Archives: Book Reviews

As a boy, I did not embrace the hobby of making models. Yes, I had a train set, but no desire to create a world of villages, forests, and the like to surround the tracks. Instead, I wanted to be outside in the garden and working with full-sized plants.

This makes me feel a bit inadequate to review “Gardening in Miniature” by Seattleite Janit Calvo. However it turns out that at its heart, this is a gardening book, with sound design advice and cultural tips, just all at 1:12 (one inch = one foot) scale, or even smaller.

“Using the basic garden tenets of anchor point, balance, layers, texture, color, and focal point, you can plan your miniature garden with confidence,” the author states encouragingly. Step-by-step, fully planned projects provide lots of guidance for the beginner. I worried that plants would not stay to scale, and indeed they might not, but it’s easy to swap plants in and out.

I learned from this that while there is some overlap in principles and techniques between miniature gardening and bonsai, they are largely distinct pursuits. However, they can be combined by making a bonsai the centerpiece of your miniature garden. Will I take up miniature gardening? Probably not. But my eyes have been opened to a whole new—and quite small—world.

Excerpted from the Spring 2014 Arboretum Bulletin.

The subject of Environmental Horticulture, a new book in the Miller Library by Ross Cameron and James Hitchmough, is best described by the book’s subtitle: “Science and Management of Green Landscapes.” The intended audience is broad, but I would recommend it for professionals managing large landscapes used for almost any purpose, and for students researching landscape management principles.

This book covers many topics, beginning with the value of green spaces for human well-being and biodiversity. Many types of plantings are considered, ranging from trees and shrubs to bedding plants, and including formal settings and semi-natural grasslands. Even plantings as diverse as lawns or sports turf and green roofs or rain gardens are studied with the same depth of research as other types.

The authors define Environmental Horticulture as “…the subset of horticulture that is concerned with the use and management of plants in public and semi-public environments.” They discuss how this term is nearly the equivalent of “urban horticulture” or “landscape horticulture” with the difference uses reflecting national preferences. “Urban horticulture,” for example, hasn’t caught on as a descriptor in Great Britain.

The authors are on the faculty of the Department of Landscape at the University of Sheffield in England. Although some of the terminology is distinctly British, much of the discussion is based on North American research. One of the most valuable assets of this book are the references, which include many American sources.

Published in the May 2017 Leaflet for Scholars Volume 4, Issue 5.

The H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest east of Eugene was established in 1948. At nearly 16,000 acres, it covers the entire Lookout Creek watershed on the west side of the Cascades. The Forest is used to study ecosystems, wildlife, logging practices, and many other natural and human processes in both old-growth and managed forests.

Started in 2003, the Long-Term Ecological Reflections program through Oregon State University sponsors “writers-in-residence” to spend one to two weeks in the Andrews Forest. Collectively, they have “…come to know the forest via the paths laid down in stories, stories told in anecdotes, photographs, essays, and poems, or in hypotheses, data, and graphs.”

The founders of this program are ambitious; they expect it to continue for 200 years. Fortunately, as readers, we don’t have to wait so long to read the results. Some of the early creativity is now captured in the book “Forest Under Story.”

This is a collection of poems, essays, and even field notes. Interspersed sections titled “Ground Work” provide the scientific basis that supports the more artistic writing. The black and white photography of Bob Keefer offers further context. This is a book to savor slowly, with lessons that are applicable to all coastal forests.

Excerpted from the Spring 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

There are many books in the Miller Library on Japanese gardens and even more on Japanese-style gardens outside of Japan, but very little about the history of Japanese horticultural practices. A new book, “Japanese Horticulture: Origins and History” by Yōtarō Tsukamoto (1912-2005) and John L. Creech (1920-2009), helps fill this gap.

We are very fortunate to have this book at all. Although Tsukamoto and Creech had long planned this collaboration, the manuscript was not completed before their deaths, and it was only through the work of a group of Japanese editors that the book was published in 2015.

The authors begin their study by looking at the rich (over 6,000 species) native flora of Japan, introducing the plant communities by reviewing 26 sites in the national park system. This is an important starting point, as few of the plants used in early Japanese gardens were non-natives. A chapter follows on the iconic plants of Japan, including ornamental cherries, iris, and azaleas, plus a few introduced plants, especially chrysanthemums and peonies.

The book concludes with the long history of visiting horticulturists to Japan, and especially the exchange between that country and the United States, such as the partnership that led to this book. “Among the complexities of Japan/United States relationships, plant have played a singular but often ignored role in fostering a harmonious social environment.”

This book is a rare, new treasure in the Miller Library collection, and as such is not available to borrow. However, for all who are interested in the history of Japanese gardening, or perhaps after attending a tea ceremony at Seattle’s Japanese Garden, I recommend seeking it out when visiting the library.

