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Gardeners now have an affordable reference for dwarf conifers. Numerous group photographs provide you with comparative sizes and shapes of mature conifers – shown in beautifully landscaped bed settings. Sandra McLean Cutler’s comfortable writing style contributes to the ‘user-friendly’ feel of Dwarf and Unusual Conifers Coming of Age. You will find this dwarf conifer book to be a rich resource as you design and landscape your garden.
Extensive descriptions and color photos, combined with directions for care and maintenance, plus a thorough index, make this an excellent reference and guide. 345 color photos are included.
This is a gardening landscape design book – for gardeners – by a gardener. The author has focused on the Nation’s living museum, the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. Special emphasis is placed on the Gotelli Collection of Dwarf & Slow-Growing Conifers and the Watnong Pinetum Collection.
The book begins with a ‘drive-thru’ tour of the Gotelli and Watnong Collections. Group photos show an overall view of the outskirts of the Collections as seen when driving on Conifer Road. It continues with a ‘walk-thru’ of both dwarf conifer collections, showing more group settings as you meander through the living exhibits. These sections are filled with photos of groupings of plants throughout the seasons, which reveal a beautiful diversity of sizes, and the wide variety of shapes and colors of dwarf conifers. Many photos include an outline sketch keyed to the botanical names, providing you with a handy tool for future reference. The diagram drawings also allow you to identify mature dwarf conifers, and to compare their sizes, colors and shapes.
A short History of both dwarf conifer Collections includes photos taken
during the transplanting, installation (1962) and early years of the
Gotelli Collection. These photos provide a visual reference of growth
rates for many of the dwarf conifers shown throughout the book. You will
want to notice the several helpful transplanting hints provided in the
note inserts throughout this chapter.
The chapter, ‘Answers to a Few Questions’, anticipated and answers questions, including explanations of dwarf conifer sizes, forms, suggestions of companion plants, and the use of botanical nomenclature.
The Descriptions Chapter introduces you to appropriate climate conditions and expected growth rates, and will assist you in choosing the best dwarf conifers for your location. More than 50 pages, with extensive photos throughout, provide over 350 conifer descriptions. You will continue to refer to the descriptions in this chapter.
Care and Maintenance gives you clear instructions for planting, transplanting, pruning and continued care of conifer cultivars. It also provides an alternative to depending on chemicals to control pest and diseases: An integrated pest management program. Natural and less toxic methods of pest and disease control are presented.
The glossary, reading list, cross-reference of botanical/common names
of conifers, and an index, all add to the user-friendly format used throughout
this dwarf conifer book.
The ultimate question is – Why settle for common conifers? – Especially ones that soon become overgrown, engulfing garden beds, sidewalks and windows in the process? There are hundreds of unusual dwarf conifers and slow-growing conifers to choose from that can ‘keep their place’ in your landscape.
This is the book the author wanted to buy. Frustrated by the lack of books available on dwarf conifers, and lack of information about our National conifer collections, she set about producing this book.
