A Bouquet of Books: Garden Reading for Every Season

November 2, 1975

Dearest Gardeners,

On this day, The New York Times shared a list of new gardening books in its "Around the Garden" segment.

Some bright newcomers have been added to the trowel‐watering can library. Here they are.

Masakuni Kawasumi spent three years in this country adapting his Japanese methods of bonsai growing to American species of trees. His “Bonsai With American Trees” ($10, Kodansha International) is the result, an excellent basic primer...

Tapeworm plant, living stones bead vine, spiderweb, and polka dot are a few of the off‐beat plants described in “Fun With Growing Odd and Curious House Plants” Virginie and George Elbert ($8.95, Crown). The odd‐sized book, 6½ x 11 inches, gives brief biographies and how‐to‐grow tips for many unusual house plants, delightful changes from the tried‐and‐true.

And while on the subject of fun, there is Jack Kramer's “How to Identify & Care for House Plants” ($8.95, Doubleday). The fun comes in matching line‐drawings and silhouettes to the author's organizational key. Though probably not meant to be a puzzle book, it is. ...a plant number 8‐1‐3 turns out to be none other than a cattleya orchid.

Thalassa Cruso, television “lady of the trowel” has done it again. This time she is telling about “Making Vegetables Grow” ($8.95, Knopf), one of her best with chatty helpful tips on bringing the crop in abundantly. 

Light gardens are booming, especially among those who have dark apartments and want some greenery indoors. “The Complete Book of Houseplants Under Lights” by Charles Marden Fitch ($9.95, Hawthorn) updates the hobby and is full of ideas. 

Joining the series of “state” books on wildflowers by John E. Klimas Jr., is “A Pocket Guide to the Common Wild Flowers of New York” ($5.95, Walker). Compact tuck in a backpack, Descriptions are in everyday language, not botanist's twang.

Environmental awareness has come full circle with “Organic Flower Gardening” by Catherine Osgood Foster ($12.95, Rodale Press). An organic gardener's book on raising flowers? Mrs. Foster explains why, 

“One is for the sake of the bees, wasps and other beneficial insects and butterflies …

another good reason is to protect the birds …

the most important is that you avoid starting chain reactions in the environment from poisonous chemical sprays and dusts you might introduce.” 

And for winter reading by the fireplace, here are a few: 
“A Gardener Touched With Genius, The Life of Luther Burbank” by Peter Dreyer ($10, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan): 

“The Best of American Gardening” by Ken and Pat Kraft ($10, Walker), a clip hook of garden tips gleaned from 100‐year‐old seed catalogues; 

“The Plant Hunters” by B. J. Healey ($8.95, Scribners), a brief biography of discoverers of exotic species from the 17th century to the present.

And for reference; “Ornamental Grasses” by Mary Hockenberry Meyer ($9.95, Scribners), an excellent well-illustrated guide to this unusual group of plants. 

“The Personal Garden, Its Architecture and Design” by Bernard Wolgensinger and Jose Daidone ($30, Van Nostrand Reinhold), beautifully illustrated with design concepts from European, Western and Japanese gardens. 

“Plant A Tree” by Michael A. Weiner ($15.95, Macmillan) subtitled, “A working guide to regreening America.” 
Good reference book for city planners, libraries, and schools on tree planting and care, nationwide. Florida, Texas, and California where the avocado is grown commercially, the trees do not start flowering until six years old, or sooner if grafted.

One rare exception was reported by Barbara Stimson, a gardener in Maine, who wrote in a recent Letters to the Editor, Flower and Garden, that her indoor avocado did flower, but no fruit, when it was about two years old and four feet high.