Shrubs and Hedges

This is a standard sort of American book written by an expert, meaning it provides a wealth of information about things like how to prune and purchase shrubs and no information at all about things like actually using these wonderful plants for food, medicine and more. It's such a missed opportunity but one I've come to expect from modern books. Even the shrubs that the author recommends strongly like witch hazel and roses have absolutely no mention of myriad ways you can use them other than for looks and things like wind protection and helping wildlife (which is one of the only areas I do agree with her).

I have been slowly getting rid of our lilacs and dogwoods (which are lovely and useful in their own ways, but not needed en masse) in favor of elderberries, bush cherries, shrub roses and all kinds of edible and medicinal shrubs and bushes. I love the variety of wonderful fruits and medicines they provide, and I was really hoping for more information about edible shrubs especially. This book is not that sort. Today, we are expected to let our apples from our apple trees rot on the ground until they're raked up and sent to the landfill, leave the medicinal elderberries for the birds, and then go buy far less healthy food at the local grocery chain instead.

All that said, this a very thorough book about the technical aspects of shrubs and hedges. Common, popular ones are featured. The looks of the gardens tend towards very manicured. No garden zones are provided, just temperature ranges. It will be a good book for gardeners looking for standard 20th century books. I'm not sure I'd classify it as a 21st century book, as I like to think we're finally moving back to some need for more education on sustainability and the benefits of things like edible landscaping for humans and not just birds. I realize I am a cranky old bat though and this really is a perfectly fine book for most readers. :)

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

I really enjoyed this book. I feel that it’s very informative and detailed. The pictures are really well done and I learned so much about shrubs and plants. I am not the worlds best gardener and my yard is most certainly lackluster. I feel through the good information on plant selection and care I can certainly find plants that look good and I can actually balance taking care of them. I am so glad I had the chance to read this book. It isn’t all encompassing but it has everything a beginner needs. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

In the introduction, the author reminisces about growing up near Philadelphia and the memories of hedgerows. There was the neighbor's magnificent hedge of privet that completely surrounded their farmhouse, a relatives distant farm whose fields were divided by mixed shrubs and her own families hedges of honeysuckle and roses. These hedges not only provided an attractive facade and means of providing privacy but also acted as a powerful magnet for wildlife, ablaze with singing birds and buzzing insects.

Sadly, as time and development encroached, the hedges were razed to make way for houses and more houses. The passage saddened me as I see it happening on a daily basis all around me. It seems that every time I venture out, I see another field being leveled to make way for a cluttered mass of houses with barely enough space around them to plant anything.

We have to have hope, however, and the author hopes to inspire a new generation of gardeners, plant lovers and horticultural scientists. The book presents general information on a variety of topics including the history and purpose of shrubs and the complicated system of plant names. There were some interesting tidbits here, especially about common names. For example, I had never heard that Serviceberry (which is sometimes called a host of other names - Saskatoon here in the Pacific northwest) may have gotten its name from the fact that it blooms in the spring when the ground has thawed enough to bury a dead body after a cold winter. I also learned the the 'PJM' rhododendron is named after Peter John Mezitt, a nurseryman who introduced it.

After some rather detailed information about the various shrub shapes and forms and leaf characteristics, specific shrubs are highlighted. The shrubs chosen are ones that provide a multitude of uses and offer multiple seasons of interest. Arranged by season of interest, "Spring" features profiles of spirea, deutzia, kerria, lilac and viburnum. Under the "Summer" section, you will find hydrangea, native roses and the Seven Sons Tree (Heptacodium miconioides). The Fall season showcases more viburnums, beautybeerry, Edgeworthia, hollies and the witch hazels.

The latter chapters go into designing with shrubs and pruning and caring for them. There is also information on how to create an allees, espalier, topiary and hedges. Attracting wildlife and selecting plants for wet areas are covered in separate chapters.

The book has an attractive layout with nice photos and detailed charts that pinpoint particular cultivars of specific plants. Overall, a very nice book for people who are just beginning to venture into the plant world and need help with landscaping their property.

This book is more than just a gardening book, with beautiful photos throughout, this book has a lot more to appeal to many people.
The chapters are divided into general use and benefits, history, and name and how scientific names can be explained.
It goes o to explain general gardening requirements such as size, structure and fitting into the landscape. Next chapters are more practical with pruning, propagating ., attracting pollinators/wildlife, hedges and shrub s for ponds, creeks and other areas and finally how,where and when purchase.
Well written, with lots of information this is a real find for anyone wanting to grow shrubs in there garden. It fits both the plant knowledge and growing information needs for gardens.

