Columbines: Aquilegia, Paraquilegia, and Semiaquilegia
Gardeners have had to wait more than five decades for this modern monograph on generally easy-to-grow columbines. Nold's horticultural guide toAquilegiaspecies and hybrids, which are often distinguished by curiously elongated, nectar-bearing spurs, covers plant care and pests, morphology, and taxonomy and provides a roster of 65 species, all told in an animated and personal voice melding insights, recollections, and research. To add to the topic's interest, illustrations include elegant drawings capturing the plants' graceful foliage and blooms, and a bevy of photographs depicting wild species and winning flowers for the garden. Nold comments humorously that columbines were practicing free love long before the sixties, and the breadth of the genus as it's presented in these pages will tempt green thumbs to look beyond predictable or readily obtainable columbines. A listing of seed sources is appended.Alice JoyceCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved