Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
Plants with Style: A Plantsman’s Choices for a Vibrant, 21st-Century Garden by Kelly D. Norris. Timber Press, 2015.
Identified by the New York Times as one of “Botany’s New Boys” in 2014, Kelly Norris is the author of a new book, Plants with Style. In the introduction, Norris writes, “The modern eclectic garden isn’t easily defined. It’s earnest, enthusiastic, and unbounded.” Like the garden he describes, Norris excitedly presents the reader with a book that is similarly earnest and enthusiastic. The tone of the opening pages and the love that Norris so clearly has for his chosen profession is infectious. The introduction reads more like a manifesto, with lots of quotable winks, such as “Cultivate your inner plant geek—it’s sexy.”
Like Norris’s beloved and eclectic gardens, Plants with Style takes the reader on a romp throughout plant profiles that the author has curated, artfully-photographed and penned essays for. (As a caution to readers, the typeface used is rather small, and the photographs offer limited botanical detail.) The text is broken down into several sections, “Environment,” “Structure,” “Emblems,” “Vignettes,” and “Essential Kitsch.” The categories are intriguing, a departure from the more systematic approach taken by other books of garden plants. The “Vignettes” section presented the most novel content, and in general Plants with Style would have benefited from more vista photographs and planting combination suggestions throughout the book as a whole.
There aren’t huge departures or surprises from Norris, and many of the plants profiled will be recognized as tried and tested favorites. This is very much a coffee table book, and as such it winds up coming up short in terms of practical gardening advice and innovative plant selections. However, seeing the selected plants through Norris’s eyes, and through his words, is a treat for the logophile* in us all.
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
The Dictionary of Science for Gardeners by Michael Allaby clocks in at 553 pages and 6,000 scientific terms. Upon first learning about this publication, I was intrigued. Reading the introduction, I became even more fascinated. Allaby has written, edited, or co-authored over 100 books on environmental science. Prior to writing The Dictionary of Science for Gardeners, he edited four other scientific dictionaries for Oxford University Press. He also has an absolutely delightful personal website from which the following quote is taken—“Dictionaries don’t tell stories, well not really although I do my best even with them. I compile dictionaries, you see…Oh yes, I do dictionaries. Want a dictionary? I’m your man.”
The Dictionary of Science for Gardeners covers 16 branches of science relevant to gardeners as determined by Allaby and includes “plant classification, the science of how and why plants are grouped into genera and families, plant geography or how the world breaks down floristically, plant evolution, with the genetic code as an appendix, plant structure and function, or how plants work, fungi, insects, other invertebrate animals, vertebrate animals, bacteria and viruses, the way major nutrients move through cycles, pesticides, soil science including the way soils are classified, ecology, conservation, and weather and climate.” It is interesting to see the branches of botany so defined, and a good indication as to how The Dictionary is written in order for a wide array of scientific terminology to be accessible to readers, including scientific names of birds and bugs that might be seen in a garden.
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
B is for Bear is an alphabet book featuring plants, animals, and other ecological features in North America. The illustrations were created by cutting away black paper “to reveal the essential shapes and lines” of the elements of nature profiled by Viano. The “revealed” areas were then filled in digitally with subdued pastels. The result is simply beautiful. Examples of Viano’s work, including several illustrations from B is for Bear, can be seen on her website.
Upon opening the book, the reader sees one letter to a page, with the exception of “A” and “Z,” which bookend the collection with two-page spreads. Viano picks an eclectic set of organisms and concepts to illustrate, which makes reading the text unpredictable, echoing the adventures promised by the outside world. Each page includes an uppercase and lowercase letter in the upper left corner. The associated word, all in capital letters, appears in the upper right corner. An illustration dominates the central part of the page which finishes with a short, factual sentence about the plant, animal, or natural phenomenon depicted.
Because of its format and beauty, B is for Bear is appropriate for readers of varying ages. Very young readers might use the text to learn the alphabet, while slightly older readers—the young and the young at heart—can use the book to learn interesting facts about the natural world. This is a children’s book with artistic sensibilities, dedicated to “all of those who let children run a little wild” and appealing to all who are looking for a reason to be lured into an outdoor adventure.
*This collection circulates to Members and Volunteers
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
The Indestructible Houseplant by Tovah Martin. Timber Press, 2015. 288 pages, 160 color photos. Softcover. $22.95. ISBN: 9781604695014
Martin starts The Indestructible Houseplant with an accessible yet lyrical introduction that welcomes the “window-sill gardener wannabes,” telling them that this book is for them. Martin promises to help readers overcome obstacles—cost, time, light/environment—and develop their own “lush and verdant” interior paradises. Martin writes about her home gardening environment and then moves into practical guidelines for understanding limitations of indoor space, including selecting and placing containers. Here, too, her prose is crisp, accessible, and practical; Martin even includes a section about her selection process for plants to profile, addressing the omission of some historic houseplant favorites, such as flowering maples, Abutilon cultivars.