Excerpted from the Spring 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

When I first picked up “Design & Build Your Own Rain Gardens for the Pacific Northwest,” I immediately turned to the back to look at the recommended plant list. But this list is placed at the end with good reason. It is not the place to start!

Instead, the authors thoughtfully take you through the many considerations that go into a rain garden. First of all, why do we need them in our (supposedly) rainy climate? How do the various areas of our region differ in their rainfall and geological factors? Once that’s figured out, there is the human element. What do our various cities, counties, and other government entities think about or allow with rain gardens?

Once you have a handle on these questions, you need to look at your own property. What permits do I need? Whom do I need to notify that I’m digging a big hole? Are there incentive programs in my area for rain gardens? How do I want to incorporate this new major project into my outdoor living space, so that it only positively affects my home and the properties of my neighbors? Finally, what do I actually need to buy from the hardware store and nursery to build and plant a rain garden?

These are many questions, but this book takes you through them systematically and in great detail. Many instructive photographs and building diagrams will help, too. I soon found myself getting intrigued by the process. Building a rain garden is not a simple process to complete over a free weekend, but if you are serious about it, this book will be an excellent resource.

Excerpted from the Spring 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

In the Winter 1945 issue of the “Bulletin”, Else Frye recounts her trip to Royston Nursery on Vancouver Island, a significant journey at that time but with a mecca of rhododendron cultivars and species waiting at the end. “When we came away the car was so full of plants that the botanist husband could not see out of the back window; our suitcase was fastened to the outside and the very last box was firmly planted on my lap!”

In 1936, when the nursery was established, it was an eight-hour trip (about 130 miles) on mostly gravel roads from Victoria to Royston. Under these conditions, the establishment of a destination nursery is hard to imagine, but “A Garden for Life” recounts this engaging story.

The focus is on the lives of Mary and Ted Greig, who established and ran the nursery during its existence from 1936-1966. Many quotations, written at the time by Mary, provide an intimate look at their life. Other sources cite family and close friends from horticultural circles, giving historical insight to the challenges and passions of regional gardeners.

My parents lived on Vancouver Island from 1945 until the early 1950s. Beginning in Nanaimo, they gradually moved up island to the town of Campbell River while my father, an electrical engineer, worked with B. C. Power to install the first electrical infrastructure that connected the many communities with reliable power. For a while, they lived in Comox, very near the Royston Nursery. As renters who moved frequently, my parents did not have an opportunity to establish a garden. I don’t know if they knew of the Royston Nursery, but the stories they told of living in that area are very similar to those of Mary Greig. For example, in June 1946 a powerful earthquake (7.3 on the Richter scale) had its epicenter near Comox and Royston. Both my parents and the Greigs were fortunate that their homes sustained only minimal damage, but an estimated 75% of the chimneys in the area were destroyed. My parents joked about the event, mostly remembering how their piano slid from one room, through the doorway to another. Mary Greig had a similar light-hearted reaction. She wrote to family, “What was all the fuss about?”

Although the Greig’s nursery closed at the time of Ted’s death, the collection lives on at Stanley Park in Vancouver, B.C. Some 4,500 plants were moved there between 1966-1967. Almost 50 years later, Steve Whysall wrote in the August 19, 2013 “Vancouver Sun”: “…for avid greenthumbs looking for botanical treasures and keen to see something rare and out of the ordinary, there is nothing in the park like the Ted and Mary Greig Garden.”

Mary Greig continued to be active in rhododendron circles into the 1980s and many of the later stories in this book include familiar names from local garden clubs and plant societies. There is even mention of a new library named after Elisabeth C. Miller!

Excerpted from the Spring 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.

Upon retirement at age 57, Bill Terry told his friends that he wanted to use his extra time to create the perfect garden. He already had a site. Although at the time he and his wife lived in eastern Canada, they owned property on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast.

“The Carefree Garden” is the story of making that property into a garden. He quickly discovered this wasn’t a solo effort. “We should not resist being directed by Nature to some extent. We can let her own a part of the garden, even control a majority share.”

“Mother,” as he affectionately calls nature, is an equal partner in this story. Typically, she speaks to him through a Steller’s jay and she has a lot to say – mostly telling him all the things he’s doing wrong.

This whimsy is very engaging and many long-time gardeners will have practiced their own version (I have), but this book is also very practical. Terry is fond of simplicity, concentrating on native plants, starting his plant introductions from seeds, and using only the simple, species forms when introducing exotics. His useful list of ninety-nine perennials that thrive in our climate are almost all species, many of them native.

He concludes that the perfect garden is “…like the end of the rainbow, that never can be reached. I wouldn’t know what to do if I did—reach it.” I think most avid gardeners would agree.

Excerpted from the Spring 2017 Arboretum Bulletin.