Steve BenderCritiques

8-7

This is a great reference for Southern gardeners; packed with info and printed in small type, just the way I like my guidebooks. It includes some surprisingly obscure genera of plants, such as Nolina, and ones that are mainly grown in the Southwest, such as Brahea.
Note: The first copy I had was missing pages 273 through 288, so if you're buying it used (1998 edition), make sure to check that part of the book beforehand. I luckily got another copy at a Goodwill for 40 cents, with the same ISBN, with the pages all intact.

Great reference with lots of detail. Not as good as Sunsets Western Garden Book because it's missing the growing chart for each zone.

This is one of my favorite books! The authors are southern, and so are the plants.
I have many of them, and indeed, they are not always available in nurseries. One of my favorites is the hardy begonia, a start of which was given to me by my sister, Linda. The plants covered are each treated with some basic information and an essay. Each of the essays includes the author''s initials indicating who wrote what.
The photographs are made by the authors too.

(This review was originally written for The Garden Bloggers' Book club)

My middle name should be “Procrastination”. I have a real talent for finding seemingly valid excuses to not do what it is that I am supposed to be doing. Only the threat of a looming deadline spurs me to action. I finished reading the April/May selection, “Passalong Plants” in April. I will spare you the list of pressing chores that “prevented” me from writing my review until now, just a few short days ahead the May 30 deadline.

I was tempted to buy this book years ago when I became interested in heirlooms. The fact that it was about “southern” passalongs discouraged me from doing so. New Jersey is one growing zone north of what is considered “southern”. There are classic southern plants that can be grown here in sheltered locations but all it takes is a colder than normal winter and those delicate immigrants succumb.

Thanks to global warming, my zone 6 garden is now closer to zone 7, the northern-most “southern” growing zone. Colder than normal winter temperatures are rare now. I am more open to the idea of growing plants that are considered borderline in zone 6. I got out a pad and pen, ready to take notes as I dove into a whole new world of plants via “Passalong Plants”.

The authors, Steve Bender and Felder Rushing, have chosen to tell a story about each plant rather than just describing it. Southern gardeners and their gardens come alive through their anecdotes. The reader comes away from the book with much better “pictures” of these old-time favorites than any photograph (which are supplied in abundance throughout the text).

The essays can be read in any order. They are helpfully arranged according to the characteristics of the plants so that, for instance, if you are looking for fragrant plants, there is a section on those alone. There are also groupings of essays on plants that are aggressive spreaders, the most common “passalongs”, plants with strange characteristics (such as “naked ladies” and walking iris), plants with garish colored flowers and bare root shrub passalongs that are commonly sold in nurseries.

By far my favorite section was on yard art. I don’t “get” bottle trees but plastic animals, painted rocks and especially tire planters took me back in time to my childhood in largely rural upstate New York. The book ends with a chapter devoted to organizing plant swaps for your own passalongs.

I finished the book and realized that my pad was empty. I had been too caught up in the stories to stop and take notes. It’s on my bookshelf now, waiting for winter when I am making decisions about what to plant next year. I will page through it again in my constant quest to plant something new.

hb

I've got to get Sunsets Western Garden Book. Sounds great