A. M. Armitage/ Allan M. Armitage In the tradition of his classic Herbaceous Perennial Plants, Armitage has compiled descriptions and assessments of 245 genera of true annuals as well as plants that behave like annuals in USDA zones 1—7. Focusing on identifying the plants, successful culture, and their primary garden attributes, Armitage discusses 279 species in detail and summarizes the distinguishing features of hundreds of cultivars. Each entry is liberally sprinkled with strong and sometimes amusing opinions, and the book includes useful lists that make it a practical guide for the dedicated home gardener.

Diana Wells/ Mark Szamatulski/ Lauren F. Winner/ Salny F Abbie / Dorcas Adkins/ Julia Alvarez/ Robert Morgan/ Alan Bean/ William Accorsi/ Bill Aron "What's in a name?" Shakespeare asked. But what did he call a rose? Was the flower the ancient Persians called gul the same rose that Shakespeare knew? Was he talking about the Damask rose? Or the Apothecary rose? From Baby Blue Eyes to Silver Bells, from Abelia to Zinnia, this fascinating book presents the histories and origins of the names of 100 garden favorites. 100 two-color illustrations.

Mary Azarian Revealing the variety of life underground, the bright comfort of a greenhouse on a winter's day, or the anticipation of starting seeds indoors in early spring, this striking alphabet book celebrates the simple joys of gardening. Without neglecting the frustrations — the nibbling critters and the toil — or wry, humorous moments spent in the garden. Mary Azarian's spare words and lovely woodcuts capture the essence of turning a bare plot of ground into fragrant flowers and lush vegetables and trees. Her depictions of insects, manure, and compost piles are as delightful as her fountains, pumpkins, and Queen Anne's lace. Whether we are young or old, our gardens both exhaust and renew us. They are our source of magic and wonder and perhaps our best way to live closer to the land and to the rhythm of the seasons.

Steve Bender According to editor Steve Bender, southern gardeners are conservative, traditional but a bit eccentric in their plant choices (meaning they'll grow whatever Daddy grew, even if it's spotted or carnivorous), and dedicated (as they have to be to continue to weed and mow through the summer). This book celebrates the uniqueness of the southern garden. It's remarkably well organized, with colored page edges demarcating the different sections, the largest of which is the alphabetized plant encyclopedia in the middle. The best part of the book, however, may be the substantial section titled "Plant Selection Guide," which consists of a series of illustrated lists: "Fragrant Plants," "Plants that Attract Butterflies," "Plants Easy to Propagate," "Plants That Tolerate Drought," etc. With its lay-flat binding and excellent index, it's sure to be a favorite garden reference for quite a few gardeners, southern or otherwise.

Steve Bender At last a garden troubleshooter that diagnoses and offers proven treatments for Southern plant and garden problem. Steve Bender, senior garden writer for Southern Living magazine, offers advice, tips and tested solutions for dealing with garden pests, diseases, weeds and the other challenges inherent to gardening in the south. Plant lovers can find the solution to what's bugging their gardens from the authority who knows Southern gardening best — Southern Living.

Steve Bender

Edward F. Gilman/ Robert J. Black

Lois Trigg Chaplin/ Monica Brandeis/ Taylor Pub Co/ Monica Moran Brandies

Monica Moran Brandies

Monica Moran Brandies

FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

Stu Campbell

Lois Trigg Chaplin

Charles Chesshire/ Charles Cheshire

Charles Chesshire

Charles Chesshire

Pamela Crawford

Robert G. Haehle/ M.E. Depalma/ M. E. DePalma

Ray Edwards

Ketzel Levine/ Rene Eisenbart

Mary Engelbreit

Pippa Greenwood

Linda Hallam

Norman K. Booth/ James E. Hiss

Sherri Warner Hunter

Allan M. Armitage/ Asha Kays/ Chris Johnson

Jamaica Kincaid

Barbara Perry Lawton

Ann Lovejoy

Ann Lovejoy "Gardening is by definition interference with nature," begins Ann Lovejoy cheerfully. That said, gardeners will save themselves no end of trouble by cooperating with nature insofar as possible. Thus naturalistic gardening, which has made real inroads into the more formal, traditional American gardens over the past few years. But naturalistic gardening doesn't mean just throwing a lot of seeds on the ground, or letting the weeds take over. Lovejoy's practiced advice helps gardeners get a handle on constructing a garden that is like nature, but with an element of art. Allow plants to follow their own natures by judicious placement, she counsels, and you will minimize their care as well as reveal their essential beauty.

Lovejoy includes enough practical instructions to allow anyone with a reasonable amount of gardening experience to create a successful naturalistic garden, and the inspiring patterns of the example gardens, beautifully photographed by Allan Mandell, are nicely explained. Lovejoy even gives a chapter to the hotly debated tropicalismo school of naturalistic design. The emphasis is very much on gardening in the northwestern United States, but anyone who yearns for a more natural look in the garden will benefit from the principles outlined here.

ANN LOVEJOY

E. N. O'Rourke/ Leon C. Standifer/ Edmund N., Jr O'Rourke

Scott Ogden There are hundreds of choice bulbs that revel in southern warmth and humidity, and Scott Ogden profiles the best of them in this fascinating, comprehensive volume. In a series of chapters that takes us through the gardening year, Ogden introduces the plants that help to give southern gardens their distinct regional flavor, many with charmingly descriptive names: rain lilies, oxblood lilies, jonquils, crinums, and scores of others. Weaving in bits of history and lore, Ogden details each plant's appearance and growing requirements. Originally published to widespread acclaim in 1994, Garden Bulbs for the South has been updated and significantly expanded in this edition to include information on new varieties as well as nearly one hundred new photographs.

