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The Gardener's Iris Book |  | Author: William Shear
Publisher: Taunton Press
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $19.86
as of 9/9/2010 04:37 CDT details
You Save: $5.14 (21%)
New (6) Used (11) from $19.86
Seller: VFM Books
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 962171
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 176
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 10.3 x 8.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1561582409
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.93438
EAN: 9781561582402
ASIN: 1561582409
Publication Date: January 15, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Irises bring color and elegance to a garden and are surprisingly easy to grow. In this book designed for the home gardener, William Shear, a 40-year veteran of iris growing, shares his expertise in choosing, planting, growing, and propagating exquisite irises. All of the essentials on iris care are carefully and simply explained, along with tips to ensure a stunning display from healthy plants. Starting with the tall bearded iris, the book features iris types that will grow in almost any condition--dry, wet, shady, or sunny. Specific cultural advice for the most desirable and adaptable iris types allows gardeners to choose the plants best suited to their region of the country. Lavish photos by renowned garden photographer Roger Foley will foster a love of timeless irises in every gardener.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
A superb reference book about Irises July 3, 2010
CS (Lancaster County, PA USA)
The Gardener's Iris Book by William Shear contains broad yet very detailed information about all types of irises and clear instructions on their cultivation and division. I bought it because it was highly recommended in a Schreiner's Iris Gardens catalog, and I was not disappointed. The photographs are excellent. It holds a wealth of useful information and is very interesting to read.
 Iris Book June 7, 2009
Alvin L. Eckert (California, USA)
This book is a good addition for Iris Growers, and lists many of the popular varities and how they should be grown. It also is much less expensive than the large catalog type books on iris plants.
Good Book For Beginners May 15, 2008
Julia d. (Finger Lakes, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought this book since I'm just starting to plant different types of iris. The book provides a good overview and is an easy reference to understand. If I were a more experienced iris gardener I would probably be disappointed in the content covered.
Overall, would recommend for the gardener with little or no experience in planting iris.
Absolutely the best Iris book for beginners. January 25, 2008
Tina Pasic (Pilot Hill, CA)
This book is so easy to read, most iris books I have come across goes way to deep into botany that they are a bore to read, not to mention confusing. The pictures are beautiful. This book is definately for anyone wanting to grow irises.
Finally, an iris book that talks about borers February 17, 2003
E. A. Lovitt (Gladwin, MI USA)
53 out of 53 found this review helpful
"The Gardener's Iris Book" describes itself as an introductory book for American gardeners. In my own experience, books about irises tend to fall into two categories: beautiful and fun to read, but not particularly useful or well-organized; and books that I can take out into the garden and actually use. This volume manages to straddle both categories, which is good because I like to look at beautiful pictures of irises, but I've also discovered that they are not particularly easy to grow. I've lost two complete plantings of Bearded Irises to borers, and even managed to kill off a bed of hardy Siberian irises.Why bother with a touchy plant that has such a short growing season? That's easy: because they're one of the most beautiful flowers in the garden when they do bloom. The author has a gift for clear, succinct phrasing, very well-suited for a 'how to' manual on growing irises. He also loves his subject--in the chapter on Louisiana Irises, he refers to himself as 'Johnny Iris Seed' because of his habit of planting his extra rhizomes in the mud at the margins of farm ponds, park pools, or even roadside ditches. "Most will establish themselves and give pleasure to passersby in years to come." After forty years of growing irises, he has learned that a good garden springs from a healthy, living soil. He suggests using pesticides and commercial fertilizers only as a last resort. For instance, in the section on Iris borers, he starts with the least toxic methods for ridding your garden of these pests: carefully clean up your garden debris in late fall and early spring to limit the number of borers that will hatch. Monitor the young foliage fans for notches, then pinch the fan below the notches to squash any burrower (a mano a mano approach not recommended for the squeamish). Irises can also be treated with beneficial nematodes. I tried this method one year with some success, although the neighbors probably wondered why I was running around with what looked like a horse hypodermic and sticking it into iris stems. According to this author, the nematodes can be sprayed on plants or used as a soil drench, so I can throw away my hypo. "The Gardener's Iris Book" is fun to read straight through to the appendices on Iris specialist nurseries (listed by state), and iris books and computer resources. However the book is divided into sections that treat irises with similar growing characteristics, e.g. those requiring substantial moisture or those that thrive in dry conditions. These useful subdivisions allow the reader-in-a-hurry to concentrate on the irises that thrive in an environment most closely resembling his or her own garden.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 8
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