Green Reads for Armchair Gardeners

Time to settle back in the old hammock for some summer reading. It’s getting too hot for serious gardening, so put away the Felcos, forget about the weeds and pick up a good book on your favorite subject.

Try to avoid titles like “How to Landscape Your Entire Yard in Three Days,” since this is not the time to start such projects.

But how about “The Plant Hunters,” by Toby Musgrave, Chris Gardner and Will Musgrave (Ward Lock, $29.95)? Reading of people like David Douglas, who searched for new and interesting plants in 1830s California, won’t work up a sweat.

Douglas discovered such basics as the Monterey pine and had things like our native iris, Iris douglasiana, named after him. The stories of nine other English plant explorers, from Sir Joseph Banks to Frank Kingdon-Ward, round out this collection.

“The Garden Plants of China,” by Peter Valder (Timber Press, $49.95), is of a similar stripe, showing how many plants originated in China--from peonies to camellias, peaches to citrus, mums to bamboo. This book, however, focuses not on those that were found by European explorers, but those that came from Chinese gardens, mentioning their use and history.

There are suddenly several books on Japanese gardening, with more on the way, but they make perfect reading on a hot summer’s day since few gardens are as cool, uncluttered and refreshing.

There’s “The Art of Japanese Gardens” (Sterling, $24.95) and “Low-Maintenance Bonsai” (Sterling, $12.95), both by Herb Gustafson. “The Art of Suiseki,” by Willi Benz (Sterling, $29.95), may not be about gardening in the conventional sense, but it explains the Japanese art of finding and displaying unique stones that look like much larger landscapes. After you become an expert, you may want to attend one of the suiseki exhibitions in Southern California.

Perhaps the most useful of the bunch is “Japanese-Style Gardens of the Pacific West Coast,” with photographs by Melba Levick and text by Kendall Brown (Rizzoli, $50). All 20 of these handsome gardens are public.

“The Tulip: The Story of a Flower That Has Made Men Mad,” by Anna Pavord (Bloomsbury, $35), reads more like a novel than most books on garden subjects. It documents tulips as a historic commodity. Few flowers have had such an impact on people’s lives and fortunes, such as the time a man traded a brewery for a single new variety during one of the tulip frenzies of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In the last few months, I have received no new books on gardening in California or on the plants we typically grow, although a couple come pretty close.

“The Exotic Garden,” by Richard Iversen (Tauton Press, $27.95), comes closest. It’s by a former director of a botanic garden in Barbados and is full of plants that love the heat of summer, which makes it particularly appropriate now. Written with the whole country in mind, the information is still quite useful and the ideas apt.

Oddly, tropicals like these are much more popular in the colder parts of this country and in England--where they must be grown as annuals or wintered in conservatories--than they are here. Gardeners in subtropical California are more likely to be obsessed with peonies, lilacs and other cold-loving plants. Go figure.

Those who like the look of peonies, lilacs and English cottage gardens will probably enjoy a new glossy paperback by Christopher Lloyd and Richard Bird called “The Cottage Garden” (DK Publishing, $13.95). Lloyd, incidentally, is one of those English gardeners most enamored with bright colors and big foliage, although this book contains much more traditional cottage garden fare.

Another glossy paperback, “The Garden Room,” by Timothy Mawson (Clarkson Potter, $24), is full of lovely photographs of rooms inspired by--and often next to--gardens. Despite its modest price, this is a lavish, dreamy book, wherein you might find a few choice design ideas worth copping.

While we’re daydreaming, check out “Kitchen Gardens of France,” by French Midi resident Louisa Jones with photographs by Vincent Motte (Thames & Hudson, $29.95), another gorgeous, glossy paperback. These elegant and often aged vegetable gardens really put my two little raised beds to shame. But I can always aspire!

While you really don’t want to be doing much in the garden right now, there is one summer opportunity not to be missed: August is a great time to propagate things from cuttings and to start seed.

The American Horticultural Society’s “Plant Propagation,” edited by Alan Toogood (DK Publishing, $34.95), is actually an English book on the subject, but it still contains many useful techniques and much good information. With it you should be able to propagate a few choice things for the fall planting season just ahead.

In the Garden is published Thursdays. Write to Robert Smaus, SoCal Living, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053; fax to (213) 237-4712; or e-mail robert.smaus@latimes.com.