Australia’s Eremophilas: Changing Gardens for a Changing Climate
Over the years I’ve purchased many reference books on gardening and there’s also been many that I’ve looked at and put back on the shelf.
One of the things I’ve also learnt is that there’s plenty of gardening books out there that are just basically a compilation of glossy photos and useless information that can quite easily be sourced anywhere on the internet for free. They are quite often written by famous or celebrity gardeners trying to make a bit of extra “pocket money” just off their own name. They always tend to come out just before Christmas and are rather light on for substance and as a consequence quite often only get read once.
So have you ever felt disappointed after you’ve bought one of these books? Well I know I have and as a result I’ve become very selective on what I now buy and recommend. So basically for me whenever I now buy a gardening book it has to have information that isn’t easily found elsewhere, it has to have lots of colour photos and it has to be as complete as possible in it’s content about the subject it’s about.
Therefore when I came across the book, “Australia’s Eremophilas”, while surfing the internet mid last year it caught my attention straight away.
As a home gardener, I’d been growing Eremophilas for some years and had been attracted to them because of their reputation as drought tolerant plants. Having started off with just a few plants I saw how they not only survived in drought conditions but actually thrived as they outperformed other garden plants not just for there ability to grow without very much water but also because they flowered prolifically as well.
Therefore I suppose you could say I was hooked on Eremophilas which led me to buy more and more different species and cultivars, and the more I bought the more I became aware of the diversity and scope of the Genus Eremophila. It also became apparent to me that it was more than possible to create a diverse drought tolerant garden and fill it only with Eremophilas.
Therefore like I said, when I first came across “Australia’s Eremophilas” I was attracted to it straight away but I was still unconvinced. You see I was desperate for it to live up to my expectations on what a gardening book should be so I read the description which went something live this.
“An up to date Reference of Australia’s Eremophilas written by Experts. Contains a brief description, extensive cultivation and growing hints and additional notes for each of the 216 described species of Eremophila. Also includes many hybrids and cultivars with information on pests and diseases, propagating from cuttings, seed and how to graft. It contains 270 pages of information and is packed full beautiful glossy photos.”
This was fantastic! It appeared as if it contained everything I was after in a reference gardening book.
Firstly it contained lots of information not readily available elsewhere. It was as close to complete as you could get as it covered 216 species, as well as many hybrids and cultivars, plus how and where to grow them.
It had information on pests and diseases and how to propagate them, not only by seed but by cuttings and grafting as well. It also had colour photos of all the species, cultivars and hybrids.
And finally the thing that impressed me the most was it said it was written by EXPERTS. Not by gardening celebrities, but by people that I had never heard of before. People that I’m sure most gardeners have never heard of before, but to me that didn’t matter as it confirmed that what I’d already read was correct and that it was a book with substance. So I went ahead and checked their credentials and this is what I found.
Norma Boschen, Maree Goods and Russell Wait have all been growing Eremophilas since the 1970′s and are all members of the Australian Eremophila Study Group which is a part of the Australian Plant Society. Therefore what better credentials are there than that.
So having read the review I then felt confident enough to go ahead and order the book online and I must say, I am glad that I did. Australia’s Eremophilas is just jam packed full of glossy colour photos that really do show off the diversity of the Eremophila. It has more than lived up to my expectations before I ordered it.
There are just so many Eremophilas displayed in this book that I’d never heard of before and as consequence it has now turned me into even more of a collector. It has allowed me to view photos of Eremophilas and then check their description to see how well they are suited to my garden conditions, as well as identify species that I’d bought that were mislabeled in the nursery. It even inspired me to go ahead and create this blog.
So if you’d like to discover more about how to grow Eremophilas in the home garden then please take some time to read my blog. It’s written from the perspective of a home gardener and is not intended to be a complete work on the Genus Eremophila. I am not an expert but my intention is to merely provide information that may not be easily accessed anywhere else.
If you are after a complete work on the Genus Eremophila or just a great gardening book (packed full of colour photos), that would make a fantastic gift for someone, then Australia’s Eremophilas is your answer.
I sincerely hope you find it of interest and please feel free to write and leave a comment below.
Thank You.
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