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The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses
Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-tails, and Selected Bamboosa book by Rick DarkeThis is the most authoritative and best-illustrated reference ever published
on ornamental grasses. At its heart is the illustrated alphabetical
encyclopedia of important ornamental grasses, sedges, rushes, restios,
cat-tails, and selected bamboos, with many plants illustrated in more
than one season. Intended for gardeners in a wide range of situations
and climates, this book is an invaluable tool for landscape architects,
garden designers, nursery professionals, and home gardeners.
Winner of the American Horticultural Society Book Award
Media reviews of this book:
“The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses
is an inspiring work of art and workhorse reference, a veritable
treasure for landscape and horticultural professionals who are in just
the right mood for more than just a little bit of awe.”
—The Boox Review, November 2004
“The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses by Rick Darke is a wonderful book.”
—Linda Cobb, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, September 30, 2003
“All I can say is thank goodness Rick quit his full–time job ... All his books are thorough and well written. This book was long overdue and
needed by those wanting to use ornamental grasses in landscape.”
—Winston Dunwell, University of Kentucky, College of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, Ornamental and Environmental Horticulture Book List, March 31, 2003
“This book combines the beauty of a ’coffee table’ book with the practical knowledge it would take many other books on grasses to comprise... Mr.
Darke has created a very impressive and worthwhile book, both for its
informative text and its inspirational photos. And if you have never
been enthusiastic about gardening with grasses before, you will be
after seeing this book.”
—Mary Tucker, The Georgia Native Plant Society, July 2002
“A stimulating guide to landscaping with grasses. The clear and accessible text offers instructions and ideas for both home gardeners and
landscape professionals. The rich color photographs are works of art.”
—Coni Tarquini, The Hardy Plant, November 2001
Publishing details:
Hardcover, 326 pages, 8-½"x11", 507 color photos, 10 line drawings
©1999, Timber Press, ISBN 0-88192-464-4
An excerpt from this book:
In the laying out of lawns and artistic gardens, a few of the many
beautiful hardy grasses should not be overlooked. Their stateliness,
tropic luxuriance and soft colors harmoniously punctuate the prevailing
green, while their graceful, sinuous yielding to every wind gives
animation to gardened landscapes too apt to look “fixed.”
Spring 1909 Catalog
The Storrs and Harrison Company
Painesville, Ohio
The turning of a century inspires both reflection and speculation.
Looking back at ornamental grasses and their role in gardens over the
past 100 years, it is easy to see that much has changed. Whereas
turn-of-the-century gardeners had perhaps a dozen perennial grasses to
choose from, today’s gardeners have hundreds. Ornamental grasses now
embody a huge array of textures, forms, sizes, colors, flowering times,
and cultural adaptations. This exhilarating increase in diversity has
resulted from the efforts of botanists, breeders, and nurseries in
nearly all parts of the globe and seems certain to continue. The
unprecedented popularity grasses now enjoy can be attributed partly to
this development; however, there are other factors fueling the current
enthusiasm that are sure to influence the place grasses will hold in
tomorrow’s gardens.
As we enter not just a new century but a new millennium, we are doing
more than expanding the plant palette–we are redefining the garden.
Landscape gardening, that unique confluence of art and science, is
searching for a model that will provide an opportunity for creative
expression and a reverent link to the larger ecology. Gardens must be
at once inspiring and conserving, high-spirited and low maintenance.
They must reflect and sustain the rhythms of our lives and our homes,
and they must speak to us eloquently of the sun and seasons.
Delightfully, grasses are sympathetic to all these ideals.
This book is intended for gardeners in a wide range of situations and
climates, and draws from the experience and creativity of great gardens
and gardeners around the world. It begins with an exploration of the
unique aesthetics and appeal of ornamental grasses. A review of the
families of ornamental grasses explains botanical characteristics
important to gardeners. A chapter on names helps to simplify the
complex, often confusing world of botanical and horticultural
nomenclature and taxonomy. A survey of grasses in their native habitats
analyzes ecological and visual patterns that can be of practical and
inspirational value to gardeners. The design section features the
imaginative use of grasses in myriad fine gardens, and a chapter on
growing and maintaining grasses explains how to support such creations.
Gardeners usually speak of “ornamental grasses” in the broad sense,
including not only the true grasses, but also related families of
grasslike plants, such as sedges and rushes. Following this tradition,
this book provides a detailed treatment of the perennial grasses
(Poaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), rushes (Juncaceae), restios
(Restionaceae), and cat-tails (Typhaceae) available to modern
gardeners, as well as selected bamboos (Poaceae).
From Chapter 5 "Designing with Grasses"
Ornamental grasses are a stunningly versatile group, offering myriad
possibilities in the garden limited only by the imagination of the
designer. The vast modern palette includes species and cultivated
varieties suited for use as specimens, accents, groundcovers, masses,
hedges, container subjects, and a host of other purposes.
Grasses are often most effective in garden designs that allow them to
interplay with other perennials, annuals, biennials, trees, and shrubs.
When first using grasses a common impulse is to segregate them;
however, this rarely results in a satisfying design. Just as a border
composed solely of flowering perennials can be colorfully bland, a
garden collection of different grasses is often equally lacking in
dimension and balance. Designs that utilize a variety of plant types
are not only aesthetically richer, they are often the soundest strategy
for making gardens capable of providing year-round interest while
minimizing labor and consumption of natural resources.
Working with Light in the Garden
To best capture the inherent translucency and luminous possibilities of
ornamental grasses, it is important to develop an awareness of the
direction, strength, and periods of sunlight in the garden. Even
relatively shady gardens have points and moments when the sun’s direct
rays can work magic. It is equally rewarding to carefully consider the
patterns of daily and seasonal activity in the garden. For example,
think of the times of day an established or potential garden path will
be used and the direction from which the sunlight will be coming. If
planting a west-facing walk that will be used regularly at the end of
the day, any grasses situated between the one walking the path and the
setting sun will be naturally back-lighted. Similar considerations are
worthwhile when designing favorite sitting spaces, focal points, or
views to the garden from inside the house.
About Rick Darke
Rick Darke is a landscape design consultant, author, and photographer based
in Landenberg, Pennsylvania. He was a member of Longwood Gardens’ staff
for twenty years, first as assistant taxonomist and then as curator of
plants. Darke received the Scientific Award of the American
Horticultural Society, and his landmark work, The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses, earned a Book Award from the American Horticultural Society.
Awards for Rick Darke
- American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta Professional Citation
- American Horticultural Society Horticultural Writing Award
- American Horticultural Society Scientific Award
- Perennial Plant Association Garden Media Award
Ordering information:The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-tails, and Selected Bamboos (Hardcover) (B-008)
Each $49.95
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