Gardening Book Review: Christopher Lloyd’s Garden Flowers: Perennials, Bulbs, Grasses, Ferns, by Christopher Lloyd. Cassell Paperbacks, 2001

The late Christopher Lloyd was one of the great garden writers, and my hands down favorite. He was a prolific writer and this plant encyclopedia is considered by some to be his best book, in a tie with his “The Well Tempered Garden”.

His definition of a perennial is a non-woody plant that survives year to year, and most often goes dormant at some point. Thus, he includes bulbs like tulips and daffodils as perennials, whereas most American writers would give them their own category. But since hardy bulbs are used in the garden in the same manner that herbaceous perennials are, his inclusion of them here make sense.

The first few pages of the book are devoted not just to what perennials are, but why one would use them; what their weak spots are; how to use them with other plants (taking advantage of the spaces they create after blooming if they are summer dormant etc); how to properly plant a, er, plant; and maintenance such as division, support and deadheading.
Then the book launches into the encyclopedia section, arranged alphabetically by genus.

This is where we find what makes this book different from so many other plant encyclopedias. Like all the others, he gives us the size and growth habits of the various species within the genus. But then we get to learn how this particular plant performed for him, where exactly he tried it, if he ended up getting rid of it or treasures it, which popular plants he detests, how to get the best performance from the plant. He tells us all this in an informal, chatty style that makes one feel that they are walking through his garden with him, talking plants. And there are a lot of plants here, 375 pages of them, a lot of which I hadn’t heard of.

The weaknesses of the book? Because it’s from England, there are no USA hardiness zones given. And because England has a milder clime than we do, a lot of the plants will not survive our winters- he lists petunias as perennials, which they are, but not anywhere north of Los Angeles or so. But while the book might be more suitable for the coastal northwest than our inland northwest, it’s still full of treasures for us to try and it’s just plain enjoyable reading if you like plants. ( )