Rufino Osorio Abundantly illustrated in full color, this guide provides detailed descriptions and methods of cultivation for 350 of Florida's most attractive and easily grown native plants, including ferns, wildflowers, shrubs, trees, vines, aquatics, and epiphytes (air plants). Written for both the beginner and the experienced gardener, it includes basic garden concepts as they apply to native plants—selection, site preparation, pruning, propagation, weeding, and pest control.

Ted L. Petit/ John P. Peat

DK Publishing The AHS Great Plant Guide is designed to help you choose plants in two different ways. In the A-Z of Plants, over 1,000 plants have full entries and are illustrated with photographs. This is the section to consult to find details about a plant. It will tell you what type of plant it is, how it grows, what its ornamental features are, where it grows and looks best, and how to care for it. For quick reference, symbols summarize its main requirements. The Planting Guide provides "shopping list" of plants for every purpose, whether practical, such as a group of plants for a damp, shady site, or for themed plantings, such as a selection of plants to attract birds into your garden. Page references are given to plants with entries and portraits elsewhere. Hundreds of plants not pictured are also recommended.

Lee Reich "There's no such thing," my ace-gardener mom said when I told her about Weedless Gardening. I think author Lee Reich would agree that the title is a bit misleading (there will always be some weeds). Also a bit misleading are the blurbs from the publisher, which stop short of calling the book "ground-breaking" only because Reich's system is based on the total eschewal of tilling or otherwise turning over the soil. The building blocks of his philosophy have been in use for decades in one way or another: from low-till commercial farming techniques (which sometimes also involve firebombing the soil with herbicide) to simple green composting with knocked-down cover crops. But in Weedless Gardening Reich takes it all the way, no tilling, no herbicide unless absolutely necessary—all while providing everything the home gardener needs to know about cover crops, composting, and drip irrigation. In every section Reich lists mail-order and Internet sources for supplies.

The benefits of cover crops, composting, and planting in beds rather than rows are widely known, and they're dealt with in depth here. More controversial is Reich's injunction to rigorously preserve the natural layering of the soil—even when pulling up weeds, dead annuals, or old corn stalks. He makes a good case: tilling under weedy areas kills existing weeds in the short term, but turning over the dirt exposes more weed seeds to sunlight and air, and more of them will germinate; better to kill them first by mowing and self-composting or smothering them with mulch. In addition, Reich explains, water in broken-up, uniform soil tends to flow straight down; water in undisturbed soil travels more slowly, in different directions—down and sideways—thus more efficiently reaching roots. Installing a drip irrigation system further decreases water use (the book includes detailed instructions and formulas for calculating water-flow and timing) and, like many of Reich's recommendations, apparently works best when practiced in concert with his no-till, "top-down" method.

What isn't clear is how effective his system can be in an area that has been worked over by indifferent landscapers or that has already been tilled over and over for years. How long will it take for that plot's soil to resettle into something resembling its pretilled state? If my mom starts "weedless gardening" now, will she be wading through a forest of weeds or, worse, buying tasteless corn at the supermarket come August? —Liana Fredley

Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson

Robert J. Black/ Kathleen C. Ruppert

Dr. Seuss "It's a pretty good zoo," said young Gerald McGrew, "and the fellow who runs it seems proud of it, too." But if Gerald ran the zoo, the New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, he'd see to making a change or two: "So I'd open each cage. I'd unlock every pen, let the animals go, and start over again." And that's just what Gerald imagines, as he travels the world in this playfully illustrated Dr. Seuss classic (first published back in 1950), collecting all sorts of beasts "that you don't see every day." From the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant to the blistering sands of the Desert of Zind, Gerald hunts down every animal imaginable ("I'll catch 'em in countries no one can spell, like the country of Motta-fa-Potta-fa-Pell"). Whether it's a scraggle-foot Mulligatawny or a wild-haired Iota (from "the far western part of south-east North Dakota"), Gerald amazes the world with his new and improved zoo: "This Zoo Keeper, New Keeper's simply astounding! He travels so far that you think he would drop! When do you suppose this young fellow will stop?"

But Gerald's weird and wonderful globe-trotting safari doesn't end a moment too soon: "young McGrew's made his mark. He's built a zoo better than Noah's whole Ark!" Some of the text and illustrations—imaginative as they are—are obviously dated, such as the following passage: "I'll hunt in the mountains of Zomba-ma-Tant/ With helpers who all wear their eyes at a slant,/ And capture a fine fluffy bird called the Bustard/ Who only eats custard with sauce made of mustard." And your children may be the first to recognize that attitudes have changed since the xenophobic '50s. But that doesn't mean this tale need be discarded; instead, it should be discussed. Ironically, Seuss was trying here—in his wild, explosive, and sometimes careless manner—to celebrate the joys of unconventionality and the bliss of liberation! (Ages 4 to 8)

Christopher Brickell/ Elvin McDonald/ Trevor J. Cole/ American Horticultural Society

Geoff Stebbings

Harmonious Technologies

Alan R. Toogood/ Alan Toogood

Cicely Mary Barker/ Frederick Warne

Sally Wasowski/ Andy Wasowski

Jeni Webber

Lee Anne White

Christopher Brickell/ Judith Zuk/ American Horticultural Society/ Judith D. Zuk