I've been buying this calendar for several years now and it's the perfect floral calendar for my taste. The arrangements fill the page with beautiful color. I especially enjoy that most of the flowers are the types that have lots of layers of petals to make them look extra lush and rich.

I buy this calendar every year for both myself and my mom. I love having the feel of "fresh" flowers in my house every day. This calendar has absolutely exquiste bouquets of flowers unlike most of the other flower calendars out there!!

Buy this now! You won't be disappointed!

I love these calendars. I've been collecting them for about ten years now, and I have trouble bringing myself to throw them away! I hit upon a solution a couple of years ago, and covered a bare expanse of wall in our newly-decorated home with a collection of prints. Anyone passing never fails to comment with delight.

These calendars are also an excellent resource for the family. The squares for the days are big enough to accommodate all family reminders. I also appreciate knowing the national and religious holidays of other countries (UK, US, Canada). This is very handy for me as I live in England and many of my family and friends live in the US.

Bouquets is like an old friend, always coming around at the same time to herald the beginning of a new year. Enjoy!

BUTTERFLY GARDENING is a collection of interesting essays about butterflies. Chapters cover gardening tips, including an annotated list of plants that attract butterflies, and various other butterfly related topics such as: "What do butterflies see?"; "The struggle to survive"; "The life cycle of the large white butterfly"; and "Moths in the garden at night." If you love butterflies, you will probably enjoy this book but it won't go a long way toward helping you identify the Red Admiral you spotted on the Frikartii Aster yesterday. Another reviewer referred to this as a starter book, but I don't think of it as that at all although it does introduce a number of important topics.

The book includes a few "designs" for butterfly gardens, but they are general, and you would do better to use the garden designs in THE AUDUBON BACKYARD BIRD WATCHER. Let's face it, where the birds are is where their dinner is and dinner for birds is often the larval stage of moths and butterflies. The plant lists in BUTTERFLY GARDENING are adequate. Certainly the best thing to plant is Buddleia..the butterfly bush. This morning I saw three Monarch butterflies on my lavendar flowered Buddleia. The bush also supports a Grandpa Otts morning glory vine which produces flowers that are a dark bluish purple which changes to a purplish magenta. The butterflies were flitting from flower to flower and the color combo was a knockout.

This little book has much to recommend it. From BUTTERFLY GARDENING I learned the value of Parsley for larvae and that no matter how many butterfly boxes one hangs the little critters are visitors not tenants.

This book actually takes you past the very basic of plant lists (primarily US native plants) and arranging your garden (although it has all that too). It gets into things like a chapter on what butterflies see, their life cycles, butterfly watching tips, conservation, photography,pictures of caterpillars, etc. The photos are fantastic - not just pictures of butteflies on flowers but really close-up pictures of the wings, and butterflies in flight. They also include information on moths which is neat. This book is above and beyond the best book I've seen on butterfly gardening. For those who want to not only attract butterflies but also know what's going on and understand some of their world, this is a great book. I'd buy it all over again!!

I'm an up and coming butterfly gardener. This book had a great deal of information to share not only regarding what species of flowers to plant, but also about the life cycles of the butterfly and the importance of planting your garden for the entire life cycle - from egg, to caterpillar, to butterfly Discussion focused on butterfly/larva predators and how important they are to the cycle. Tips on photography, particularly in the dark were helpful. The pictures of the butterflies and flowers were exquisite! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and the information in it will go a long way in helping me create my dream garden.

An Informative and visually stunning text. This is not just a pretty book. Much can be learned from the subtitles for the bonsai enthusiast and casual browser alike.

Incredible masterpieces of Bonsai, most many hundreds of years old, are displayed in exquisite high-resolution photographs. This book is well worth the money for those seeking to study the world's finest examples of this living art form. An well-written and insightful historical survey is included.

For all bonsai lovers, this book is a must-have! The pictures are the most beautiful you'll ever see, with amazing and rare specimens.

