Product Description

A guide to all the classic flowering shrubs, as well as to the multitude of new varieties that have appeared in the garden centres. It includes a shrub selector to help gardeners choose the right plants for year-round blooms, as well as advice on planting, pruning, mulching and plant care.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8805 in Books
• Published on: 1994-03-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From the Back Cover
Flowering shrubs are now one of the most important plant groups for the home gardener. The Flowering Shrub Expert is a complete guide to providing year round colour with this versatile plant group.

* Comprehensive, photographic A-Z listing of shrubs. * Chapters on planting, plant care, propagation and pests and diseases. * Shrub selector listing by month, scent, site suitability etc.

Excerpted from The Flowering Shrub Expert by D.G. Hessayon. Copyright © 1994. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
One of the important changes in the home garden scene during the last quarter of the 20th century has been the growth in popularity of flowering shrubs. Before World War 2 the floral part of the average plot was dominated by herbaceous perennials, bedding plants, bulbs and roses – often low-growing and always uninteresting when not in bloom. Nowadays flowering shrubs are used to provide a permanent woody background to the floral display, with a range of types to provide for year-round colour. Gone is the old idea that the proper place for shrubs is in a shrub border – the mixed border with shrubs alongside bulbs, border plants, annuals etc. has taken over. Many shrubs make fine specimen plants when grown on their own.

Gardening is a thing of fashion, and we are now in an age when conifers and shrubs have become great favourites. But flowering shrubs have been with us since the beginning of gardening in this country. Seventeenth century garden catalogues list many of the plants in this book – Lilac, Honeysuckle, Yucca, Cercis, Hibiscus, Cytisus, Arbutus etc. Rhododendrons and Azaleas were not listed – they only became garden shrubs in Victorian times.

There are many reasons for the recent increase in flowering shrubs, but there are just two basic causes. First, there was the arrival of the container-grown plant and with it the opportunity to plant shrubs at any time of the year. No longer was the gardener restricted to buying a flowerless and often leafless shrub for planting between autumn and spring. Linked with the arrival of the container-grown plant was the arrival of the garden centre – now shrubs could be seen in bloom before purchase, and the range was large and varied. No longer was the gardener restricted to ordering from a mail order catalogue or having to choose from the limited range on offer at the garden shop, department store, market stall or local nursery.

With the increased range on offer at the garden centre and the ability to plant at any time came the realisation that flowering shrubs had many virtues. Much has been written about the labour-saving aspect compared with the cultivation of bedding plants and the herbaceous border. The chore of annual planting or lifting every few years is removed, and so is the need for staking and dead-heading. Slugs are not a threat and the need to water when the weather turns dry is much less pressing.

Apart from these cultural virtues there are environmental ones. Flowering shrubs can be used to create privacy or to create a windbreak. There are ground covers to control weeds and upright types to soften the stark lines of modern houses.

After all this praise for flowering shrubs it is necessary to sound a note of caution. Plants growing in containers are not cheap, and it is so easy to buy a showy specimen in full flower at the garden centre without checking that it is right for you. Never buy on impulse – check the anticipated height on maturity, soil and site needs, hardiness etc. before making your decision. Once you have bought a suitable shrub you must plant it properly – Chapter 3 makes it quite clear that this is not simply a matter of digging a hole and dropping it in, and it also stresses the need to avoid planting shrubs too closely together. It is also necessary to avoid planting vigorous and tall-growing shrubs too close to the house. Once planted and established most flowering shrubs need little regular attention, apart from mulching around the roots in spring. There is, however, one important need for some types – annual pruning. Read the pruning needs of the plant in question and follow!
the instructions – the commonest fault is to leave a shrub unpruned for years and then to hack it back when it gets out of hand.

A few words of caution, then, but nothing to discourage you from making even more use of this splendid group of plants. Look through the Shrub Selector chapter and you will find that it is possible to have blooms all year round in even a modest garden – blooms to provide colour, fragrance and a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Read on, and meet some old friends you have known for years and some new varieties you may never have seen before.

Customer Reviews

Very informative
You will have to look no further than this excellent guide its the complete A to Z of flowering shrubs. Whether you are a seasoned gardener or a novice like myself this book will appeal to all.

For each shrub you get : its Latin name,its common name,expected size,deciduous,climber or evergreen,available colours,flowering period,berrying period,a varieties description,info on site and soil,pruning info,propagation info,a colour photograph and a colour drawing.Now pardon my sarcasm but short of actually planting the shrubs for us I don't think there is much more that Dr.D.G.Hessayon can do!!

Also in this series are :The tree and shrub expert,The bulb expert and The lawn expert and these I can wholeheartedly recommend I'm aware of about 15 others but haven't read them, I would suspect an information overlap in there somewhere or am I being cynical.Anyway this ones well worth a read.

The Flowering Shrub Expert
I dont know what I would do with out this book when it comes to shrubs.
A must have when planting as gives straight forward information and the ideal location and the space needed when fully grown.
Gives very clear basic hints and tips when it comes to pruning and mulching.
I have lent this book to many friends who have shrubs that they are not sure about and they have all said what an easy to read book yet so informative.

Shrubs that need help
Moved into a house with loads of shrubs this book was the biggest help thanks