In 1997, the American
Horticultural Society inaugurated an Annual Book Award.
The 1997 AHS Book Award winners were honored at the AHS
1997 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. The
winners had to have been published in 1996 and meet the
same criteria as the
"75 Great American
Garden Books". The 1997 Book Award winners are
listed here, alphabetically by author, and are still
available for purchase (click on "Buy this book").
The
Collector's Garden: Designing with Extraordinary Plants
by Ken Druse, Clarkson Potter Publishing
Ken Druse has achieved that rarity among gardening
books—a simply gorgeous picture book that you can’t help
but read cover to cover. Druse not only gives the reader
a guided tour of some of the loveliest gardens all over
the country, but he answers the questions that always
come to mind when you see photos like these. Extensive
quotes from the gardeners themselves help a reader to
understand how such fascinating and beautiful gardens
are created, what mistakes were made along the way, and
how each gardener has adapted to his or her particular
climate, soil, and topography—the things gardeners
everywhere need to deal with. The reader of The
Collector’s Garden feels that he or she has been lucky
enough to chat with the passionate gardeners of Druse’s
“insider network,” and to hear about their favorite
plants and where to find them.
Buy this book!
North
American Landscape Trees by Arthur Lee Jacobson, Ten
Speed Press
North American Landscape Trees is an ambitious
compilation of information that we would venture to
suggest could only have been written by one
person—Seattle tree expert Arthur Lee Jacobson. He
covers both native and exotic ornamental trees growing
in temperate North America north of Mexico, hardy to at
least 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The book covers 72
families, 198 genera, 950 species, 36 subspecies, 159
varieties, 95 forms, and 3,540 cultivars. His extensive
research in old nursery catalogs, done in part at the
Elisabeth C. Miller Library in Seattle and in part at
the Helen Crocker Russell Library at Strybing Arboretum,
shows in the depth and breadth of the book. What
distinguishes Jacobson’s work from Hortus III or the
Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary are both its
currency—where else can you find descriptions of such
new cultivars?—and the author’s informed, humorous, and
colorful writing style. Ten Speed Press should be
commended for letting Jacobson’s individual voice come
through so clearly in this impressive and useful book.
Buy this book!
Plants
That Merit Attention: Vol. II - Shrubs by Janet Meakin
Poor and Nancy Brewster, eds., Timber Press
It would be hard to imagine a more useful book for the
home gardener than this new volume on shrubs from Timber
Press. What is so special about it? First, it is
selective—only the most unusual, garden-worthy shrubs
appear here, as suggested to the Garden Club of America
by horticulturists, botanists, gardeners, and landscape
architects. The acknowledgements include more than 200
names that read like a “Who’s Who” of horticulture. And
because it is a selective listing, enough information is
given on each plant to really answer that most important
of questions, “Why give this plant space in my garden?”
Timber Press is to be commended for producing a
thoughtful, collaborative, selective guide to making
intelligent choices for the landscape.
Buy this book!
