Gardening books great as Christmas presents

Eleventh-hour shoppers with gardeners on your list, this is for you. Here are five garden books that I found hard to resist on a recent visit to my favorite bookstore.

To satisfy the natural yearning for herbalism in one’s life, “Herbs: Gardens, Decorations and Recipes” by Emelie Tolley and Chris Mead (Potter Publishing Co., $35, hardcover) seems sure to succeed. Sumptuous photography by Mead brings us ever so close to tasting and smelling the plants that are the subject of this volume.

This is an idea book, featuring all manner of garden designs to ponder, as well as herbal bouquets and arrangements to emulate or build upon. The recipes scattered throughout the text provide the final inspiration for digging up a goodly patch of lawn and starting that long contemplated herb garden.

On a related theme, Tovah Martin’s newest book, “The Essence of Paradise” (Little, Brown Inc. $24.95, paperback) deals with fragrant plants in a most delightful manner. Martin has carved a nitch for herself in the world of garden writing by providing a uniquely historical perspective on the role of decorative and useful plants in our culture. Her background, as part of the Logee’s Greenhouse dynasty, gives her an almost genetic qualification to write about any horicultural subject.

“The Essence of Paradise” is a month-by-month guide to indoor cultivation of fragrant plants for the conservatory or windowsill gardener. Line drawings rendered with watercolors provide a visual backdrop to the highly engaging and informative text. Aromatherapists will surely appreciate this book.

Gardening with a theme receives another boost from the very popular book, “Alba, the Book of White Flowers” by Deni Brown (Timber Press, $32.95, hardcover). Ever since Vita Sackville-West put together the famous white garden at Sissinghurst in England, gardeners have been fascinated by the idea of designing with just the white flowered plants. Such gardens have a unique appeal, which can be appreciated equally well by moonlight. Indeed, most white flowers have evolved their coloration as a way of attracting nocturnal pollenators, moths and bats principally.

Brown’s book features fine photography along with an encyclopedic listing of a large number of white-flowered plants. The only shortcoming for Maine gardeners is the lack of hardiness information in the text. Most suppliers of plants provide this information, however, and one should not deny oneself the pleasures and inspiration of this book, because of the oversight.

A more practical, but equally engaging volume is Marilyn J. Dwelley’s “Trees and Shrubs of New England” (Downeast Books, $14.95, paperback). Dwelley lives in Maine, and her book fills an important need for those who enjoy the woods. The late Fay Hyland, botanist of many decades at the University of Maine, wrote the foreword for this book, in which he praised Dwelley’s clear but not overly technical approach to identifying woody plants. Colored drawings help to confirm one’s decisions, when using this book as a field guide.

If you have felt the pang of guilt when asked by a child for the name of a common shrub or tree in the understory or overstory, this book offers certain relief.

An area of great confusion in popular horticulture is the cultivation of berry plants, which is too bad, since they are potentially among the easiest crops to bring in. “Berries, a Harrowsmith Gardening Guide” (Camden House Pub. $9.95, paperback), edited by Jennifer Bennett, neatly fills the information gap on berry culture. Virtually every berry that can be grown in the Northeast is discussed, including some just for wildlife. Varieties, their care and culture, as well as mail order sources are discussed quite well. There is even a section on poisonous berries, to reassure the quizzical.

Michael Zuck of Bangor is a horticulturist and the NEWS garden columnist. Send inquiries to him at 2106 Essex St., Bangor, Maine 04401.