Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East

Price: $23.95  

Author: Carolyn Summers
Subject: Gardens, Environment-Ecology
Cloth ISBN: 978-0-8135-4706-0
Paper ISBN: 978-0-8135-4707-7
Pages: 224 pages
Publication Date: April 2010

Events

August 29th 11-3 Bethel Woods Harvest Festival, Bethel NY

Speaking engagement, Cornell Plantations Fall Lecture Series, September 15, 2010, 7:30 pm, Cornell University

Book signing, Fiddlehead Creek Farm and Native Plant Nursery, September 18, 2010, contact Emily at www.fiddleheadcreek.com, Hartford, NY (near Lake George)

Speaking engagement, The Native Plant Center, September 24, 2010, Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY, contact Nancy Inzinna, 606-7870

Book signing, Forum: Our Natural Heritage, October 2, 2010, Orange Hall, Orange County Community College, Middletown, NY, contact Dorothy Szefc, 845-341-4891

Class, Arnold Arboretum, October 9, 2010, 9:30-3:30, Harvard University

Speaking engagement, Ridgefield Garden Club, October 12, 2010, 11:00 am-12 noon, Ridgefield, CT.

Speaking engagement, Master Gardeners of CCE of Orange County, October 13, 2010, 7-8:30 pm, Orange County Community College, NY

Keynote address, Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society Annual Conference, November 6, 2010, University of Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN

December 7, 2010, CT NOFA conference, UConn, Storrs, CT, contact Ashley Kremser, akremser@ctnofa.org

February 3, 2011, New England GROWS, 12-1pm, Boston Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

February 13, 2011, 2:00 pm, Long Island Horticultural Society meeting, Planting Fields Arboretum, Oyster Bay, Long Island, NY.

February 17, 2011, Phillipse Manor GC, 7PM

March 3, 2011, Ecological Landscaping Association annual conference, Springfield, MA, contact Penny Lewis, 603-490-2700

March 4, 2011 Ithaca Native Plants Conference, NY, contact Rick Manning, rmannin4@twcny.rr.com

March 12, 2011, Garden Wise, York Suburban HS, York, PA, PennState Coop. Ext., contact Constance Schmotzer, cxs51@psu.edu

March 15, 2011 Irvington GC at GCA headquarters, NYC

March 16, 2011, Westchester Audubon Chapters, joint meeting

March 26, 2011, CT Master Gardeners Symposium at Manchester Comm. College, CT, contact Marjorie Bingham, marjbin@yahoo.com

April 2, 2011, HGCNY at Baltimore Woods workshop, Syracuse, NY, contact Janet Allen, janetallen3@verizon.net

April 9, 2011, Rhode Island Native Plant Society conference, University of RI, Kingston, RI.

April 13, 2011, Chappaqua GC

April 16, 2011, Spring Garden Day, SUNY Ulster, Stone Ridge, NY, contact Dona Crawford, Ulster County Cooperative Extension, 845-340-3990.

May 4, 2011, 9:30 AM, Garden Center of New Canaan, contact Peggy Danneman, 203-966-7575

July 14-15, Polly Hill Arboretum, Martha's Vineyard, MA, contact Karin Stanley, karin@pollyhillarboretum.org

Read

Chapter 1

Praise for Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East:

“Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East is the most complete publication on the practical challenges associated with native plant gardening and fills this need very well for eastern gardeners.  What Carolyn Summers tells us about indigenous plants and wildlife is critical to our sustainable future.” —Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants

“This book is a must-have for anyone interested in the natural history of eastern native plants and their use in gardens. The author combines thorough research with a clear, thoughtful viewpoint gleaned from her own personal experience. Very well written, it is an enjoyable read as well as a valuable tool for garden designers.”—Darrin Duling, director, the Native Plant Center

“Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East is a long overdue, in-depth look at the paucity of indigenous American plants in gardens in the United States, and the importance of correcting this situation. It is an explicit guidebook for garden professionals to enable them to help sustain our wild floral heritage rather than allowing its not-so-slow destruction.” —Ruth Rogers Clausen, Co-author of Perennials for American Gardens 

Description:
Gardeners, with all good fortune and flora, are endowed with love for a hobby that has profound potential for positive change. The beautifully illustrated Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East approaches landscape design from an ecological perspective, encouraging professional horticulturalists and backyard enthusiasts alike to intensify their use of indigenous or native plants. These plants, ones that grow naturally in the same place in which they evolved, form the basis of the food web. Wildlife simply cannot continue to survive without them-nor can we.

Why indigenous plants, you may ask? What makes them so special to butterflies and bees and boys and girls? For Carolyn Summers, the answer is as natural as an ephemeral spring wildflower or berries of the gray dogwood, "As I studied indigenous plants, a strange thing happened. The plants grew on me. I began to love the plants themselves for their own unique qualities, quite apart from their usefulness in providing food and shelter for wildlife."  

Emphasizing the importance of indigenous plant gardening and landscape design, Summers provides guidelines for skilled sowers and budding bloomers.
She highlights . . . 

• The best ways to use exotic and non-indigenous plants responsibly
• Easy-to-follow strategies for hosting wildlife in fields, forests, and gardens
• Designs for traditional gardens using native trees, shrubs, groundcovers as substitutes for exotic plants
• Examples of flourishing plant communities from freshwater streams to open meadows
• How to control plant reproduction, choose cultivars, open-pollinated indigenous plants, and different types of hybrids, and practice “safe sex in the garden"

CAROLYN SUMMERS is an adjunct professor for continuing education at Westchester Community College and provides technical assistance to the Native Plant Center, an affiliate of the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center.