Fifteen years after the first edition, this is a revised and expanded edition of this highly acclaimed reference. Among the changes is the addition of a foreword by Michael A. Dirr, author of such classics as Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. New content and updates are found in "Why Conifers?", "The Magic of Conifers", "A Closer Look at Conifers" and in the detailed practical section, "Growing Conifers in Your Garden".
This edition features the author's comprehensively revised Directory of 600 conifers, so current that it includes Wollemia nobilis, a two million-year-old species only recently found and genetically identified, and available at a select few nurseries. Other new features are "Conifers that Grow on You" and "The Mauergarten Story", which chronicles the author's design of the garden at one of Germany's premiere nurseries.
Comprehensive in scope and lavishly illustrated, Gardening with Conifers includes a directory of more than 600 conifers and expert advice on:
- Size and growth rates, Canada/USA hardiness ratings
- Site and soil preferences
- Planting, maintenance and propagation
- Pruning, pests and diseases
- Dwarf conifers and ground covers
- Conifers in containers, moving conifers, and more
Gardening with Conifers is a thorough and beautiful guide to coniferous trees and shrubs of the world available to North American gardeners. Stunning colour photographs show conifers young and old in a variety of environments, from small gardens to many-acred gardens. It reveals the magic that conifers bring to a garden and how they create structure and balance for year-round visual interest and colour.
Adrian Bloom is a nurseryman, gardener, broadcaster and writer, and chairman of Blooms of Bressingham, a nursery near Diss, Norfolk. He has 50 years of experience planting and maintaining the 17-acre 'Foggy Bottom' garden, which includes over 500 varieties of conifers. Richard Bloom is an award-winning photographer whose garden images regularly appear in House and Garden, RHS The Garden magazine, Fine Gardening and other such publications.
"Conifers first captured Adrian Bloom's imagination in the '70s while he worked on Foggy Bottom, his experimental garden at Bressingham. In this book he shares his advice on using conifers to create year-round interest in the garden. It also features 600 conifer varieties with information on planting, pruning, propagating and more – all accompanied by stunning photography, taken by Adrian's son, Richard Bloom."
– Genevieve Schmidt and The Editors, Garden Design Magazine Holiday Gift Guide on 15/11/2017
"A hands-on knowledge of the subject is evident on every page and the photographs of conifers in his garden are testimony to their innovative use. Many gardeners write off conifers as cumbersome, unruly hedging plants but Bloom's practical advice, paired with enviable results, provides strong evidence to the contrary. The pages on pruning are a real masterclass in managing conifers; blending them with other plants and shaping them into eye-catching features in their own right."
– English Garden Magazine on 01/06/2017