Plant Personalities: Choosing And Growing Plants By Character - Hardcover

Carol Klein is a much-loved writer, television presenter, lecturer and passionate plantswoman. After teaching art for thirteen years, Carol set up Glebe Cottage Plants in Devon, winning numerous Gold Medals for her naturalistic plant displays at the Chelsea Flower Show and other Royal Horticultural Society shows. She is a regular contributor to leading garden magazines and national newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph, The English Garden, BBC Gardener's World, Gardens Illustrated and Horticulture. Since 1999 she has contributed a weekly column to Garden News. She lectures in Europe and the USA.

Are your plants giving you attitude? Need a manual to choose more compliant foliage? Klein's guide to choosing plants based on "personality" may sound hokey-and to a certain degree it is-but this richly illustrated book also contains a treasure trove of useful gardening information. In her introduction, "passionate plantswoman" Klein admits that hers is not a scientific system, "but it is an entertaining way of appreciating plants and... of rating the contribution they make to the garden." Rating flowers is certainly her long suit. A chapter on Gatecrashers, for example, explores the hidden virtues of those pesky plants "at the garden party who were never asked." Ever mindful of her role in educating, as well as entertaining, Klein emphasizes that these self-seeding weeds, though interlopers, can pack all the punch of purposefully planted ones. The upside of aggressive growers such as Sea Holly, for instance, is its ability to grow virtually anywhere when cultivated. By the time readers encounter the chapter on Seductive Sophisticates, they'll be sold on the book's unusual concept and agree that the foliage surveyed here, including the downright sexy crimson Trillium chloropetalum and the frisky fritillaries, "have the power to induce sighs and make knees go weak." In a standout A to Z index, Klein revisits each plant species, offering descriptive details and cultivation tips. This useful information, combined with accomplished garden photographer Buckley's striking photos, make this beautiful gardening book a necessary indulgence for those who are already planning next spring's big show.
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