I not only collect plants, I also collect books by Ken Druse. There are so many garden books out there today, and many are disappointing. Druse's books are the best. I read them over and over -- and the pictures are incredible. There could not be more inspirational and informational books onmy favorite hobby.

I just read that Ken Druse swept the Garden Book awards this year with The Collector's Garden. Best photography from The Garden Writers of America; Best book of the year from The American Horticultural Society. I have all his books -- this is the best one yet!

From my earliest years, I have devoured gardening books. Now in my wrinkly years and the owner of two gardens, one in the city and the other in Tasmania's beautiful countryside, I appreciate all the knowledge I have consumed over the years and I thank those garden writers that have helped to stir my creative juices and given aid when the inevitable mistakes have taken place. Through Internet, I have made the aquaintance of American gardeners and my interest in the revolution that is taking place in their gardens, has been aroused. The same movement is noticeably happening in the Australian gardening scene. Do you plant with only Australian native flora? Are you still homesick for the "old country" and religiously imitate the English country garden design? Perhaps the best is a blending of both styles? These are the questions that Australians are asking and American landscapers too. With interest aroused, I purchased American gardening books. I read serious tomes, the "this is what is happening in my garden" books and humerous offerings. This Christmas, as is my usual custom, I splashed out and bought myself two Kenneth Druse books: "The Collector's Garden: Designing with Extraordinary Plants" and "The Natural Garden". They were the best Christmas present ever, to be trite "A picture tells a Thousand Tales". The photographs are stunning, cream chocolates to be devoured over and over again with no weight gain! The script is concise and informative as it relates with gentle humour the drive that was used by these American gardeners to create their superb gardens. I would recommend both books to everyone, the beginner, the professional and the young at heart. There is nothing as exciting as beauty in pure form and in Kenneth Druse we find a genius who shares his love of beauty with us all, a luxury to be enjoyed and used time and time again.

Come to the Garden was given to me by a friend at a time in my life when I was physically and emotionally worn out. It's words both gave me hope and helped me to heal. For weeks I read it daily. I have since given it away as a gift countless times.

Come to the Garden annd its sister book The Path Less Taken are very special and wonderful books. I have given them as gifts to many, many friends and family members and the responses I have received are heartwarming. "How did you know I needed this inspiring book?" "I read it often and keep it by my bedside." "Where can I buy this wonderful book to give to my friends and family?" I still read Come to the Garden and The Path Less Taken often and always find comfort in their words of wisdom. The combination of exquisite poetry and beautiful art make these books great favorites of mine.

JoAnna O'Keefe's deep compassion will carry you away from the cares of the day to a place where your spirit can mend and your mind is set free. A "must read" for those who seem to have no private time or a place to go. This is a healing book that you will read again and again.

So many people told us that having an outdoor wedding was just asking for trouble, and we're glad we listened to this book instead of them!! Sharon Naylor eased all of our concerns about bad weather and finding a location, decorating and all the rest, and her really creative ideas on how to make an outdoor site really beautiful were just what we needed! I loved the part about choosing the right kind of gown and shoes and tuxes for any weather condition, and my fiance got into the 'how to plan your menu' part that talks about warnings and smarter choices we never considered before. If you're dreaming of an outdoor wedding, this book is going to make you very, very happy.

Have reviewed this book and given it as gifts. Ms. Naylor is a truly gifted writer, and has a talent for expressing her ideas in an easy-to-follow manner!!

Don't miss this book if you are planning (or know someone planning) a wedding!

My fiance and I LOVED this book. We did all the worksheets, completed the questionnaire of what we really, really wanted for our wedding, and planned out our entire dream wedding. The best part was all of the budget tips that helped us figure out how we're going to pay for the whole thing, and we are so excited to have learned all of the details that most couples forget. Before we got this book, we didn't know if we could pull off an outdoor wedding. We thought it might be too much, or that it would be too hard to plan....but now that we have this book, we have no doubts. Sharon Naylor really made everything easy to follow and easy to use, and she made it fun for BOTH of us with her sense of humor and her warnings about common mistakes to avoid. We highly recommend this book to any couple planning a beach or yard wedding -- it has advice you're not going to find in the magazines or other books.

