SPECIAL CONIFERS FOR SPECIAL GARDENS
by Robert L. Fincham
Volume II of Special Conifers For Special Gardens, titled Colorful Conifers, is devoted to the conifers that exhibit colors that make them so desirable for the garden. I set the chapters up in the order in which I learned about the different kinds of colors that exist in what I originally thought was just a drab, green world. Even the green conifers come in a wide range of different hues and shades, but I decided to describe them in the third volume of this book, which focuses on conifer shapes. I have a chapter on the blue conifers with a separate section on Picea pungens. There is a chapter on the gold conifers and another chapter on variegated conifers. A fourth chapter focuses on the conifers that go through seasonal color changes. One major problem that cropped up was how to avoid overlap. For example, where do I put a blue, pendulous, Picea pungens? On occasion I put a plant into multiple categories and described it with an emphasis upon each category in which it was placed. My train of thought may not always be the same as the reader, so I have an index in the back of the book for finding some of those plants. There are 312 pages in this book with 620 color pictures of over 400 different conifers.
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