Perennials: A Photographic Guide to More than 1,000 Plants

This stunning reference book is as gorgeous on the coffee table as it is handy in the garden. Perennials provides detailed information about this enormous category, and while it's hard not to love everything about this title, the most useful feature is its thoughtful organization. Divided up first into areas of "tall," "medium," and "short" plants, each area is then subdivided into season of blooming. For gardeners looking to fill a specific need such as "summer ground cover" or "autumn background," this arrangement allows you to flip right to a particular section with ease. Go deeper into each category, and you discover the nitty-gritty detail of each specific plant--under "tall, summer," you'll find a multipage spread of many different irises, while lovely primroses are featured in "short, spring." Each of these smaller subgroupings follow the same color wheel--if you're in the market for cheery yellow blooms, you'll have all your season-and-height-appropriate choices within pages of each other. The "Winter" section includes a handful of plants that are especially appealing year-round, such as sturdy ivies and bright foliage plants. This is also the section that focuses on house-appropriate plants like African violets, spider plants, and flowering bananas. Colors are bright and photos are clear and detailed. With this book at hand, choosing new plants will be quite a treat. Make sure to include the "how to use this book" in your first skim through--the code for various symbols is deciphered there, and you'll want to remember these, or at least mark the page. --Jill Lightner