Gardening with Native Plants of the South

by Sally Wasowski, Andy Wasowski (Primary Contributor)

In today's South, where find gardening is a tradition, many homeowners and professional gardeners are discovering a vast 'new' palette of plant materials-native plants. They are realizing that these native wildflowers, trees, shrubs, groundcovers, vines, and grasses are far better suited, and therefore easier to grow and maintain, than most of the imported plants that populate traditional landscapes. InGardening with Native Plants of the South, landscape designer Sally Wasowski offers an exciting vision of the many possibilities and advantages of 'going native.' Lavishly illustrated with more than 250 gorgeous color photographs, her book is both an introduction to more than 200 of the most familiar and easiest to find native plants of the South and a basic primer on how to use them effectively.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference, Horticulture, Plants

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deals a bit too much with the Deep South to be tremendously useful to me, yet I like the layout. The author talks about trees, tall shrubs, low shrubs, accents, ground covers, shade... there are some nice sections on native garden planning, too.

[Roxann Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good reference book to keep on hand if you garden with native plants and live in the South. Photos and descriptions are helpful for both identifying plants in the wild and understanding the conditions they prefer. The design aspect of the book was less interesting to me, but the designs are a good jumping off point for less experienced gardeners who wish to use native plants in their planting schemes.

[Annette]

Bonnie Arbuckle loaned me this book, and I enjoyed it lots!

I had searched and searched for a question about magnolia's lower branches, and she answered it! I really appreciate the organization of this book too.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don’t read this book, you refer to it. And what a truly excellent resource it is. Glad I bought it.

Side note for all my friends to join me on Fable. Just do it. You’ll get what I mean. And you can bring your Goodreads data with you.

[Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat helpful. Just not sure what regions of the USA that the author was targeting. She talked about living in Texas, but some of the plants there are not native to other regions.

[Laura]

Borrowed from Chapin Library to get landscaping ideas for new house. Learned about some of the natives I see here.

[Lori Palen]

This book is OK. It’s mostly a directory of 280 native trees, shrubs, vines, groundcovers, ferns, flowers, grasses, and water plants.

[oli]

Really helpful. Organized nicely.

[Erin Penn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gardening with Native Plants of the South is a reference book along the lines of a plant encyclopedia - and is about as dry a read as the dictionary. If you live in the south and love gardening naturally - or want to work towards that instead of an English manor landscaping style Americans still persistently try to emulate despite living in a totally different climate and continent, this is a great reference tool with over 200 plants sorted by height (tall trees, short trees, shrubs, flowers, ground cover). I read the introductory material - then skimmed through the garden planning section and the "dictionary" section - before placing it in the gardening portion of my library where it will hang out as a little used reference until I start my shade garden (right now I am concentrating on the food portion of the garden) - at which point I will pour through it to fill in the bare, dry, caking area beneath my neighbors behemoth trees - most shade gardens are moist, so any help in that is going to be great.

I am rating the book at meeting its aim as an excellent reference source to encourage people to create more native environments. Each entry describes growing height, spacing, sun to shade, blooms, drainage, soil, root system, etc. and has (unfortunately) only one picture. For a really good encyclopedia (which would be triple the size and cost - and the introduction does indicate the author and publisher were aiming at something affordable for the shelf rather than exhaustive on the topic), I would have like a picture of the plant leaf, a picture of its flower and/or fruits, a spring, summer, fall, and winter picture so I can pick it out around my house. But I think those are dreams beyond my checkbook and will enjoy having this fairly workable solution.

The mark down on the book is its ability to cross-reference. Want dogwood - look for "flowering dogwood". Want honeysuckle - well that is "coral honeysuckle". Want a certain plant, you may need to look for its more popular cousin first. To me this isn't a big problem because each size section is manageable to page search, but it does impact the book's ability to be a good reference.

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting book, Ms. Wasowski gives us pause when she explains at the beginning why many songbirds and butterflies are endangered. She refers to their habitat, including what they should eat. Planning your native garden to include these concerns is just one of the many topics she covers.

I would have loved if the author included any cultivars of the native plant with a minor description. Instead, included with each plant listed are important hints and suggestions along with native range, related species, companion plants and wildlife that each affects. Is this a book for the beginner? Probably not. Are you looking for plants other than natives? Try something else. Would I have loved to see more information and pictures? Absolutely. Not every book will please everyone.

Among other things I look for three important criteria when giving a garden book five stars. Is it a keeper, do I want it for my bookshelf to reread and refer to at a later date? Would I recommend it to another Florida gardener that has experience with our area? Lastly, because I am visual, are the pictures in the book clear and colorful?

Because the plants she listed are NATIVES they should be able to handle our heat and humidity. What they may not handle is severe cold. When she gives you the plant's native range she is letting you know that it should do well in that general area; further north it may die. Common sense tells me that not everything listed will grow in my area of Florida even though it is a native to the south. The winter of 2009/2010 was below average for my state. Where I normally have some days in the high twenties we had continual cold getting as low as 15 degrees. Any good gardener is going to research a plant she or he is not familiar with or hasn't seen growing in their area.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gardening with Native Plants of the South by Sally Wasowski, Andy Wasowski (Taylor Trade Publishing 1994)(635.95175). The authors advocate the use of native plants over imports for the simple reason that natives have evolved to survive in the grower's region. It's hard to argue with that, isn't it? My rating: 7.5/10, finished 1997.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good photos of plants, trees, shrubs and vines. More detail could have been put into how to develop your native garden.

[Lindsey Lemmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and easy to navigate!

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful book--it helped me to both identify existing plants and see how native plants can be put together to form natural habitat in my yard.

[Sandra Jackson - Alawine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am enjoying this book immensely, many useful gardening tips. Lots of my favorite plants are in the book and a few that I have on my want to get list after reading the book.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear and informative with good pictures.

[Jami · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book for gardeners in the Southern U.S.

[Evelyn Sisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over 200 plant profiles and some great landscape plans. I will reference this for years.