Wildly Successful Plants: Northern California

by Pam Peirce, David Goldberg (Photographer)

Pam Peirce pinpoints 50 often overlooked main plant species that effortlessly add dazzle to gardens throughout Northern California. These tough yet beautiful plants bloom yearlong and persevere in gardens despite neglect, drought, or frost. This book profiles these "regional survivors," spotlighting such plants as calla lilies, nasturtiums, cineraria, and more. A resource for all gardeners, it includes chapters on the history, climate, and care of plants, as well as weeds, annuals, perennials, bulbs, succulents/cactus, and shrubs. It also contains lists of other well-adapted plants beyond those in the 50 species profiled.

Genres: Gardening

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Pam Peirce is the author of Wildly Successful Plants: Northern California and Golden Gate Gardening. She writes the "Golden Gate Gardener," question and answer column in the San Francisco Chronicle and is the author of the blog GoldenGateGarden.typepad.com.

Pam is a founding board member of the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG) and an honorary advisory board member of SF GRO (San Francisco Gardening Resource Organization). She teaches gardening and horticulture at City College of San Francisco, and supports gardeners as a garden coach and counselor. "

Reviews

[Peter Li · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pam Peirce is well known as the author of the classic Golden Gate Gardening. This book is quite different, focusing on 50 ornamental plants that will grow with little care. As Peirce acknowledges, many of the plants on the list are thus considered weeds, but I guess she likes them.

Points for chutzpah and originality, and for a lot of interesting information and basic gardening tips. I couldn't rate higher due to the inclusion of noxious weeds like ivy and zantedeschia. The book finishes with one of my all-time most despised plants, Impatiens sodenii!

[Katelynn Christensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tips on caring, removing, and controlling plants I already have as well as educating me on new plants that will thrive yard.

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful in regards to the plants I cared about! It's a little tinged with the author's perception of what looks nice in a garden, but is mainly practical.

[s_evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you live in San Francisco and want to plant a garden, this book helps you realize there are plants out there that grow without much work and are wild. For someone like me who started with only a wild garden, the babysteps I read about made me realize I *could* have nice natural plants

That said, I've only got a few plants from this book - the fuscia and cala lily. It's more the general info on each type of plant and other elements of Northern CA gardening (soil type, type of light, zone - oh yeah, not all of the plants featured will grow in SF).

Again, the first book I really sunk my teeth into regarding gardening - now I have 10 others checked out from the library, so it definately prompted more reading on the topic. (Friends have been a great source of info, too!)

[Bret Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

After gardening for twenty years in Northern California, I have found a book to help me through the classic all-stars. Many were familiar, some were new. Some were grandmother's plants (and I thought so), but I saw them in a new light after reading about their strengths.

Valuable gardening insights precede the layout of the author's list of fifty steady varieties.

Besides telling us their strengths, she covers their weaknesses, how to grow them best from seed, and how to be rid of them, if they become too successful where you don't want them.

[Ayden B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative writing again by Pam Pierce. Great read for us locals.. its an honest, historical reference book. Just the right size. Practical to go with all the other dreamy garden books you may own!

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you garden in Northern California this is a great book. She highlights and reviews 50 plants that grow really well here.

[Juliezs · Rating 3 out of 5]

So useful to have a gardening book specific for my area! That way I don't spend my time pining over peonies or hoping for hibiscus that I can't grow here.