[APWG] Who educates library journal reviewers about alien plants?

[steveyoung at aol.com]

 I would certainly recommend Douglas Tallamy's book, Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens. Cheers,   Steve


 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: gg lilly <pembrokes at ne.rr.com>
To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Sent: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 10:43 pm
Subject: [APWG] Who educates library journal reviewers about alien plants?




























Hi,



          The book described below by Derek Fell was
published in 2007 by Firefly Books. Fell has written many gardening books and
won awards for garden design. The book, in my town’s library’s collection,
recommends such plants as Scottish broom and oriental bittersweet. Seven of the
suggested plants are prohibited in New
  Hampshire. I wrote a letter to the library that
explained how alien plants would ruin a garden and explained several of the
poor choices that Fell had included in the book. I received the thoughtful answer
below. I plan to take the librarian up on her kind offer to print out the NH
Invasive Species List and paste it in the front of the book.



          That list will help the gardeners who take out the
book at my library, but she mentions how this book is spreading over North America. Since the Library Journal
starred the book in a feature article, the book has had immediate status for
most NE libraries.



          Do different=2
0Alien Plant Working Groups have a
member who talks to and educates the gardening book reviewers in journals as Booklist,
Library Journal, and Kirkus?  Since libraries everywhere
rely heavily on these journals, giving these reviewers knowledge would be far
reaching. If they understood the problem, they would be less enthusiastic to endorse
a book that praises oriental bittersweet, Norway maples, and euonymus alatus.



          Have any people on this listserv worked with
reviewers or librarians regarding gardening and plant books?



          The librarian also says that the
library would consider a title in addition to the book Invasive
Plants; a guide to the identification and the impacts and control of common
North American species, by S.R. Kaufman.



          What book or books would you recommend?



 



 



Thank you for your help.



 



Grace Lilly



 



 



Dear Grace -



 



Thank you for the information concerning the book The
Encyclopedia of Hardy Plants which we have in our collection. As you know, we
do order books primarily based on their receiving a good review in journals such
as Booklist, Library Journal, and Kirkus. This particular book was in a feature
article in Library Journal entitled "Regional Gardening North by
Northeast" and was one of their starred reviews, and it stated that
"starred titles are core purch
ases for most NE libraries." On that
basis, we ordered this book, as did (at last count) 19 other N.H. libraries and
536 other North American libraries.



 



I checked some of the plants that are listed in the NH
list of invasive species and I did find some of them in Fell's book. Three of
these plants have only recently been added to NH's list, after the publication
date of this book. Also, some of the plants on the NH list are not on other
state lists, and he was writing for any cold place on earth, not just New England. 



 



One thing we could do is to print out the NH invasive
species list and paste it in the front of the book. I believe we did that for
another book a couple of years ago.



 



We do try to include gardening books written just for
NH too. We have, for example, Integrated
Landscaping: Following Nature’s Lead by the UNH Cooperative
Extension and also their The Best Plants for
New Hampshire Gardens and Landscapes. And I am ordering the book Invasive Plants; a guide to the identification and
the impacts and control of common North American species, by S.R.
Kaufman.



 



If you have a similar title that you would like to
recommend for purchase, we’d be happy to consider it.



 






 






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