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Garden Fables

Timber Press

If those bookstore gift cards are burning a hole in your new goatskin garden gloves, give these books a try.

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2009

Updated: 01/02/2009 12:33 pm

So you got some flashy new garden tools for Christmas or Hanukkah, maybe a hard-to-find plant and a giant steppingstone that looks like a penny. (OK, the latter maybe wasn't the perfect gift for you, but it was for me!)

And bookstore gift cards. They're burning a hole in your new goatskin garden gloves, and you're dithering over the gazillion gardening books.

For starters, check out these tried-and-true authors and titles:

•Anything by Pamela Crawford. She gives the straight poop on growing in Florida with lots of how-to detail. Her first book, "Easy Gardens for South Florida" (Color Garden Inc., $26.37), is very applicable to Central Florida. Read the chapters preceding her plant profiles, and those at the end, and you'll have all the knowledge you need to start a beautiful, low-maintenance garden.

•Our own Monica Brandeis, whose columns appear in some of the Tribune's zoned sections, writes with the wisdom of years of experience. Her "Florida Gardening: The Newcomer's Survival Manual" (BB Mackey Books, $19.95) is a godsend for transplants (people, that is) from up North and loaded with helpful advice even if you've been here awhile.

•Stan DeFreitas' "Complete Guide to Florida Gardening" (Taylor Trade Publishing, $34.95) is full of good information from a Florida gardening guru. This one covers a variety of topics, including how-tos on planning, planting and those always wonderful tips.

If tried-and-true gives you the ho-hums, here are some good-looking brand-new choices published just last year. So long ago!

Penny Carnathan

"The New Encyclopedia of Daylilies"

(Timber Press, $49.95)

In the beginning, there were only a few wild species of Hemerocallis. Today, there are thousands of hybrids - vivid blooms such as the richly elegant Black Ambrosia and the exotic Velvet Ribbons. Daylily breeders John P. Peat and Ted L. Petit (whose garden is in Florida) updated their 2000 "Color Encyclopedia of Daylilies" with 1,400 award-winning or just plain exciting new hybrids, and kept another 300 from the original guide. The encyclopedia is 390 pages of color photographs: a close-up of each bloom along with a short profile of the plant. It was published in November.

Daylilies are hot here. Check out the Bay Area Daylily Society, which meets at 10 a.m. Jan. 17 at First Baptist Church of St. Petersburg, 1900 Gandy Blvd., www.bads.us.

"The Truth About Garden Remedies - What Works, What Doesn't and Why"

(Timber Press, $12.95)

We like pictures in our garden reading because that's what it's all about, right? But I can't resist a book that has "the truth about" in its title, even if it doesn't have pictures. I got a load of e-mails for a year after I published a home-brew recipe for lawn fertilizer some time back. So I'm happy to get "the truth about" the effectiveness of hot sauce as a pest deterrent and whether beer helps plants grow. You have to be a reader to buy this one, but you'll come away with lots of to-do's and not-to-do's and the scientific explanations for everything.

"Designer Plant Combinations"

(Storey Publications, $18.95)

If you're a little lacking in the artistic planning department, you'll get some great ideas here. The plants profiled are not all Florida friendly, but the generous assortment of color photographs ought to give you some good ideas for combinations, even if you have to substitute local plants.

This is a 227-page collection of color photos with lots of plant profiles and "designer tips."

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