The Cupertino Courier

Gardening

Sunset Western Garden Book required reading for gardeners

By Tony Tomeo

The 1967 edition of the Sunset Western Garden Book is still one of my all-time favorite publications. We were born in the same year, and have grown up together. Even before I learned how to read, I found the pictures and diagrams to be so intriguing that I simply had to try some of the techniques that were being demonstrated. From only pictures, I learned how to stick cuttings of pelargoniums, sow nasturtium seed, layer lilac canes, and although no one believes it, I even tried to graft apricot stems back onto the tree that they were pruned from.

I received my first "new" edition when I graduated high school in 1985. Although I preferred the familiar and simpler older edition, the newer edition had more useful information about modern plant varieties and cultivars (cultivated varieties) that had been developed since 1967, as well as additional features, such as "plant selections guides." My most recently acquired 2001 edition is even more thorough, including even more modern plant varieties.

Now that the most recent 2007 Eighth Edition of the Sunset Western Garden Book is available, I still refuse to relinquish my 1967 and 1985 editions. However, as always, this newest edition is the best and latest source of information about the most recently developed plant varieties that were not available only a few years ago. It continues to be the most accurate, relevant and reliable horticultural publication for California, as well as 12 other states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and southwestern Canada.

The eighth edition of the book features more than 8,000 plant listings, including 500 new varieties, with more than 1,500 color photographs and 1,400 illustrations. Each listing cites the Sunset Western climate zones that each plant will be happy in. Some of these climate zones have been modified and updated, though the Santa Clara Valley and surrounding areas remain the same.

The 30 plant selection guides list plants that are appropriate to various applications. There are lists of plants that are good shade trees, hedges, ground covers and vines. Other guides list plants with good autumn color, colorful foliage (during the growing season), colorful fruit or fragrant flowers. There are also lists for annuals for seasonal color, perennials with showy flowers, and bulbs. Some of the selection guides address problem situations, like windy, dry or shady areas. There are even lists of plants that are resistant to oak root rot and deer.

The guide to gardening techniques and tools explains how to care for, cultivate and even propagate plants. Sticking cuttings, sowing seed, layering and grafting are all explained (simply enough to be understood by a first grader learning how to read). In fact, there simply is not much about gardening that the book does not discuss in detail.

This new edition is now available in bookstores. There are of course many other Sunset books about specific topics, such as Bonsai, Houseplants, Citrus, Rhododendrons and Azaleas, Container Gardening, Pruning Fruit Trees, Vegetable Gardening, Greenhouses, Color in the Garden and Basic Gardening. More information about the Sunset Western Garden Book or any of the Sunset books can be found online at www.sunsetbooks.com.

Flower of the Week:
Purple Coneflower

It is still a bit early for purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea, to be blooming, but its close-up on the cover of the new Sunset Western Garden Book will remind people to plant it for late spring and summer bloom that continues to frost. The 4-inch wide composite flowers typically have drooping purplish pink ray florets (outer petals) surrounding a bluntly conical, brownish orange center. The somewhat raspy 3-inch long leaves form dense basal clumps as wide as 2 feet. Sparsely foliated flower stalks above the basal foliage may be as tall as 4 feet. White flowered varieties and purplish flowered Bravado are about half as tall. Magnus has darker pinkish purple flowers as wide as 7 inches. With care, the perennial clumps can be divided as they get crowded every few years or so.

Listen to Tony Tomeo's 'New Image Garden Report' Friday mornings at 8:10 a.m. on KSCO-1080 AM (or online at www.ksco.com). He can be reached at www.ttomeo@newimagelandscape.com or 408.358.2574.