Designer Plant Combinations: 105 Stunning Gardens Using Six Plants or Fewer

I could see this being a handy book for beginners, easy to read and has nice photos. However, the suggested plant combos don't match my taste. I do like seeing the frequent suggestion of Cotinus but extremely disappointed to see yellow iris as a suggestion with no warning to its highly invasive and destructive nature

First of all the pictures--by the best garden photographers around. I doubt you will ever find such high quality reproduction or gorgeous pictures in such a convenient and incredibly inexpensive format. Second: diversity--what an extraordinary range of gardens, from cactus and desert stark to lush woodlands and of course classic English style herbaceous extravaganzas. By carving a manageable vignette out of what are often extremely complicated gardens, Scott makes it possible for the reader to duplicate the scene. More importantly, he shows how combos work: groundcovers melding together, focal point plants, see through designs--some nuts and bolts beautifully demonstrated. As well as being a very handy handbook, this is a valuable benchmark of garden design as practiced in America today: he's picked gardens from California to the east coast and everywhere in between to sample the range of outstanding garden design comprising the American perennial garden. The world is awash with mercurial computer images that constantly disappear and flicker away: books like this are monuments that capture the moment. They will never be replaced by websites or digitization.Scott has produced four stunning and very different books in as many years. He is a force to be reckoned with: I don't know anyone who wouldn't be beguiled by the pictures and enlightened by the text. You will be delighted to own this one!

I was looking for a book that would help me design a garden, since I'm new to gardening. This book didn't really help. It's over 200 pages of lists of plants that the author believes go together, along with photos of the plants in combination. All sounds good, right? And if that's all you're looking for, this may work for you; the photos are beautiful, and there are written descriptions of each plant.However, the problem for me is that almost all of the photos are close ups of the plants themselves, with no indication of what the whole garden looks like. Sometimes it's even hard to tell the size of the plant, since there's nothing to compare it to. If, like me, you're trying to decide where to put your plants, and how to arrange them in your garden, this book may not help very much.My suggestion is that you first try to find the book in a library or bookstore and look it over before buying it. It's not a bad book in any way, just not what I need.

The book is a little "over-designed" making it a bit difficult to read (a bit busy), but otherwise there is a ton of great info and lots and lots of great images to give you ideas of plants that look good together. Use this in combination with some other great titles out there like "Ever-Blooming Flower Garden" and "Continuous Bloom" to put together a great perennial garden.

I was looking for inspiration for a cottage style garden. This book, with its gorgeous illustrations, varying themes, and careful, thorough explanations definitely provided that. I loved that as you flipped pages, the page on one side would have a picture of the garden and the other listed the plants, drought/heat tolerance, USDA hardiness, height, size and other info necessary for combining with others.The author, Scott Calhoun, really has a painter's eye - just the page headings/descriptions make you realize exactly why the chosen gardens are so exquisite. Looking at "Inspired Calligraphy" made me realize that I liked it because of the harmonious yet spare, almost Japanese balance of the colors. Anyway, highly recommended to anyone looking for color combinations for their own garden, Calhoun will make you look like a genius!

I had high hopes for this book but living in New Hampshire--planting zone 5--this book's geared towards prairie & southwestern plantings, & is not helpful for me. The photos ARE beautiful, but they're a bug's eye view of different plants together. I give the author credit for his writing style, a lively description of each combo, & the color combos are wonderfully unusual.If I could have viewed the interior of the book before buying I would have passed on this one. For me a more helpful book is "The Secret to Stunning Gardens in Sun & Shade" from Garden Gate magazine, available here on Amazon.com.

I love gardening but am at a loss for how to put plants together so they will look great. This book is full of examples of what types of shapes and colors look good together. The manageable number of plants in each example make it so easy to understand and try in my own garden. My only complaint is that some of the pictures are so close up that it's hard to get a feel for what the combination looks like as a whole. But this still ranks as one of my favorite gardening books that I know I will refer to over and over again.

I recently edited my bookshelf, and this book made the cut as used and useful. Such beautiful combinations, not limited to annuals or perennials. It discusses the different types of lighting and soil, and what would work nicely. Combinations were not ones I had thought of, and it sent me to my graph paper to include some new plants in my cadre of old favorites. There are beautiful color photographs and the author is all about displaying texture. It is a readable book in that different garden designers are consulted and comments are included. I think you will enjoy having this in your garden book arsenal.

This is a very nicely produced book with lovely photograph to provide inspiration. As another reviewer has commented, it is published by an American publisher and aimed at an American audience but in my view it still has its merits. Unlike some US planting guides I have seen which offer somewhat garish planting schemes, this one has some subtle and sophisticated plant combinations.The book is divided into seven sections covering, perennials, grasses, annuals, accent plants associates, ground cover and a section called 'woodies' which essentially considers mixed borders with shrubs & trees. Whilst there are a few parts which include tender plants which will not survive a British winter so that we would have to treat the plants as annuals (which could get expensve) or bring them in to a heated greenhouse or warm conservatory, many of the planting ideas incorporate plants familiar to a British gardener and easily obtained here. You may not recognise some of the common names but the botanical names and species are given so really isn't an issue. Each section suggests series of plant combination and includes relevant information like height & spread, US hardiness zone, light requirements.At the end the book includes a map of US hardiness zones which includes temperature details. Whilst it is true that reading this across to UK hardiness zones isn't an exact match, for example, due to different rainfall patterns, durations of very cold weather, etc. it gives a starting point for the interested gardener. That said, many of the plants mentioned in the book are pretty mainstream selections commonly available here, and even if something isn't suitable or readily obtainable you should be able to find something else that fits the design brief.

A very uninspiring book. Plant combinations boring and aimed for the American gardener. Waste of money. Bought Sarah Raven's Bold and Brilliant Garden at the same time and it is in a different league.

Tutto ok

Designer Plant Combinations is an artistically, visually and intellectually engaging book that appealed to me on many levels. The design layout works seamlessly with the succinct information provided by Scott Calhoun. The premise of using six plants or fewer to create a stunning garden is rarely considered by many gardeners. We usually want to feed our plant addiction to have more, so it takes great control to have less choice. Scott demonstrates in this book that less is definitely more. He researched the subject by traveling across the country to find out how other garden designers utilize plants in combination with each other.Within the six, colour coded chapters there are 105 different plant combinations with individual colour photograph vignettes. Each plant combination has its very own subtitle that is sometimes humorous and often poetic, but always relates to the plant composition. The quality of the photographs is impeccably clear and vibrant. Each photograph includes an in-depth description and the author's pertinent comments, as if you are walking with him through these gardens. It is elegantly presented with an original approach to combining plants. I particularly enjoyed the designer tips box for each vignette and the way in which the plants were identified from the photo with their own individual photos and description. An artistic touch was added with the inclusion of one line comments that highlight a specific point regarding each plant combination. All-in-all this is a highly recommended book for gardeners of all levels.Lorraine Roberts, author of  A Recipe for Continuous BloomA Recipe for Continuous Bloom

Me gusta por la simpleza. Combinaciones posibles de flores. No entiendo los prejuicios contra la jardineria americana, hay algunos que secreen el ombligo del mundo.