The Real Deal about Perennials

There's no author of gardening books who says things better than William Cullina, who is currently at work as plant and garden curator at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden, the largest in New England.

It's a book you'll treasure not only for the clarity of the writing about what can be a difficult subject, but also for its provocative ideas. In Understanding Perennials: A New Look at an Old Favorite, Cullina smashes many old gardening myths.

In a paragraph entitled "I Want Them All," he politely urges us to abandon the much-favored English garden.

"We have inherited much of our gardening tradition from Victorian England, where gardens were awash in fabulous new plants from every corner of the empire. The name of this gardening game was to assemble and grow as many different plants as you could, regardless of their origin," he says.  Cullina reminds us that a garden of this type requires super-rich soil, a lot of water and fertilizer, greenhouses, cloches, pesticides and other harmful chemicals, plus pruning, staking and pampering.  "It is certainly not a very environmentally sustainable approach," says Cullina, "and it is a heck of a lot of work.  I get tired just thinking about it (remember that the folks who invented this style had gardeners to do the work for them)."  And to that I say "Amen."

You'll learn everything you need to know about perennials in this book -- what they are, how they grow, how to propagate them, care for them, and most of all, how to enjoy them.

Even if you think you know a lot about perennials, you'll learn a lot you didn't know:

• a double flower is actually a flower "like a set of nested bowls."
• meadow blazing star draws in monarch butterflies better than any other plant.
• perennials need less nutrients than garden vegetables and other annuals.
• "the finest gardeners are also propagators."

Cullina's book is filled with beautiful photographs, many of which explicitly document the scientific concepts he is explainining -- or illustrate a specific technique, such as propagating from a stem cutting or cleaning seed collected from spent flowers. It also contains many useful lists: plants that are deer-resistant; plants with seeds intolerant of dry storage, and the like.

It's a book you won't want to miss.

Comments

[Zach]

I am going to agree with Pam, Sound like a book I will need to add too. I just added it to my cart on Amazon!

[GardenJunkie]

Finally, a "real world" approach to living with and enjoying our gardens! Perennial gardens can be beautiful if properly planned and maintained - but sometimes I feel like the garden IS my life, rather than just a beautiful spot to relax. Thank you Mr. Cullina for bringing some common sense to perennial gardening!

[Pam Kersting]

Hmmm! Sounds like a book I'm going to need in my library! Thanks for the information!

[tina]

That is so exciting for me! Mr. Cullina is speaking at our Perennial Plant Society meeting this month and I will be there. Glad to know some more about him and what he does. Thanks. It is a small world.