The New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers of the United States and Canada
The New England Wild Flower Society is the oldest plant conservation  organization in North America. It celebrated its 100th birthday by publishing  this beautiful and useful guide to identifying, growing, and propagating native  wildflowers.Cultivating and appreciating native flora is a first step towards ecological  gardening, a concept whose time has come. By choosing to grow the plants that  thrive naturally in the conditions your garden offers, you are working with  rather than against nature, resulting in easier maintenance and a reduced need  of water and chemicals. A great many of the very loveliest flowers are available  as natives, such as columbines, iris, trout lilies, violets, trillium, and even  orchids. The delicacy of the native species, their simple forms and unadorned  beauty, make many of the cultivars we see in the nursery appear overdone and  blowzy, like a girl who has overdressed for a party. Horticulturists have worked  for years to make new colors, double forms, and larger, brighter flowers, but  these small natives have all the appeal of the original, plus they naturally  thrive in appropriate conditions.More than a thousand species of flowers are discussed and pictured, with  thorough information on native habitat, cultural requirements, propagation, and  design considerations. At the back of the book are lists of plants ideal for  specific situations and with certain characteristics; look here to find what  species have large leaves or attract butterflies, as well as which do best in  dry shade, rocky areas, bogs, and, perhaps most useful of all, which wildflowers  are deer-resistant.--Valerie Easton