Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?: 255 Extraordinary Alternatives to Everyday Problem Plants

by Andrew Keys

It's a tired turn of phrase, but the grass is always greener on the other side. And for gardeners, it's not just the grass—it's the flowers, the shrubs, and the trees. No longer! Pining to grow lilac but lack the full sun? Try the fragrant pink and white flowers of Korean spice viburnum. Love the drama of canna but need something hardier? Try the bold foliage of variegated fleece flower. Why Grow That When You Can Grow This? offers hundreds of all-star alternatives that replace—and often outshine—popular problem plants. Garden designer Andrew Keys makes it easier than ever to skip over the fussy plant prima donnas and move toward the equally gorgeous understudies. Each profile shows the problem plant and offers three alternatives that include three or more of the original plant's characteristics—hardiness, shape, color, texture, light, and size. With this fun and accessible guide, you can discover the secret to choosing the plants destined to be the new stars of your garden.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 2012

About the author

Andrew Keys is a writer, plantsman, and lifelong gardener. His first book, Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?: 255 Extraordinary Alternatives to Everyday Problem Plants, was published by Timber Press in 2012. His second book, Growing the Northeast Garden, also published by Timber, in partnership with photographer Kerry Michaels, is out now, as of January 2015. In his everyday, I work as the web manager for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Andrew produced podcasts for both Fine Gardening and Horticulture magazines, and my features and other written work have appeared in This Old House magazine, Fine Gardening, and on Houzz.com.

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good concept, but a little more style than substance. The book is organized by plant, so it will include, say, a peony, and then three alternative plants. But it does me very little good if the "problem plant" and the suggested alternative are totally different climate zones (and, on occasion, there's no overlap at all). An index of zones would have solved a lot. It's also unclear why some plants were deemed problem plants, which Keys himself acknowledges (for example, he basically states that there's no reason goldenrod is listed as a problem, and then he doesn't ever really come up with a justification for including it, other than that he presumably wanted to discuss some lesser-known yellow flowers). It's a useful book, though . . . just a little lacking in the execution.

[Blue · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a book of worthless fluff. I would even venture to call the book dangerous misinformation.

Nothing on the cover, or intro, has anything about what zone or areas it was written for. Plants native in some places are invasive in others. There is heavy-handed prose comparing plants to high school stereotypes from 20th century movies through out the book, and probably amounting to a sizable percentage of the word count. Mentions the US plant zone map and mentioned climate areas on the US, but had no map for either.

The FIRST plant to avoid is "banana plant" with suggestions for non-fruiting decorative plants. Now, many readers would likely not be in a zone that will have banana fruit, but it ends up being a recurring theme to ignore the uses of plants - shade quality, food producing (oranges vs bitter citus), or medicinal (willow bark was the original aspirin). It makes sense once one realises how thin all the plant descriptions are, both the too avoid and the try-instead ones, and yet they have room for the high school characterization nonsense.

Nothing on WHEN a plant flowers either - replacing a spring blooming shrub with an autumn-blooming one isn't remotely in keeping with finding similar plants. The details on why to avoid a plant/tree tended to lack anything convincing or do much to describe what the common errors might be. For example - said no to dogwoods which are native around me, but then recommended non-natives. For weeping willows, they are recommended to avoid, but list it as zone 2-9; the replacements only cover up to zone 4. Recommends prickly pear as a replacement one page, then a few later have it as the type of plant to replace.

When I lost all respect for the author and any trust in any information in the book was when a
"try this" suggested Rose of Sharron, and incredibly invasive plant with woody offspring which will take over a huge area of yard. That should definitely have been a "instead of this" entry, with suggestions of late summer blooming shrubs with winter appeal (the weird shapes and seed pods). Plus, it was suggested to replace a spring blooming shrub.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly about ornamentals, not that much in terms of growing information

[Sharon Upchurch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I especially liked the recommendations for native plants. I appreciated his calling out the dratted Callery (Bradford, Cleveland) pear for it's many faults. The author also lists many of the most heinous invasive species out there. If he educates gardeners to avoid planting thugs, he will accomplish a great service. One of disagreements I have is with the recommendation of Knock Out roses. While they are easier to grow than hybrid teas, but they are really wildly overused in many areas. This book is a great resource.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why Grow That When You Can Grow This? 255 Extraordinary Alternatives to Everyday Problem Plants by Andrew Keys (Timber Press 2012) (581.7) is an interesting book of comparisons between commonly cultivated plants and recommendations as to which option makes the best substitute. Gardeners can argue about this stuff all day, but this author took the time to write his opinions down. My rating: 6.5/10, finished 8/9/13.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

some plants that he said were not good to plant are actually good here in Alberta to plant and some he said are extraordinary alternatives are actually pretty much weeds here and I would never plant them. there isn't a lot of info on each plant which is too bad. I have read books that are way more informative. but it was kind of interesting.

[Lily C · Rating 2 out of 5]

For someone living in Ontario this book was of little use, unless you lived near Niagara. Many of the plants were replaced because they were more suited to cold climates - the climate is cold here and the alternatives suggested often not suitable. For some-one further south I could see this been very useful.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I interviewed Andrew on my blog. http://reddirtramblings.com/trees-and...

[Aimee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have quite a few of the "problem" plants - right now I have World Domination by English Ivy going on in one part of my garden. Uh oh. I like learning about new (especially native) options!

[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting concept. The author offers up the ordinary: forsythia, canna, lilacs, roses, and then offers you some interesting alternatives...and why.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good information.

[Fawn Rueckert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great idea, good resource to have around.

[Zen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice library book to look for inspiration.