Our Site

Home Page

About the Friends

About the Arboretum

What's in Bloom

Children's Programs

Events

From Library

Membership Information

Photos

Plant Sale

Volunteers

Virtual Gardener

Links

Weddings

Directions


From the Library

The Frelinghuysen Arboretum has an extensive library devoted to broad horticultural themes. Many reference books fill its shelves, but it also houses numerous children's books, nature guides, and books about gardeners and their gardens. It also houses an extensive collection of historically significant volumes.

Today we feature two book reviews. Take a look also at the column, the Virtual Gardener, a how-to for finding horticultural information via the computer.


Continuous Bloom
By Pam Duthie

“Continuous Bloom” is a wonderful tool to use when planning a new flower garden. You simply have to page through each month, picking the flowers you love that have the light requirements you’re looking for and note their height and width. There are plenty of selections for all kinds of conditions within each month. This is a fun way to ensure that you’ll have “continuous bloom” in your garden all year round.

This book is really nice because it has a lot of valuable information and good color pictures. The format is very easy to use, it just makes sense! The book is divided into chapters for each month of the year. Each page has a picture of a plant that blooms within that month. Under the picture is information containing: plant type, zone, flower color, foliage type, bloom length, height and width, light requirements, soil type and other helpful tips (such as “this plant combines well with…”) I find the layout to be extremely helpful. It is very clear and concise.

There is even great information for the tougher months of October, November, and the winter season. At the end of the October chapter is a list of over forty-five plants that are still blooming in the “continuous bloom” garden. November’s chapter is called “The Last Hurrah!” and it addresses getting the garden ready for winter, composting, achieving color and interest in winter, as well as interplanting bulbs. The winter chapter is all about armchair gardening – and we all know about that! The final chapter is filled with great tips and there are appendices with helpful charts.

I think this book is a delight to work with when planning a new garden or just injecting some color into an existing one. Enjoy!

Reviewed by Beth Hemmer


Cucumber Soup
By Vickie Leigh Krudwig

The story was about a big cucumber falling onto an ant’s hole. All different kinds of bugs helped the ants try to get it off. It was fun finding out how they were finally able to move it. I thought it was cool that there were interesting facts about bugs on each page. At the end, the ants had a big celebration and made cucumber soup for everyone. The book even has the recipe for the cucumber soup in the back. I would like to try to make it. I would recommend that everyone read this book. It was exciting.

Reviewed by Dana Leigh Hemmer - 6yrs. old

Site Created with Macromedia Dreamweaver