Best Perennials for Sun and Shade

April 15, 2019
This simplified guide, derived from Taylor’s 50 Best Perennials for Sun and Taylor’s 50 Best Perennial for Shade, highlights a selection of easy-to-grow and “best performing” perennials, “plants that persist year after year in a garden.” After briefly touching on gardening basics, the book divides into two sections, making recommendations for plants that do well when exposed to at least eight hours of sun daily, and varieties that thrive in full or part shade. Each promoted specimen is awarded a two-page spread with a color photograph of the plant accompanied by a brief description, instructions for how and where to grow, and points of interest, such as the long blooming season of yarrow or dusty miller’s unusual foliage—“feltlike silvery gray hairs... very soft to the touch.” These tidbits are reminiscent of the information typically found on the growing labels stuck in plants at nurseries and gardening centers. The book includes the essentials, but reads like a series of PowerPoint slides. This slickly produced repackage is not likely to impress veteran gardeners, but those with less dirt on their knees may be pleased by the colorful illustrations.

May 15, 2019
This compact guide makes no claim to be as expansive as, say, Clausen and Christopher's Essential Perennials (2015), which lists some 2,700 plants in its 452 pages. Rather, it's a handbook of sure-fire varieties for the novice or tentative gardener, organized by sunny (52 listings) and shady locations (31 listings). For the latter, there's dependable sweet woodruff ( it will fit anywhere and everywhere ) along with foxglove, Japanese primrose (for especially damp locations), hakone grass, hardy begonia, lily-of-the-valley, and jack-in-the-pulpit. The sky's nearly the limit for perennials that thrive in sunshine, but those included here are easy to grow and widely available. Each double-page entry includes a full-page color photo opposite text on how and where to grow, hardiness zones, light requirements, height, and interest to the garden. And a 175-word description, from the plant's history to its uses, makes the plant that much more approachable to the gardener. A good table of contents, listing each plant, would have helped, since the entries are not alphabetized; still, this is a solid, user-friendly entr�e to perennial gardening.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)