The projects are not so challenging as to be overwhelming; they are fairly simple and can be completed in an evening or over the weekend. The exception is the greenhouse, which has a block waist wall and wood framing for the glass top. I am building the tomato towers and will start the strawberry tower to use next year. There are several smaller projects - a sting-line row marker, caddies and dibble that can be made with scraps you may already have.

I am blessed with a shop full of power tools and shop-made jigs, which makes ripping and cutting complicated angles easier, faster and more accurate, but many of these can be built with simple hand tools and attention to detail.

The book is well laid out, profusely illustrated with color photographs of the completed projects and clear construction drawings and plans. They even recommend specific woods for each project - mainly cedar - but I had a bunch of pressure treated yellow pine left over from other projects which I am using. They also recommend finishes for each project.

If you are looking for something to do when it is too hot, cold or wet to work outside; here's your book. Your garden will be more beautiful and efficient. Your plants will thank you.

I agree that the projects are very nice, but disagree that power tools are needed. Some experience is definitely useful, but I have been happily building these projects with only hand tools -- save the occasional drill for driving lots of screws!

We've just finished building our strawberry tower, an obelisk to grow 90 strawberry plants in a couple of square feet of space. We're beaming from the rave reviews of friends who find our project attractive and functional. The Gertley's do a superb job of presenting their unique projects with gorgeous pictures in attractive settings. I have a whole list of projects I intend to create--and I know that each one will be classy and distinctive. This is a book for people who like to build garden projects that they know they won't see any where else around the neighborhood.

COBRAS IN HIS GARDEN is an excellant book, and was an inspiration to me throughout my life with my own interest in venomous snakes. To say the very least, I own quite a bit to Mr. Haast, and his wife Nancy. If you get the chance to visit Bill Haast today, you will most likely find him in his "garden", an acre and a half walled in rattlesnkae pit, complete with irragation system, and artificial turtle holes for the snakes. This worlds largest man made snake pit has several of Mr. Haast's favorate plants, and is mowed regularly by Nancy Haast. I look forward to someone writing another book about Mr. Haast, and his many projects, not all snake related. But until then, THIS BOOK IS GREAT! My autographed copy is the only book I own that is NEVER lent out.

The memory of reading this book as a 5th grader has stayed with me throughout my life. When I got my first car at the age of 17, I immediatly drove to the Miami Serpatarium to visit this amazing man. Truly one of my childhood heros.

I met Bill Haast in 1982 when I was 13. The only bad thing I can say about this book is that it was written in 1965...and is in desperate need of an update. So much more has happened in 34 years

If the famous altarpiece of Hieronymous Bosch , similarly titled the Garden of Earthly Delights, could become words, those words would probably read much like Reinaldo Arenas' last volume. As with any fine writer (and make no bones about it, Arenas is one of the best of the Latin writers), the act of drawing an audience into a book is part enjoyment but also part labor. Plan on working to catch all the subtle metaphors and references as well as the obvious in-your-face slapstick that flows continously from these pages.

Arenas' bifurcated feelings about his native Cuba are well know to the readers of his other novels: Cuba he adores - Castro he loathes. And as the author was dying from AIDS in the US he was able to concentrate all of his ambiguous responses to his native homeland into a grand guignol carnival Farewell Party. The precis for the story is the preparation for the celebration of Fifo's (thinly disguised name for Fidel Castro) "50th" anniversary of dictatorship. Arenas very cleverly separates his personality into three faces - Gabriel, Reinaldo, and Skunk in a Funk - in order to give us the many facets of view of living in Cuba now and before Castro. His characters are hilariously drawn campy creatures in an endless pursuit of earthly delights (aka gay sex) and if the interchange of gender pronouns (him/her) at times gets a bit overused, the premise is sound and keeps the stew bubbling. Even the atrocities attributed to "Fifo" are handled in sure polished slapstick that we are drawn more to laughter than to loathing. Cuba is finally liberated by being separated from its mooring to the sea floor to float out blissfully toward Europe..or....

