Plants with Style: A Plantsman's Choices for a Vibrant, 21st-Century Garden

The language of botany has never been so piquant as in Norris's (Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden; A Guide to Bearded Irises: Cultivating the Rainbow for Beginners and Enthusiasts) lively guide to plants worth including in a modern garden. For him, the modern "eclectic" garden is one that speaks to the passions and joy of the gardener with vignettes and moods and features the individual personalities of spectacular plants that are chosen with care. That care runs to embracing the environment of the garden, including the physical setting and soil. His love shines through as he suggests plants to fill different structural roles in the garden, creating year-round interest and adding color and contrast, and what he calls "kitschy plants" that may not fit in anywhere else but are worth having. There are not many specific instructions on propagation or acquiring the specialty varieties, so novice gardeners may feel overwhelmed. Norris is only in his late 20s but is already an extremely accomplished horticulturalist with a very particular authorial voice.