Winter-flowering Shrubs - book review

Shrubs are the most fundamental flowering plants of the winter garden and with so many also carrying a powerful fragrance, they bring double value to the colder months. So advice on those to choose for the most effective winter display and advice on how to get the best out of them is invaluable.

Arranged alphabetically, but with each entry written in an accessible discursive style, the book strikes a good balance between being authoritative and selective. Highlighting the differences, for example, between the various winter mahonias in terms of habit and flowering time helps us choose exactly the right one for our own situation. And it’s good to see some rare, but easy-to-grow plants, like the variegated Persian ironwood Parrotia persica ‘Lamplighter’, included.

The sections on cultivation that accompany each plant help ensure that you know how to encourage each plant to give its best and, unusually for a book by a British writer, good advice for American gardeners is included all the way through.

The index, I have to say, is not very satisfactory – only plants are included (no gardens or people) and there no cultivars listed, only species. But the book is so full of good plants and good advice – and some good pictures too – that I’m sure most gardeners will find they want to grow so many of these winter shrubs that drastic changes in their gardens will prove necessary.

Winter-flowering Shrubs by Michael W. Buffin is published by Timber Press.

You can buy Winter-flowering Shrubs in Britain here

You can buy Winter-flowering Shrubs in North America here

Comments

[Carol]

How appropriate is this book for a zone 5 gardener?

[Graham Rice]

Although it's written by a zone 8 gardener, he does give hardiness zones and comments on colder climates. The entries are written discursively so there is no opportunity to give hardiness zones and climatic comment for every cultivar mentioned. Of course, it's true that it's not as useful in zone 5 as book by a zone 5 "local" would be - but it's not expensive and it's packed with good information

[Digital Flower]

I'll have to check this out. One of my goals on the Estate Garden I take care of is to have something blooming every month, which isn't easy in Connecticut.