Edythe Falconer, Ottawa-Carleton
The
Ultimate Practical Guide to Pruning and Training – Richard Bird – Hermes House
- 2005
The author
has put together the most comprehensive reference on pruning that I’ve ever
encountered in many years of gardening. I acquired this publication by
accident. I was in a Lee Valley store this spring looking for a book on
Grasses. Bird’s book was on special at an irresistible price so I came home
with two great books instead of one. I will soon donate most if not all of my
“old” pruning books to our swap table and/or our spring plant sale in 2014.
In a mere 256
pages Bird covers ornamental trees, ornamental shrubs, topiary, hedges,
ornamental climbers and wall shrubs, roses, perennials and annuals, fruit
trees, climbing fruits and soft fruits. Added features include a directory of
ornamental plants and an extensive glossary. There is something here for both
the generalist and the specialist. Especially helpful is the wealth of
informative colour photos and diagrams. There are many other pluses. Bird
serves his reader well with suggestions for support structures for plants and
their relevance to styles of pruning. He provides diagrams for building some of
his favoured structures. He comments frequently on levels of difficulty in
maintaining specific plants. He includes the Latin names of many of the plants he
uses to illustrate his techniques and he even goes so far as to suggest many
creative yet sensible, doable design ideas. All of this is delivered in a
pleasant friendly style that makes for comfortable learning and reading.
I found this
book by accident. I’m recommending that you consider getting it by intent.
Although I now do a lot of my research on line I still value greatly references
of this calibre! Do check it out.
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