Dream Gardens for Real Gardeners: Part 4 -- BH&G "Flower Gardening"
Written: Apr 04 '01 (Updated Apr 10 '01)
Product Rating:
Pros: A Best Buy among gardening magazines, good entry-level material.
Cons: Not for the sophisticated gardener
The Bottom Line: The sleeper among garden magazines - lots of material for the price. Content is basic; the experienced gardener will have to go elsewhere for substance.
sylvanb's Full Review: Better Homes and Gardens Magazine Subscription
With spring a reality for some and only a promise for others, gardeners' minds and imaginations are turning toward this year's better-than-ever garden. The bright covers of the garden magazines beckon from newsstand and checkout displays. Which to buy? I can get a half flat of annuals for the price of most magazines, so I want to choose carefully! And this goes double if I am considering a subscription.
[Note: There are wide differences among garden magazines in terms of editorial vs. ad content, and how much actual substance you get for the price, so I have calculated this information and added it at the end of the review.]
Better Homes & Gardens is the Mother of all home magazines. I remember it from my childhood, which was a *long long* time ago, and I am impressed with how well it has endured, and how up-to-date it is. It's a good buy, and I've been known to subscribe just for the excellent garden section. However, BH&G takes a broad, shotgun approach to home and family topics. Along with the decorating, gardening, and food sections, it covers such a wide range of topics – child rearing, home safety, artsy-craftsy projects, and so on – that most of it is wasted on me.
So I turn to the BH&G Special Interest Publications, which seduce me at the supermarket checkout stand. Not only are these specialized for the gardener (and for other special interests which don't especially interest me), they focus right down on "Flower Gardening," "Perennials," "Garden, Deck & Landscape," and so on. This review will look at "Flower Gardening."
A Walk Through the Current Issue: Summer, 2001
Up Front: Table of Contents on the first page; I like that. The best thing about the editor's page is his close-up of a rose, "Peace," I think, but he doesn't say. The first department is "Book Reviews" – very brief, but it's nice to find it up front. "Making Arrangements" is a brief survey of ideas for a cutting garden, and "Garden Issues" offers a column of bullet points for environmentally-friendly gardening. Next, we have "Growing Color," and "Project" – Build a Vine Pole. Good idea: the USDA zone map is right up front ("Fine Gardening" hides it in the back). "Reader Favorites," and "Seeds and Bulbs" finish off the departments, and here is a picture of my very favorite tulip, "Apricot Beauty." Doesn't do it justice, though. Finally, a hybrid section – six pages of gadgets and decorations; attractively presented, but it is really a mini-catalog.
The Main Event: "Side by Side" is one of those Dream Garden articles – a tour of one man's two gardens, formal and informal. Nice pictures, and a lot of information, including a sidebar with the basic elements of both styles. "Plant Parenthood" is a charming piece using the metaphor of raising children. Nice photos of kids in the garden, and some good advice for the beginner. OK, here we are at my wannabe addiction: "Buck Roses." I devour the photos, and enjoy the story of Griffith Buck, whose long labor to breed robust roses for harsh climates went unappreciated until recently. A gorgeous, two-page close-up of the creamy "Prairie Star" makes me want to touch and sniff. But they wouldn't thrive in my shade garden, sigh.
"Beauty and the Birds" hits another of my interests, making a bird-friendly garden. Once again, unfortunately, most of their suggested plants love the sun. I'll tell you, shade gardening requires the patience of a saint. For solace, here is "Colorful Encounters in the Shade." A little heavy on the coleus, but some flower varieties I hadn't considered, and the featured gardener recalls us to the changing quality of light that gives such pleasure if one only remembers to pay attention.
"The Nursery" is a collection of advice and tips; I like the brief guide and bibliography on photographing your garden. "Bordering on Perfection" focuses on the lush mixed borders in a Canadian garden. Mmmm, pretty! – sweet peas on an arbor. But how do these people manage to have so many things blooming all at once?? "Sun and Shade Garden" is a side-yard with some of each, and will go into my scrapbook. "Container Creator" shows off some clever combination plantings. "Crocosmia Turn Up the Heat" does just that with pages of tropical colors.
Now here's the kind of feature that makes me despair: "How to Plant a Photogenic Garden." Let's begin by winning the lottery, or inheriting a fortune from a long-lost uncle. Still, there are some useful principles: form, texture, accents, color harmonies.... "A Smashing Combination" (in my garden that would mean dropping several flowerpots at once) shows off the gardens of garden writer Pat Welsh, again using the Dream Gardens to illustrate basic principles.
Back of the Book: "Resources" wraps up the editorial material with contact details for the articles. There follows a few pages of ads, and a back-page profile of the useful Wave petunia.
Details: BH&G's "Flower Gardening" is the sleeper of this collection of magazines. Its presentation is attractive, if not exceptional, and it is absolutely crammed with stuff. Just look at the stats: where most of its peers have about a page and a half of actual substance to each page of advertising, "Flower Gardening" has nearly FIVE! This works out to just over a nickel a page, compared to over a dime for the others. On the down-side, the sophisticated gardener would perhaps find it too basic.
NOTE: "Flower Gardening" comes out only twice a year; other BH&G titles are available at different times.
Website: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/
Pages: 120
Ratio of editorial to ad content: 4.8 (in favor of editorial content)
Cost of editorial pages (based on current issue and newstand price): 5.1 cents a page.
Number of irritating postcards: 3
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