H. Peter Loewer is a writer, graphic artist, photographer, and botanical illustrator who deals with books on natural history, gardening, great gardeners, and science for children.
He graduated from the Albright Art School of the University of Buffalo with a degree in graphics and a minor in art history. Upon graduation he was awarded the Max Beckmann Fellowship to the Brooklyn Museum Art.
In 1973 he wrote the first book on ornamental grasses, Growing and Decorating with Ornamental Grasses, then in 1994 he published the first book on nocturnal flowers for bloom and fragrance, called The Evening Garden. His book, The Wild Gardener, was named one of the best 75 garden books of the 20th Century by the American Horticultural Society. Dealing with a few of the nation's horticultural greats, he also wrote and illustrated Thoreau's Garden and Jefferson's Garden. He has a monthly call-in garden show on public radio in Asheville, and is on-air with morning host Ken Adams the first and third Thursday of the month, talking about unusual plants and horticulture lore. He is also the contributing editor for Carolina Gardener magazine and a popular speaker.
Today, Mr. Loewer teaches art at the North Carolina Arboretum, Montreat Elderhostel, AB-Tech, and every three years at Penland School in Spruce Pine. He also practices printmaking, and works on pen and colored-pencil renderings of native plants and their pollinating insects.
Very readable. Based firmly in the USA. Some of the plants considered weeds were surprising as they are very popular plants apart from that nothing really new. Some pictures would have been really helpful. Didn't list all the weeds I was looking for.
Solving Weed Problems: How to Identify and Eradicate Them Effectively From Your Garden by Peter Loewer (Lyons Press 2001)(632.5) was really a useless read. All I hoped to find were suggestions on how to fight ground ivy, which is a hugely common weed in zone 6b. This book offered none. My rating: 4/10, finished 4/12/12.