Description:
There are a great number of books listing rhododendrons, identifying them, and enumerating their virtues. Such books are useful for rhody fanciers who want to learn more about their favorite plants, but do little to help gardeners with what they really need to know: how to choose the best rhododendrons and how to use them in the garden. Sonja Nelson concentrates her considerable experience on explaining which of the many kinds of rhododendrons are the most garden-worthy and how to incorporate them into your garden's design. Color photos show rhodies growing in different conditions, along with a variety of other plantings. Rhododendrons are pictured growing lushly and flowering profusely in gardens in such diverse locales as Los Angeles, Scotland, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. They work well mixed into a perennial border, thriving in a pot (the large-leafed Rhododendrons sinogrande), and consorting with a Japanese maple, as in the spectacular combination of lacy foliage found in R. macrosepalum "Linearifolium" and Acer palmatum "Dissectum." The most useful chapter in the book may be the one on companion plantings for rhododendrons. Finding suitable plants to layer with rhodies can be difficult, as they need plenty of water and have a number of surface roots that don't like competition or disturbance. Nelson sees rhododendrons as versatile plants useful as hedging, pruned up as trees, or layered into borders with a wide variety of shrubs, perennials, and groundcovers, including hydrangeas, Oregon grape, bleeding heart, coral bells, and maidenhair ferns. The old, sterile gardening style--with an expanse of lawn, barked beds, and lined-up shrubs--is over. Nelson provides the gardener with the information he or she needs to make rhododendrons part of the newer, more naturalistic garden filled with a variety of plantings. She also makes a compelling case for rhododendrons' place in mixed borders and convinces the reader that these plants deserve to steal the show. --Valerie Easton
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