Caring for Perennials: What to Do and When to Do it

Macunovich teaches her month-by-month schedule for perennial gardening. Includes care charts for more than 130 perennials.

I am a lousy gardener. What I know about gardening could be summarized in a few words: "Plant something and hope for the best." Yet, I love to garden, and keep trying year after year in my tiny flowerbeds around the street trees in a sea of concrete here in San Francisco. I don't even bother to attempt planting annuals or growing things from seed, but for years I've been experimenting with perennials to see if I can find something that will survive for more than one year out there in the urban jungle. If I'd had this book years ago, I might have been successful a long time ago. For me, it's a walking tour of everything I have done wrong. For you, it can be a guidebook to doing things right from the get-go!