The Flower Expert

The Expert Series

by D.G. Hessayon

The complete guide to the selection and care of flowering plants - annuals and border perennials, alpines and garden bulbs. Many varieties are shown, with instructions on what to choose plus the secrets of successful cultivation.

Genres: Gardening, Reference, Nonfiction, Horticulture, Nature

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

David Gerald Hessayon was a British author and botanist of Cypriot descent who is known for a best-selling series of paperback gardening manuals known as the "Expert Guides" under his title Dr. D. G. Hessayon. The series started in 1958 with Be Your Own Gardening Expert and in 2008 it celebrated its 50th anniversary and the 50 millionth copy in print. They have become the best selling gardening books in history.

Reviews

[Joy Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gardening books by D.G. Hessayon are the best I've found largely because the climate in England is much like the conditions where I garden which is in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S./Canada (Seattle/Vancouver, B.C.)

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weeding my gardening books. I have several of the books in this Expert series, but somehow I never noticed they’re all by the same author. It’s been a while since I looked through them, and I’ve had them for about twenty years, so I was thinking they’d be easy pickin’s for pulling from my library. But when I skimmed through I realized they really are excellent reference books.
Well organized and designed, they even have colored pages to make sections easily identifiable.

There are sections for annuals & biennials, border perennials (herbaceous perennials that grow up to 12”), rockery perennials (for rock gardens), and bulbs. Each plant profile includes a color illustration and photo, along with a description, varieties, site and soil, height, spacing, light and propagation. It’s not an exhaustive list, but it’s a solid reference, covering I’d estimate about 300 flowering plants. There’s also some succinct and helpful sections on general gardening advice.

Verdict: keep. I may need to look at adding more books in this series to my library.... #defeatingthepurpose

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

We've had this book since 1984 and referred to it often. It's still like new. Good quality or what?

[Dreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this book back to front, inside out and sideways, a very useful guide!