The Gardener's Color Palette

The Gardener's Color Palette: Paint Your Garden with 100 Extraordinary Flower Choices
by Tom Fischer

236 pages
Timber Press, February 15, 2010
List price:  $12.95





The title is intriguing, and while the cover idea is clever, there is something about it that doesn't actually draw me in.  If I were to see it in a bookstore, I'm not entirely sure I'd pick it up and have a look, and that would be a shame, because what is contained within its covers made me want to sit right down with it and read the whole thing in one sitting.

So I did.

The Gardener's Color Palette comes on the heels of Black Plants and is done in much the same format.  In this one, 100 plants are featured and are presented in color groups, ten to a group.  The photography is visually stunning, and if nothing else, inspires me to do some serious shutterbugging of my own flowers.

Each flower has its own two pages, one for its photo and the other to tell all about its character.  Basics listed are:

• Latin name
• Common name
• Pronunciation of the Latin name
• Plant type
• Height and spread
• Bloom time
• USDA Hardiness Zone

If it's a North American native, that is noted as well.  Easy-to-understand symbols show light and moisture requirements.  In the descriptive paragraph that follows, growing advice is given and on occasion, Fischer offers suggestions as to where the plant may be sourced.

At $12.95, the 7-inch by 7-inch softcover book is priced right for providing inspiration for those gardeners that want eye-catchers in their flower beds.  Though touting that the plants are some of the best to be grown in a wide variety of climates, Fischer still succeeded in teasing me with several that gave me that bane of all gardeners - zone envy.

On the other hand, I'm already growing many of the plants in this book and as I read the information presented about them, I can personally vouch for the author's knowledge of his subject matter.  This is a delicious little book that arrives just in time for spring planning.

Tom Fischer is editor-in-chief of Timber Press. Before moving to Portland, Oregon, in 2004, he was the editor of Horticulture magazine in Boston, Massachusetts. His experiences as a bi-coastal gardener and his inexhaustible curiosity about plants have both shaped his new garden, which in 2008 was profiled in the Oregonian. A prolific writer as well as an editor, his articles have been featured in magazines such as Garden Design, Gardens Illustrated, and Martha Stewart Living.


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The publication being reviewed in this blog post was the sole compensation for reviewing the product. All opinions expressed here are mine. If I like it, I'll say so. If I don't, I'll say that, too.