of the plants exist in separate sections of the book with no reference to one another. On a positive note, the photos do include a name below them and are in alphabetical order. Overall, a great disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: made for the shade
Review: This includes all of the classics, a bunch of new herbaceous shade perennials, many, many wildflowers, and hundreds of ferns, both old and new for the shady garden.
It covers herbaceous perennials only, as the title implies, but there are thousands of them. A few are missing, but that is a good thing. They are weedy and shouldn't be planted anyway.
I liked the personal stories and connection of the author with each of the genera, and the attention paid to culture, diseases, propagation and heat and cold hardiness.
As in any encyclopedia, the plants are arranged by genus name and within the genus by species and cultivar names, alphabetically. For the plants illustrated in color, the names are in bold letters. You must know the Latin names of plants, but a huge index lists all of common names and tells you what the Latin name for it is. It also gives cross references for synonyms, different scientific names that have been given to the same plant. It takes a while to get the gist of it, but it is worth the time.
A book that will give great shade gardening information for many years to come. It should be in every serious shade gardeners library.