From Booklist
Darke's voice is one of the most authoritative and pleasing to read in the world of horticulture, and in this small-format compendium on myriad grasses, his exceptional photographs provide an alluring complement. As availability of new species and cultivars continues to increase at an amazing pace, gardeners require updated resources. In this handy guide, Darke extends the material and research from his Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses (1999), adding descriptions of the most current plant choices. The use of ornamental grasses in garden designs has greatly beautified and enlivened personal and public landscapes in recent years. Darke's latest effort, including a source list, provides essential and helpful advice for selecting and cultivating a breathtaking range of grasses for every situation. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


From Book News, Inc.
A landscape designer formerly with Longwood Gardens (in Pennsylvania) introduces the virtues and cultivation of true grasses and grasslike plants grouped as ornamental grasses. The A-Z guide's color photos show off the diversity of these increasingly popular low maintenance plants. Darke includes grasses for specific niches, US and European hardiness zone maps, nursery sources, a glossary, further reading, and photographic specifics.Copyright © 2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


Book Description
Ornamental grasses surpass all other garden plants in their luminous qualities. Their colors are softly sophisticated, varied, and subtle. They include a striking array of textures, forms, sizes, and flowering times and have appeal in the garden throughout the year. Grasses' ethereal quality, sound, and movement make them ideal choices for gardeners and landscape designers alike. Timber Press Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses provides an accessible and comprehensive reference to the wide range of grasses available to the gardener. Building on Darke's bestselling The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, the guide describes many new species and cultivars, includes dozens of new photographs, and presents cultivation information and descriptions in a handy, compact format. Covering 530 species and cultivars and illustrated with 320 color photographs, Timber Press Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses is a valuable complement to Darke's Color Encyclopedia. Its convenient format makes it an ideal reference to take to the nursery or garden center.


From the Inside Flap
Ornamental grasses surpass all other garden plants in their luminous qualities. Their colors are softly sophisticated, varied, and subtle. They include a striking array of textures, forms, sizes, and flowering times and have appeal in the garden throughout the year. Grasses' ethereal quality, sound, and movement make them ideal choices for gardeners and landscape designers alike. The Timber Press Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses provides an accessible and comprehensive reference to the wide range of grasses available to the gardener. Building on Darke's best-selling Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, the guide describes many new species and cultivars, includes dozens of new photographs, and presents cultivation information and descriptions in a handy, compact format. Covering 530 species and cultivars and illustrated with more than 330 color photographs, The Timber Press Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses is a valuable complement to Darke's Color Encyclopedia. Its convenient format makes it an ideal reference to take to the nursery or garden center.


About the Author
Rick Darke is a landscape design consultant, author, and photographer based in Landenberg, Pennsylvania. He was a member of Longwood Gardens’ staff for twenty years, first as assistant taxonomist and then as curator of plants. Darke received the Scientific Award of the American Horticultural Society, and his landmark work, The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, earned a Book Award from the American Horticultural Society (AHS). Rick Darke is also the 2004 winner of the AHS Horticultural Writing Award.


Excerpted from Timber Press Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses (Timber Press Pocket Guides) by Rick Darke. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Unique Appeal of Grasses The appeal of ornamental grasses is quite distinct from that of most garden perennials. Instead of brightly colored, broad-petaled flowers, grasses offer a wealth of beauty and interest derived from translucency, line, form, texture, scale, seasonal change, sound, and movement. Their colors, though generally less saturated, are softly sophisticated, subtle, and varied. An awareness and understanding of these unique attributes greatly contribute to success and pleasure when gardening with ornamental grasses. Light and Translucency Ornamental grasses surpass all other garden plants in their luminous qualities. The flowers and foliage are highly translucent and are often most dramatic when back-lit or side-lit by the sun. The low angle of sunlight in late autumn and winter accentuates this radiant effect, bringing a welcome vibrancy to the landscape at times when typical flowering plants are at their lowest ebb. The Quality of Line Most grasses, no matter what size, shape, or color, add a strong linear presence to the garden because of the parallel arrangement of their many fine stems and long, narrow leaves. The quality of line varies considerably. The foliage of some grasses is strongly vertical, others hold their leaves at sharp angles, and still others have lax and flowing foliage. Form, Texture, and Scale Characteristics of form, texture, and scale become of much greater importance when working with plants whose primary strength is not flower color, and ornamental grasses include a wide variation in all three. The shapes of grasses include tightly tufted mounds, neatly symmetrical fountains, vertical uprights, and irregular cascades. Grasses often change form considerably over the course of a year, as leafy basal rosettes give rise to variously shaped floral displays. Form also varies with different cultural conditions. A grass that grows strictly upright in full sun may be loose and arching if sited in shade. Although grasses share a linear nature, they encompass a wide range of textures from ultra-fine to coarse. Grasses also vary in scale from miniatures only 12 in. (30 cm) tall in full flower to giants that attain 15 ft. (4.6 m) in a single growing season. Foliage and Flower Color The leaves and flowers of grasses each have their distinct ranges of color. Spring and summer foliage colors include myriad greens, from dark forest to lime and from gray-green to blue-green, as well as powder blue, red, and bright yellow. Variegated foliage adds cream-white and snow-white to the choice, as well as occasional suffusions of rose-pink during cool days at the beginning and end of the growing season. In temperate climates, autumn augments the summer spectrum with an array of golds, oranges, and burgundies that weather to a sublime selection of winter hues from fawn though chestnut and russet. In desert and Mediterranean climates, the onset of summer drought often induces a similar range of foliage colors. Flower colors are not as varied as foliage colors, but still include stunning whites, pinks, purples, burnished coppers, and blackish browns. These colors are often enhanced by morning fogs and frosts. Also, the flowers of many grasses remain fluffy and full even after seed-set and drying, and their translucent parts are often imbued with the varied tones of sunrise and sunset. Sound and Movement Grasses are the first to tell of every caressing summer breeze. Their lissome stalks and flowers flutter and bow, dancing before every spring gale, every autumn storm, every winter wind. Supple and responsive, they paint portraits of the wind. As they move, they sing in tones ranging from a low rustle to a staccato rattle. This sound and movement add immeasurably to the vibrancy of the garden and to its resonance with the larger landscape. Such movement can also be enjoyed from a window looking out to the garden, where it may also serve as a subtle beckoning outdoors. Growing and Maintaining Grasses Grasses are easy—they thrive in a great range of climatic and cultural conditions. Properly selected and used, grasses can contribute more beauty and interest with less maintenance than almost any other group of garden perennials. This chapter offers general approaches, techniques, and recommendations to help gardeners get the most from the grasses they grow. Additional comments and recommendations specific to individual grasses appear in the Grasses A–Z section of this book.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Timber Press Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses provides an accessible and comprehensive reference to the wide range of grasses available to gardeners today. Building on Darke's best-selling Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, the guide describes 430 species and cultivars, including new introductions such as Andropogon capillipes 'Silver Beauty', Carex muskingumensis 'Little Midge', Miscanthus sacchariflorus 'Gotemba', and Panicum virgatum 'Northwind'. Cultivation information is given for all the plants." Illustrated with 320 stunning color photographs, The Pocket Guide to Ornamental Grasses is a valuable complement to Darke's Color Encyclopedia. The guide's handy, compact format makes it an ideal reference to take to the nursery or garden center.

SYNOPSIS