Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden
By Paul Bonine


Amazon Sales Rank: #12552 in Books Published on: 2009-09-16 Original language: English Number of items: 1 Binding: Paperback 160 pages
Review "Black is not the first color that comes to mind when you think of plants. But as this beautiful guide makes clear, dark-hued leaves and flowers, from perennials to tropicals, have enormous appeal in a garden." (Martha Stewart Living )"This little gem of a book packs a planter's punch … If you never grow a single plant highlighted, it's still a fascinating read." (Our Little Acre blog )"Someday, I shall create the black-and-white themed garden I have been dreaming of; when I do, Black Plants will become muddy and dog-eared." (Pacific Horticulture )"This whimsical collection … is beautiful to behold." (Canada Style at Home )"Something that strange and surreal has to be a part of Halloween. Enjoy the celebration and think about adding some black plants to your garden." (Deseret News )"Black works great for cocktail dresses and luxury cars, but in the flower garden? Absolutely." (San Francisco Chronicle )"Despite some highly evocative names, this haunting book isn't just a Halloween treat. Dark foliage and flowers offer great opportunities for contrast, depth and focal points in the garden." (Hartford Courant )"I wish I could say I was always intrigued by the dozens of gardening books publishers send our way … but every once in a while, I'll get a gardening book that I read cover to cover, such as Paul Bonine's little book called Black Plants." (Tulsa World )"If you want to add dark blooms for contrast in your garden, grow some very novel plants, or plant an entire garden with a dark color theme, Black Plants is a great resource to have on hand." (May Dreams Gardens Blog )"Every once in a while a book is published that fills an empty niche. With Black Plants, finding dark leaved and dark flowering examples doesn’t need to be a mystery anymore." (Anchorage Daily News )"Your garden might never be the same." (Akron Beacon Journal )"Black generally has a negative connotation, a signal that all is not well with a plant. Paul Bonine has set out to salvage black’s horticultural reputation with Black Plants." (Chicago Tribune )"Some of the names are frightening, but their stories are enlightening." (Indianapolis Star )"Bonine is making the point that these deeply pigmented plants are striking additions to the ordinary run of garden bed and container choices, but the creepy factor is irresistible." (Star-Ledger )"Go ahead, open the cover, creep through the screeching gate. The plants inside are no nightmare. More like a dream." (Oregonian )"Rather than cast gloom, these plants can add mystery, depth, and sophistication to the garden." (Houston Chronicle )"Gardeners and plant lovers looking for ideas for distinct color schemes and exciting plant suggestions will appreciate this." (Library Journal ) About the Author Paul Bonine is co-owner of the wholesale nursery Xera Plants Inc. and has worked in the nursery industry in Oregon for almost two decades. In addition to consulting for NPR, various newspapers, radio, and television, Paul has written for several national gardening publications. Black Plants is his first book.
Needs more plants This is a nice book for someone who's thinking of creating a black garden or looking for a few really interesting accent plants. It lost one star because there's no index & I'd have like another 25 plants. The author gives the mature size of some plants, but not all. Light & water requirements are represented by 4 & 3 pictographs respectively. It's a bit like reading an international clothing care tag, but you get used to it. The plant photos tend towards macro shots, so you'll need to find find more pictures elsewhere if you want to see the plant structure. This little book packs a planter's punch! A few years ago, it became fashionable to create a Chocolate Garden, a trend that continues to be popular. Plants grown in a Chocolate Garden have a chocolate fragrance and/or have very dark blooms or foliage in tones of deep purple, brown, burgundy, maroon, or near-black. A great resource book for planning such a garden is the newly-published Black Plants: 75 Striking Choices for the Garden by Paul Bonine. (Timber Press, September 2009) This little gem of a book packs a planter's punch by giving essential information on 75 stunning plants that would be appropriate for creating either a themed garden or a smaller pocket of attraction. With each plant description, characteristics are provided that aid in making choices for the garden: soil conditions, hardiness zones, growth habits and light requirements. Suggestions are given for companion plantings that show off each plant's unique traits. On the page facing each description is a beautiful photograph of the plant. Growing plants with such dark colors could be seen as gloomy and unexciting, but when paired with contrasting colors such as lime green, a very dramatic effect can be obtained. Black Plants provides the necessary information to create such drama, but if you never grow a single plant highlighted in this book, it's still a fascinating read. first book I've returned in years. I'm sorry, I really am, but this book is a major disappointment. There are hundreds more plants than these out in the world if you are really interested in dark or black foliage, and the images in this book are almost exclusively closeups of the flowers or foliage with zero examples of those plants in action in a planting. You'd get better results googling "black plants" or "black flowers" or "balck foliage" than by buying this book. I expected better from Timber Press, I usually drool all over their books! I haven't returned a book to amazon or any other seller for many years, but this one didn't last 10 minutes out of the box before I printed the return label. I kid you not. If all you want are a few closeup photos and some less-than-useful nomenclature. For example, Helleborus x hybridus is a large group of cultivars and colors - many more than than the disappointing black specimen in the photo. Good luck finding the dark flowering plant shown using the name "Helleborus x. hybridus").

Leave a Reply

Pagelines
Converted by Wordpress To Blogger for WP Blogger Themes. Sponsored by iBlogtoBlog.
preload preload preload