Product Description

This is a guide for both beginners and more advanced gardeners, in which over 800 woody plants are described. It aims to provide easy-to-follow information on selection, growing, and care.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15198 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.50" h x 7.50" w x .25" l, .82 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

From the Back Cover

Another world bestseller from Dr DG Hessayon that is an essential book for all gardeners.

* Separate chapters for trees, shrubs, conifers and climbers.

* Clear, concise information on buying and planting, plant care, propagation and pests and diseases.

About the Author
Dr David Hessayon initiated a major innovation in gardening publications in 1959 with the first of his Gardening Expert guides. These best-selling guides have had an unparalleled influence on gardening over the past 50 years. There are over 51 million copies in print. He was awarded the 1993 Gardening Book of the Year Award from the Garden Writers Guild and received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement 'Oscar' at the National British Book Awards. In 1999 he received a Guinness World Record Award as 'Britain's best-selling living author of the 1990s'. He lives in Essex, and has two daughters and four grandchildren.

Excerpted from The Tree and Shrub Expert by D.G. Hessayon. Copyright © 1983. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Gardening styles may come and gardening styles may go, but ornamental trees and shrubs go on for ever. The only living thing which was common to the naturalistic British style of Capability Brown and the formal French style of Le Notre was the use of trees and large shrubs. But this is not a book about the grand gardens of yesterday. It is about the ordinary home gardens of today, ranging in size from tiny plots outside terraced houses to multi-acre estates surrounding stately homes. In both of these there is a place for shrubs, conifers and climbers, and the popularity of these plants has greatly increased in recent years.

There are several reasons for this growth of interest in woody plants. The advent of the garden centre is, of course, a major factor. Once we had to order our shrubs from a nursery – now we can see conifers, trees, climbers and so on all neatly displayed, in full leaf and perhaps in flower, and ready to take home for planting. Planting is no longer a task which must be completed in the cold moths of the year – container-grown shrubs can be planted all year round.

Above all, perhaps, is a much wider understanding of the unique role of trees and shrubs in the garden. The lawns, paths and low-growing flowers form the ground-level pattern. Above them rise the woody plants, the trees, shrubs, conifers and climbers – the upright living framework of the garden. In summer they provide height, colour and fragrance – they give the garden its shape. In winter their role is equally or even more important. When the flower garden has died down, the bare branches of deciduous shrubs and the leaf-bedecked stems of the evergreens ensure that we are looking at a garden border and not a bare plot of ground.

Trees and shrubs have an additional virtue – they are much less trouble than annuals, vegetables, lawns and the herbaceous border. Once fully established there is little to be done – no constant feeding or spraying, no regular dead-heading and staking, no annual planting ritual and no rushing out with the watering can every time the weather turns dry.

The labour-saving aspect of trees and shrubs is well-known – hardly any textbook fails to mention this virtue, but these plants are neither trouble-free nor child’s play. You will need to apply some skill before you even lift a spade. Careful selection is vitally important because woody plants vary greatly in their environmental needs and the size they will eventually reach. Some types will flourish in chalky soil – others will quickly sicken and die. A Hebe may reach less than 1 ft or more than 10 ft – a Pine tree may stay at less than 2 ft or tower 70 ft or more into the sky when mature – it all depends on the variety you have chosen. The golden rule is never buy a tree or shrub on impulse or because it looks so nice and is just about the right size in the garden centre. Much of this book is devoted to a series of A-Z guides – study them carefully before making your choice.

Container-grown specimens are not cheap to buy and once planted they should be regarded as permanent, as many do not take kindly to being moved. So plant them properly, and this does not mean digging a hole and just dropping them in. Chapter 6 provides a simple guide to the proper technique – above all, avoid planting expensive and choice specimens too close together. Selection and planting call for some care, but the established plant needs little attention.

Shrubs and trees bring an air of maturity to the garden. They can provide beautiful flowers, heady fragrance, attractive leaves, eye-catching shapes and colourful bark. There is also a practical aspect – shrubs can reduce the effect of high winds, increase privacy, cut down the weed problem and screen out unsightly objects. They are truly a worthwhile investment, repaying over and over again the money and care bestowed on them.