If I have a forte in gardening, it is in growing vegetables. Anything other than that is a learning experience that I often fail at. This year my plan was to put in a few bushes and shrubs, especially in the shadier areas where I can’t grow vegetables. With that in mind, I picked up the book hoping to solve this particular mystery of gardening that eludes me.

What I found was a lot of information on well, just about everything. As a reader and gardener, there were certain areas I was more interested in learning about that others and those sections is what I was drawn toward. But even with that in mind, there is a lot of information on history of shrubs, pruning methods, designing, not to mention species information. During this past winter I knew I wanted to plant some hydrangea bushes and if you are like me, then you are in luck because there are pages of the different types available with important care facts on them.

Overall, there is a wide assortment of information within this book and a ton of pictures. My only issue with the pictures is that they somehow didn’t look right in my digital version, but I suspect that it was just my version and a printed copy would not have these issues.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group – Cool Springs Press for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

Rating: 4 stars

Vibrant photography and relevant information. I enjoyed my read. The focus never felt too specialized. This would make a solid reference book when planning in the garden.

I have a large long hedge around my garden, which is at times quiet hard to maintain, so grabbed this book when I saw it was available on Netgalley.

It is split into 11 chapters:
- uses and benefits
- history
- how they are named
- classics and rising stars
- designing with shrubs
- pruning
- propagating
- hedges and hedgerows
- attracting pollinators and other wildlife
- shrubs for ponds, creeks, etc
- purchasing shrubs

It's full of colour photography of shrubs and hedges, tools required when maintaining the shrubs, along with some illustrations of leaf shapes, flower structures, garden designs, pruning cuts,

when it comes to the shrubs and hedge, it provides information on height and width of the plant, if it's tolerant to the cold, it's lighting requirements and what season it's most interesting. some plants such as the hydrangea have around 3 pages of tables on this information as there are so many varieties and one for picking the right shrub for wetlands, hills and slopes and ponds.

The only thing I thought was perhaps missing from the book was any trouble shooting, such as when plants have problems and how to deal with them, but apart from that a very useful book.

I received this book from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

A really good informative book with plenty of tips and ideas. Now to put it all into practice once I have cleared all the garden weeds.

A big, beautiful guide to shrubs, hedges, and hedgerows. Didn't expect to be a hedge enthusiast at 31, but here I am! Everything you didn't know you wanted to know is here!

The description fits this book very well. I found the layout easy and liked the few diagrams of gardens pictured. There is a chapter that covers tools and dividing shrubs, which is useful information to save money. I am uprooting all of my invasive plants that were planted by the builder and planting native plants for birds and pollinators and the book gave me some options for my new upcoming native yard. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to advance their shrub skills.

Shrubs and Hedges is a modern herbarium collection of shrubs and hedges along with culture notes mostly aimed at the home gardener. Due out 3rd March 2020 from Quarto on their Cool Springs Press imprint, it's 224 pages and will be available in paperback format.

The book is quite well written, layman accessible, and it has an easy to follow logical format. The introductory material includes some good botanical definitions and uses and benefits of shrub plantings. The following chapters contain some horticultural history, general nomenclature and ID information, classic standard shrubs and some very basic garden design instruction, pruning and training, propagation, large plantings and permaculture (hedges & hedgerows), building and maintaining a healthy biome to attract pollinators and other creatures, especially challenging applications (water, hillside, pond, creek, riparian plantings, etc), as well as a wealth of advice on choosing, sourcing, and purchasing the correct plants for a particular purpose.

The book also includes a resource links list which is extensive and very useful along with a cross referenced index.

The photography throughout is lush, bountiful, clear, and beautiful. It's possibly the most outstanding part of the book. The varieties are clearly (and as far as I can see, correctly) labeled and distinguishable.

Larger plantings can be quite breathtakingly expensive to purchase, and preventing making even one major error purchasing the wrong plant could potentially save much more than the cost of the book. Highly recommended for anyone designing a garden area with larger focal plantings. I also really liked that there was good information for challenging areas (ponds, swamp, etc).

Five stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Whether you need a border for your garden or a knight who says Ni, we all need a shrubbery. If you’re looking to do some landscaping and want to include some shrubbery or put in a hedge so you don’t have to see or hear your awful neighbors, then this book is a great resource. If you’re a landscaping newbie, you’ll find a lot of helpful tidbits, and even if you know what you’re doing, there is a ton of valuable information to be had on design, along with care and maintenance of your hedges and shrubs.

Ni!