Arenas was a brilliant writer who died too young, but as this final translation of his output proves, his was a significant voice not only as a gay writer, but as a revolutionary thinker under the duress of loss of freedom that still plagues Cuba. Highly recommended book....just plan to work some and to take your time.......

Wow! I just finished reading "The Color Of Summer" by the late Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas--and what a challenge it is for me to describe or assess this extraordinary work of fiction. It seems to be a hybrid of memoir, satire, and wild, hallucinatory magical realism. Maybe I should de-emphasize the term "realism." Historical events are exaggerated or transmogrified by the author--often with hilarious and irreverent results. The relentless pursuit of pleasure is constantly at odds with the pursuit of power. In one chapter entitled "The Garden Of Computers" Arenas brilliantly satirizes the bureaucracy of informants. "...denunciations, backstabbings, and betrayals of friendship were the nourishment the machines lived on." This is as brilliant as anything Dickens ever wrote about corrupt institutions. Other authors that came to mind as I read "The Color Of Summer" were Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, William Burroughs and, especially, Salman Rushdie. The amazing word-play in this book(in which 30 tongue twisters are interspersed)is delightful. Credit for this must surely be shared by the English translator Andrew Hurley. Sex(especially gay sex)is an obsession with most of the characters in this book-including the central tyrant Fifo(Castro). This is not a book for the timid or prudish. However, underneath it all there is a powerful affimation of the human spirit. Arenas expresses profound sadness, frustration, and anger--which cuts right through all the raucous humor. But, more than that, he imparts a sense of real joy through his characters' acts of defiance and creativity. I thoroughly recommend this book. A masterpiece.

The translation of this work is amazing - no way would you know that this delightful queen, Arenas, didn't originally write this in wickedly idiomatic English. He had to write this story, what?, seven times? It was confiscated, stolen, and lost over and over. And he re-wrote it over and over, until he could escape to freedom and finally see it in print. The story is a scream of queer humor atop the most tragic background of brutal state repression. Yet, in a way that only imprisoned Cubans seem to know how to do, his pride and dignity survive.

I do like this book and I'll probably refer to it often but I'm not quite as enthusiastic about it as the other reviewers. The history was very interesting but because there was so much of it, there wasn't as much coverage of suitable plants as other books. On the plus side of that, the author also didn't go into "information overload" and provide umteen-zillion varieties of every possible rose that could be planted. He did discuss some rarely used plants that I definitely want in my garden and he knows how to grow them, too, which is a plus. He also included some recipes for some of the unusual vegetables. And the pictures are wonderful.

Stephen Westcott-Gratton has written a 'hit the nail on the head' how to book on putting in a Cottage Garden. It is obvious he is both gardener and writer because his advice is methodical and his suggestions very workable.

He dispels the myth that English Cottage Gardens need to be contrived, reinforces the necessity for tight plantings and encourages the experimentation of different plants which provide the fun and color for this kind of garden.

This book covers the history of the Cottage Garden and some of the plants traditionally used. It is both an enjoyable read and an informative tome for taking your small spot and turning it into a riot of color and a haven for life of all kinds.

The plant selections are typical of someone who gardens in Canada, but that does not diminish the how to information the book provides.

Plus, Mr. Westcott-Gratton definitely leans to the organic and that is dear to our hearts.

For those of us who like the cottage garden look and live in North America, this is a valuable book. Written in a style laced with humor, it debunks myths and inspires an adventurous approach. It is full of detailed information about how to create the cottage garden look and includes a well organized glossary of specific plants which lend themselves to an easy approach to this style. It also includes a palatable dollop of horticultural history, well written and not overwhelming for those more interested in today! Good enough that I decided I must own it!