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Allan Armitage knows his plants. That's what I've always heard, and this book amply demonstrates it. This book covers just about every garden perennial grown in North America, including many that most of us would consider annuals or at best tender perennials (e.g., cannas). Armitage isn't afraid to tell his opinion of any plant, straightforwardly telling the reader that that's exactly what he's doing--something I especially appreciate as gardening is such an individual and idiosyncratic activity. Anybody who feigns objectivity with regard to gardening is being disingenuous at best.

There are two major drawbacks with this book. The first, and most forgivable, is the dearth of color photos. There are just a few tucked in the middle of the book, illustrating a small minority of the plants discussed in the text. Color photos are expensive, and given a choice between pretty pictures and informative text, I'm at a point in my gardening life where I'll go with the text. I can always look up the pictures in the other gardening books I have, which often have precious little information to go with them. Unfortunately, this will probably discourage many a casual book browser from buying this book--people want to see the pretty pictures, darn it! But that's not the author's fault, and it's a shame, since this book has so much good information. Unfortunately, the line drawings that stand in for photos of many of the plants are very uneven in quality, and some are worse than no picture at all.

The second major fault, and one that I found very frustrating and far less forgivable given that Armitage is an expert in his field as well as a professional, is the large number of typographical errors, misspellings, and other errors in the book. Did anybody bother to proofread this thing??? Both plant names and other words are misspelled. In more than one case, a word or name is misspelled the same way more than once (e.g., "Hildago" for "Hidalgo", Yucca "filimentosa" for "filamentosa"), suggesting that they are not simple goofs or typos. Gardeners have a hard enough time spelling plant names without being misled by the pros! These errors mar what is otherwise an excellent and informative book.

This perennial encyclopedia is written in a wonderfully engaging conversational tell it like it is style that is very entertaining to read. For example, of the Meconopsis poppy he writes "...the Himalayan Blue poppy elicits classic garden emotions of beauty, grandeur, awe and most of all, frustration and failure." But beyond his wicked wit is an absolute wealth of valuable information. My primary interest is in starting perennial flowers from seeds and I have found more good information here in this one book than in all my propagation books combined--I can see it is going to be my perennial "Seed Bible" for years to come. I always feel a little nervous when pulling the trigger (and purchasing) any book at this price--but this one is a gem that is bursting with information, wit and wisdom and I consider it an extraordinary value.

This is one of my absolute favorite references on perennial garden plants. Alan Armitage really gives you a "feel" for each plant, giving you the sense that you know its likes and dislikes before you've even seen one. He includes all the information you need: cultural information including cold and heat hardiness, identification information, and propagation. Much of this is provided in a descriptive format which is very useful because the minor quirks of each plant can be included. I have found his information right on target nearly 100% of the time. Of great value is his experience in a variety of climates. This makes it possible for you to judge accurately how a plant will perform for you. I have the first edition of this book as well. If you are familiar with that edition, this is nearly identical in style and format, but with expanded species and cultivar listings. A few species, such as ironweed, are new. Others, such as trillium, appear to be greatly expanded, with more information on identifying the species and varieties within the genus. Cultivar listings are greatly expanded and have been brought up-to-date. If you already have the first edition, I believe buying the second is well worth it if you are a dedicated gardener or gardening professional--but certainly not a necessity. The sections on lilies and peonies and iris, and other such plants that have their own societies and numerous books all their own, appear to be unexpanded (which is probably wise).