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
Let’s say you’re new to vegetable gardening. Or, let’s say that you’re not new to vegetable gardening, but you have just relocated to a new region of the United States, and you want to start planning your garden. Where on earth should you begin looking for information?
Although it may seem obvious, it is sometimes overlooked that plants will have different care requirements depending on where they are grown. Methods used to grow tomatoes, for example, will be different depending on whether or not the same species or variety is grown in the Northeast or the Southwest. Often, specific varieties are suggested for specific regions, as a tomato that thrives in one area might languish in another. Like a good recipe, the art of growing a particular vegetable must be modified and refined by each individual gardener, as there can be differences in what a plant needs from region to region, state to state, and even yard to yard. There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to vegetable gardening, but a recent series from Timber Press is a great start.
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
The Manual of Interior Plantscaping: A Guide to Design, Installation, and Maintenance is the newest book from Kathy Fediw and her first with Timber Press. Fediw has over 30 years of experience in the world of interior plantscaping, working as a consultant, author, and speaker. She is quite prolific, and has carved out a niche as a purveyor of information for those in the interior plantscaping business and those who are considering moving into the field.
In the preface for Manual, Fediw writes, “It is my hope that this book will be a bridge between the design community and the horticulture community, so we can all work together to make plants a part of our every day lives.” To this end, Manual promises to show readers how to design different types of interior plantscapes including atriums, indoor gardens, green walls, potted office plants, color bowls, dish gardens, and terrariums—in 296 pages, no less.
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
Come #ColorOurCollections in the Mertz Library during two events next week! On Wednesday, February 3, and Friday, February 5, from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m., the Mertz Library will be hosting coloring parties for all those looking to de-stress and chase away the winter blues.
In case you are wondering how coloring and the Library might go together, rest assured that we are not scribbling all over the Library’s books. (Although marginalia is another fascinating component of some of the great works we hold.) Instead, we will be offering participants coloring books featuring some of the many beautiful illustrations seen in our collections. Keen readers of Flora Illustrata: Great Works from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden, (published in 2014 by Yale University Press), will spot some of the images featured in that work, as well as images from the library’s seed and nursery catalog collection, much of which was recently digitized and made available through the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Esther Jackson is the Public Services Librarian at NYBG’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library where she manages Reference and Circulation services and oversees the Plant Information Office. She spends much of her time assisting researchers, providing instruction related to library resources, and collaborating with NYBG staff on various projects related to Garden initiatives and events.
The Field Guide to Peppers by Dave DeWitt & Janie Lamson, 307 pp. Timber Press.
The Field Guide to Peppers promises to help readers achieve two things: “to identify unfamiliar pepper varieties … and to assist in the selection of peppers” for inclusion in gardens. Authors Dave DeWitt and Janie Lamson bring extensive expertise and differing strengths to this publication. DeWitt, known to some as the “Pope of Peppers,” has authored over 30 books related to peppers and spicy foods. Lamson, the “Chile Goddess,” is the owner of Cross Country Nurseries in New Jersey and grows and sells all 400 pepper varieties covered in Field Guide.
Field Guide is undeniably attractive even at first glance, with bold and colorful cover art. A quick skim through the book heightens the appeal, bright red pages and accents complementing full-color photos of all 400 peppers. Most readers likely have a favorite pepper, and I found the images of jalapeños to be especially attractive.
Play Beanstalk and help BHL preserve scientific literature!
Just when you thought purposeful gaming couldn’t get more exciting, the Biodiversity Heritage Library is swooping in with an event called Data Dash! (To learn more about the Purposeful Gaming project, check out this Plant Talk post from October.)
The BHL Data Dash seeks to amp up the competition of online gaming while providing valuable data correction for works shared through BHL. The BHL Blog says, “We’re enlisting the help of you, the BHL community, to help us correct one million words from BHL’s OCR output that we can then use as a training set to apply to the remaining BHL corpus of 320 million incorrect words.” OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, a technology that allows for the conversion of scanned documents (including PDFs) to readable data, or searchable text.
What does this mean for you, and how can you be involved? On Monday, December 7, the day will begin with a Beanstalk Sprint. Starting at 9 a.m. EST, users can work together to meet the Data Dash goal of one million words by playing the game Beanstalk and correcting as many words as possible within two days. Users must register in order to be eligible for prizes.
