Books to Bring on Spring

– By Whitney Clark –

Since spring seems to be a little late this year, it is even more important to distract ourselves with garden catalogs, garden shows and garden books. The sight of azaleas in full bloom behind Tiger Woods at Augusta on the front page of The New York Times brought momentary envy and pleasure at the thought that someday these flowers might appear in our yards, no Tiger necessary. Patience must be rewarded.

Impatience can be rewarded immediately by a visit to Arcade Booksellers in Rye or Diane’s Book Store in Greenwich, where you can find a big, beautiful book impressively titled “The New York Botanical Garden” (Abrams, $50), edited by Gregory Long and Anne Skillion. Here is everything you need to know about one of our greatest horticultural resources in all its depth and glory.

“The Garden Today” section of the book gives readers a closer look at various parts of the Botanical’s gardens — borders, perennial, herb, rock, native plant, peony, rose, palm, tropical and rain forest, and others. Tree and shrub collections expose us to the best examples of such pleasures as azaleas, crabapples, cherries, magnolias, maples, lilacs and more.

Gregory Long, current president of the Botanical Garden, describes the architecture over the years. Research collections of specimen plants and botanical art and illustration provide a vast resource of materials gathered over centuries. Finally, the future ambitions of the “Garden” are demonstrated by The Teaching Garden and the Adult Education Center. The former brings New York City-area children in to learn to garden. The latter teaches over 3,500 adults a year with 500 different courses. This outreach and influence is enormously helpful to garden lovers from both city and suburbs — and all this intelligence and beauty emanates from the middle of some unexpectedly wondrous acres in the Bronx.

Leaping directly into the flowerbed, Gordon and Mary Hayworth have produced another useful book called “Tending Your Garden” (W.W. Norton, $39). Subtitled “A Year-Round Guide to Garden Maintenance,” this book is helpful to anyone with occasional doubts about pruning, planting, cleanup, deadheading, plant division and cutting back perennials, covering all seasons.

The Hayworths write clearly, and there are many photographs of the described work being done. It is extremely helpful to see photos of the actual dividing of plants or how a tree root ball should look when planted. The same applies to how to plant bulbs or how to pot tulips for spring blooming. This book is literally down-to-earth and motivating.

For a lighter touch and a less intense work ethic, “The Way We Garden Now” (Clarkson Potter, $29.95), is a crisp, pleasant approach to garden projects that seem enjoyable. The writer is Katherine Whiteside, the “Garden Goddess” columnist for House Beautiful. She says right off, “This is not your Mom’s garden book.” She adds, “Forget making a perfect garden.”

Ms. Whiteside has 41 projects to try, all fairly simple, like “Create a Compost Pile.” Others are on plotting paths, choosing the right roses, cultivating a cutting garden, fashioning a sunflower folly and “Aspiring to Asparagus.”

She has done all the projects herself and has “a healthy disregard for fancy tools, an aversion to overspending and no time to recover from extreme exhaustion.” Her plans for patios and paths looked quite easy and avoided expensive masons. The book is whimsically yet practically illustrated, easy to understand and intriguing for its hands-on attack.

After several years of garden experience, many flower lovers find they need more specialized knowledge. There are many books that showcase favorite varieties of flowers. One of these, “Lilies” by Michael Jefferson Brown (Rizzoli, $35), may tell you more about the subject than you need to know. There are Asian lilies and Oriental lilies, Martagons and Trumpets, Regals and Dwarfs. Some lilies spread their petals like stars; others curve backward as in Turk’s Caps.

If you remember the stunning oil painting by John Singer Sargent of children in white, collecting fireflies against a backdrop of white lilies, you might run to your nearest plant nursery to replicate the scene. The photographs in this book are clear and inviting, easier to see than in a plant catalog. There will be more lilies in my garden this summer, and a better understanding of their special differences.

An important and exotic addition to your garden book library is  “The 100 Best Bulbs” by Elvin McDonald (Random House, $14). There are so many bulbs we rarely try, yet should order for all the pleasure they will bring us.

Many of us are familiar with anemones and agapanthus, but we need to seek out gloriosa climbing lilacs, kangaroo paws, English bluebells, society garlic, foxtail lilies and lobster claws. Some of these can live in our zone year-round. Some need to be wintered indoors. The pictures will help you choose which unusual bulbs you would like to try, and the back of the book lists nurseries from which to order.

If you long for peonies in your garden, look into Pamela McGeorge’s book on the subject (Firefly Books Ltd., $24.95). These voluptuous beauties come in an amazing range of colors and styles, from flat, open-faced petals to crumpled satin ruffles. There are herbaceous peonies and tree peonies, striped, yellow and bi-colored peonies, one lovelier than the next. There is a picture of “Hermione” (herbaceous) that shows an open, pale pink globe head surrounded by endless pink ruffles. Life is too short and the garden too small for all these heavenly blooms, but we can certainly have some of them.

Three more very useful specialized books by Firefly Books are “Hydrangeas” by Glyn Church ($22.95), “Magnolias” by Rosemary Barnett ($22.95) and “Irises” by Pamela McGeorge and Alison Nicoll ($16.95). Any or all of these will extend a confirmed gardener’s range of knowledge and interest.