The Plantfinder's Guide to Daisies (Plantfinder's Guides) - Hardcover

Sutton is your expert guide. -- Sharon Wootton "Everett Herald" (04/26/2001) It is enthusiastically recommended for anyone interested in raising a flower garden with daisies. A remarkably diverse group is fully and handsomely treated in "The Plantfinder's Guide to Daisies." A very pleasant useful book for anyone with a garden of flowers. -- Judy Glattstein "Home Monthly" (06/16/2001) Another in an excellent series of in-depth plant profiles from Timber Press. -- Carol Haggas "Booklist" (05/18/2001) This book will have me rethinking my plant palette for years to come. -- Linda Beutler "Garden Showcase" (10/01/2001) A fun and informative treatment of the diverse Aster family, encompassing a vast array of diverse plants . . . Excellent color photographs. The book is well illustrated, and includes some excellent composite plates (no pun intended!) -- Simon Thornton-Wood "Garden (Peterborough)" (08/04/2001) Here is everything you may have wanted to know about the daisy (Asteraceae, or alternatively Compositae) family. -- Helen Chesnut "Victoria Times Colonist" (07/07/2001) It is often easy to identify a flower to the Asteraceae, but much more difficult to identify the species. Certainly this book will be a great help to those who try. -- R. Cox "California Garden" (07/10/2001) For the gardener looking for a general reference book on the daisy family, this book presents an excellent overview of one of the most popular and extensively planted of all the plant groups. -- Jim Kemper "Chicago Botanic Garden" (01/10/2002) But it is the excellent plant directory where most gardeners will want to spend time. Here Sutton has done a superb job of sorting through this huge plant family and focusing on its most garden-worthy members. -- Ethel Fried "Manchester (CT) Journal Inquirer" (04/28/2001) I love that an entire book has been devoted to these common favorites. . . . A readable and inclusive approach provides a fresh look at the virtues and possibilities of plants so long familiar and perhaps needlessly overlooked. -- Valerie Easton "Horticulture" (09/18/2003) The careful arrangement of data on the most popular of bedding flowers is both delightful and informative. . . . Throughout Sutton's tutorial of daisy history, botany, and propogation, he showers his pages with beauty. -- Mary Ellen Snodgrass "American Reference Books Annual" (04/23/2001) Scintillating photographs, both in the garden and in close-up shots that show individual characteristics clearly, help readers focus on the attractions of each species. Everything is well-labelled, and you'll pick up knowledge just by browsing this extensive but digestible volume. -- Lillie Dorchak "Hunterdon County Democrat" (11/01/2001)

This book focuses on plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae), nearly all of which have the characteristic daisylike appearance found in the lawn daisy (Bellis perennis). These plants are valuable members of the herbaceous border, with genera like Rudbeckia, Gazania, and Osteospermum already enjoying great popularity. The distinctive, rounded daisy shape acts as a useful foil to plants with more upright forms, and the precision of the individual florets contrasts well with small-flowered plants that lack definition. The genus-to-genus variations on the daisy flower head are illustrated by high-quality photographs taken both outdoors and inside the studio, and the author provides exactly the information gardeners will need as this plant group continues to grow in importance. Chapters focus on such key issues as the daisy's history, contribution to gardens, botany, and propagation. The book's centerpiece is an extensive A-Z of genera, species, and varieties.