Hot Plants for Cool Climates: Gardening with Tropical Plants in Temperate Zones

by Susan A. Roth, Dennis Schrader, Susan L. Roth

Book Overview

The most exciting new trend in garden design is the lush look of the tropics -- no matter where you live! If, like so many gardeners, you're a little bored with pastel flowers and rigid borders,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395963230
• ISBN13: 9780395963234
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.9" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Chicago Bananas and pineapples

Tropical gardening here in the the Midwest has been a passion of mine for over 20 years. I never thought of it as different just big annuals. Thats what I liked about Susan's and Dennis's approach to this book. It was really laid back there just plants was the feeling I was getting from reading this book. They didn't make it complicated. I liked the real expectations they had in the book no hype about growing you own table ready bananas in Maine or something crazy like that just pure and simple you are growing them for the foliage effect don't get carried away. Bananas are just big cannas and brumansias are really big coleus they put it simple and gave great advice and the garden shots are great a real inspiration. The over wintering section was worth the price of the book.

An excellent resource

As a professional horticulturist gardening in zones 5 through 7, I have searched high and low for a good reference book on tropical and subtropical plants. At last I have found it!Hot Plants for Cool Climates is informative, interesting and well-organized. The design suggestions are new and exciting, and the encyclopedia is stuffed with detailed information regarding cultivation. Particularly helpful were the cultivar names listed under each species (god help me, how did they ever whittle down the list under Coleus?) and the overwintering tips. Serious amateurs and professionals alike will benefit from owning this book.

Buy this book....

If you're looking for ways to incorporate a tropical "flair" to your garden, this is the book to purchase. Very informative, not only on what plants to buy, but also important info. on how to care for your new beauties during the winter months for pretty much all planting "zones". Visually appealing, excellent!

You'll love this book!

Although I am a mere "weekend, small-patch" kind of gardener, I have found that "Hot Plants for Cool Climates" is as wonderful to own as some of my favorite cookbooks. The stories accompanying each plant description feed the imagination of a gardener as do ingredients in a recipe. Informative in its scope yet poetic in its breadth, this book is a delight to the heart as well as to the eye. This book makes it delicious to dream of someday tending a much larger garden, and it provides the reader with not only the creative inspiration, but also the tools of knowledge with which to plant a tropical paradise that can thrive in a temperate reality.

Hot Ideas in Hot Plants

Simply put, this book is the most exciting, helpful and practical book I have seen in quite a while when it comes to ideas about innovative approaches to gardening in cool climates. It is a treasure chest of ideas on the cutting edge of what's happening. If you are into geraniums and other pedestrian plant material, look elsewhere. If you are curious about what's new, hot and exciting, this book is for you. The photos are dazzling and the narrative is so well written, even an amateur like myself felt totally comfortable. This book has already become my gift of choice for friends and family who care about their gardens.