Book review: Just-right combinations for gardens

When it comes to good books about gardening — ones that not only inform but also inspire and entertain — author Scott Calhoun has a devoted following.

The Tucson garden designer and writer first caught readers’ attention with his down-to-earth “Yard Full of Sun,” which won the American Horticultural Society’s Book Award in 2006. Then he followed with his Western adventures in “Chasing Wildflowers,” which in 2008 won a Silver Award of Achievement from the Garden Writers Association.

Now, after crisscrossing the country to visit with a variety of other garden designers and horticulturists, Calhoun presents “Designer Plant Combinations: 105 Stunning Gardens Using Six Plants or Fewer.”

“The diversity of the plant combinations I found was endless — and the creativity of my fellow designers and horticulturists energized my hunt,” Calhoun writes. “I found designers using plants like painters and sculptures, shoehorning amazing collections into small urban lots, and bringing prairie plantings to the suburbs with gusto.”

This 240-page, full-color book from Storey Publishing ($18.95, softcover) is chock-full of Calhoun’s eye-popping images of perennials, annuals, grasses, ground covers and more.

Beautiful spaces

The accompanying vignettes explain how the home gardener — from beginners to those with years of experience — can create beautiful garden spaces using two, three or four plant varieties and group them to the best advantage.

Readers will find creative plant combinations for any home setting and learn the secrets of such combinations as French lavender and California fuchsia; prairie cornflower and hummingbird mint; and tall purple moor grass and dwarf Korean lilac.

Calhoun explains that a favorite pairing can be the beginning of a larger garden design, or a five-plant grouping might be all it takes to fill a small urban garden.

“Designer Plant Combinations” includes color-coded chapters on perennials, grasses, annuals, accent plants, ground covers and more, as well as designer and plant resources, and listings for 14 inspirational public gardens, including Tucson’s own Tohono Chul Park.

Designer tips

Each featured combination also comes with its own “designer tips.” These helpful, handy insights and lessons from the individual designers apply to their particular locale and climate.

While I love looking at all the lovely garden combinations from other parts of the country, I especially enjoyed those more suited to our arid Southwest. These include Parry’s agave, “Ava” hummingbird mint, snow-in-summer and banana yucca, as well as Englemann’s prickly pear and firewheel, or the blue agave and blue palo verde.

As the author says, “I hope reading about these plant arrangements gets your creative juices flowing and drives you out into the garden, to surround yourself with new roots and shoots in a brand-new bed of your own conception, inspired by a design you read about here.”

For more information about Calhoun and his work, go to www.zonagardens.com.

kwalenga@gvnews.com | 547-9739