Gardening with Conifers

I do landscape design and landscape maintenance professionally, and this is the number one book I reach for when I have a question about conifers, or simply need some inspiration for how to use one in a garden. This book combines gorgeous pictures of the individual plants and of their use in the garden, with incredibly thorough text.The first part of the book includes brief but interesting information about the benefits using conifers in the garden, how conifers grow, and the origins and naming of garden conifers. Then he moves on to discuss, in greater depth, the different attributes you find in a lot of the more interesting conifers, like the differences and beauty of their cones, buds and new growth, bark, foliage colors, and the interesting forms and sizes available, to help you know what to look for and help you appreciate the truly unique attributes of garden conifers.Then he moves on to my favorite part and a large portion of the book, Using Conifers in the Garden. The entire book is filled with gorgeous color photos suggesting plants to use in combination with conifers of every type, but this section outdoes itself with the amazing color photographs of the author's giant estate and the small vignettes he puts together using grasses, heathers, rhodies, and flowering perennials to accent conifers. This is incredibly inspiring and shows the huge number of ways you can combine conifers with other plants.The written portions are amazing in this and the other sections as well. He discusses the different ways to use conifers in a garden to achieve different goals, ways of pruning and caring for your conifers to get different effects (Bonsai and Japanese gardening is discussed), conifers as container plants, hedges, windbreaks and screens, petite conifers for small gardens, and conifers as ground covers.Last of all, he includes a directory of more than 600 outstanding conifers, including color photos on every page. Bloom knows his conifers well, and gives accurate and time-tested information on growth rates, habits, pest issues or problems, conditions needed, etc. His favorites merit glowing descriptions and praise, and his favorites have often ended up my favorites too, once I have had a chance to grow them.The writing is simple to understand and would be accessable to a beginning to intermediate gardener, yet is absolutely depthy enough for the professional, and is a resource that once you get ahold of, you will not want to give up. It is great as an encyclopedic reference on garden conifers, and great for inspiration, instruction, and design advice.

I have been a passionate Conifer collector now for over 13 years and have over 220 Conifers (110 Cultivars) on just under 2 acres of land in south east Tasmania - Australia. It all started with my favourite - Picea Pungens "Kosterii" (Blue Spruce) in 1997. After visiting Canada earlier I fell in love with these amazing plants. Having read a lot about Conifers over the years and reflecting on my own experience, I have found this book by Adrian Bloom to be very thorough whilst not too technical (The fact that he gives the age of some of the plants in the photos is also very helpful). His easy reading style along with his personal experience has been informative and enjoyable. Did I mention the photographs? Absolutely brilliant! I can't help but going back and just staring at them again and again! A real credit to Richard bloom! Makes me want to plant a lot more...but unfortunately I have no more room :( This book is such an affordable price and good quality for the money. I will thoroughly recommend it to any one interested in growing these magnificent and all-too-often under rated plants!

This book has gorgeous photographs of conifers of all sizes in many configurations, nicely complemented with other perennials and shrubs, and shown in different seasons, climates, and light conditions. He explains how conifers work (which seemed a bit mysterious to me-- growth, cones, etc.), provides useful information on pruning, propagation, growth rates, and his son's beautiful photographs help you picture the overall habit of the plants in relation to others you might want to grow. He encourages gardeners to experiment with varieties even if they need to be moved or removed entirely in 10 or 20 or 30 years. And then there is the 85 page guide to some of the best conifers, which provides more gorgeous photos and brief descriptions of habit, growth rates, etc. This book really helps make conifers seem like a much more usable design element in planning my garden, and makes me more comfortable with experimenting with them. While I wish there were more photos and/or plans of moderate-sized suburban-type lots that would help disseminate this beauty to the masses, this is a wonderful book as is and a tremendous value too.

Whether you find gardening with perennials not your cup of tea, or want to crate some privacy for your backyard, or find that your beautiful garden turns boring in winter, whether you have just a balcony or a deck, or a large piece of property to landscape, this book is the answer. Stunning views created by conifers of different sizes, colors and textures inspire and serve as a guide. A wealth of information on cultivars, with pictures, growing requirements, and approximate growth rate. I got this book first time several years ago, and it helped me incorporate miniature conifers in my tiny garden, pairing them with roses, grasses and other perennials. Now I got it for my son and his fiancée, who just bought a house and want to create a live "fence" and several islands of trees in their large backyard, with four season interest. A beatiful and very informative book.

Dated - missing many lovely new varieties I was hoping for more information about. Only about one in five has a picture. Good educational reference, not for planning/browsing for ideas. I’ve seen better website descriptions. Unless you plan on pruning every day, this is mostly for a read or people with huge yards. I’d like something on reasonable size conifers, dwarf/columnar/fastigate selections are thin.

This is a beautiful book I bought simply because I want to change my garfens into mostly Conifers. Less work and they come in all colors so you don't lose the color you like in your garden.

Love the pictures! I have been searching for a really good book with lots of pictures and this one has really helped me learn where I need to place my conifers. I first came across this book through another master gardener and had to have my own. So happy when I found it! Thanks!

It was a gift

This is one of the most valuable gardening books I have acquired. It is , of course, of specialist interest, but that is precisely why it caught my interest. The book falls into two halves: the first section introduces the whole world of conifers and their possible uses in all manner of gardens. This is followed by an alphabetical list of species with detailed comments on required growing conditions, ultimate size and a wide variety of specific characteristics. For anyone who is thinking of developing a substantial conifer bed, or indeed for anyone who share my love of the special beauty of these plants, ranging from the tallest of trees to items that have more in common with bonsai plants. If your knowledge of conifers extends no further than nightmares of neighbours with Cuprocyparis Leylandii as boundary hedge, you will see conifers very differently after acquaintance with Adrian Bloom's splendid book.

I bought Adrian's first (?) book on conifers : "Conifers for your Garden" back in 1972/3, which I still have and use and was hoping that this new book would have a similar section at the back on conifer foliage which I have found very useful when trying to identify unlabelled conifer specimens in gardens open to the public. This book could have done with a lot more photographs of the listed items to assist in this process. Could I suggest that Adrian endeavours to put together a comprehensive list of illustrations of the plants in this new book incorporating a photographic display of each conifer in its mature form together with a close up of a small section of its foliage, etc, and post it on his website to enable folk like me to identify the various conifers we come across.ThanksRichard Orr

the book on gardening with conifers will help me to plan and place the plants in the right the place for the right view.

An informative book, everything you need to know

I can’t rate this book highly enough and hope one day to visit the Bressingham gardens.