Christopher Lloyd's Garden Flowers

Perennials, Bulbs, Grasses, Ferns

Now available in paperback, this book represents the fruit of Lloyd's lifetime study of perennials. Genus by genus, he sets down everything he has learned, thought, seen, tried, liked, or regretted about them, individually or in combination. He is formidably knowledgeable, iconoclastic, opinionated, and always entertaining. Here, meticulously recorded, are his expert opinions about numerous varieties of flowering garden plants, from Acanthus to Zigadenus, accompanied by spectacular photographs from Jonathan Buckley and others. Any gardener will find themselves opening this book time and again with pleasure and the frequent thought, "I MUST grow this one, too."

Media reviews of this book:

"My personal favorite. The prolific Lloyd is delightfully opinionated and crusty."

—Dulcy Mahar, Oregonian, December 6, 2001

"It is hard to imagine any gardener anywhere using and re-using this book without pleasure, excitement, instruction, amusement, and the frequent reaction: "I must grow this ... we really must get that." It is surely impossible to read it without looking at the garden with new eyes and new ideas."

—Science News, July 14, 2001

"[This] is the book to own. It is that rarest of beasts — a reference book with a human voice ... to read through again and again, both for entertainment as well as to learn more than you can imagine coming from one person's brain."

—Valerie Easton, Horticulture, May 2001

"[Christopher Lloyd's] sumptously illustrated text shares a lifetime of trial and error."

—Rebecca Sawyer-Fay, Country Living Gardener, March/April 2001

"One of the first great plant books of the twenty-first century: an engaging personal survey of the perennial world ... Thoroughly delightful reading for garden lovers anywhere."

—Marge Howard-Jones, Pacific Horticulture, Winter 2001

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An excerpt from this book:

The main difference between this book and the all-embracing encyclopaedia lies in its offering not simply descriptions of plants, but personal assessments of them — their good points and their less good. All the plants included have come within my experience during a long life of gardening, and most I have grown myself at some time. Others, not suited to my conditions in Sussex, I know from other peoples' gardens. So for good or ill, here you have the voice of an individual rather than the omniscience of a faceless team of contributors. I am afraid that I will certainly have omitted some plants which you may want to look up ...

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