Two New Must-Have Books
Two new books, “Native Plants of the Southeast” and “The Living Landscape” written by garden writers from the east coast of the US focus on their part of the world but definitely pertain to zone 7 northeast Oklahoma in the Ozark Plateau. Book authors and publishers always forget about us because they still think of OK as being the landscape they saw in dust bowl movies even though only the OK panhandle was in the central part of that tragedy. With our normal rainfall at 44-inches annually, and our lowest temperature recorded at zero, the climate zone is the same as many eastern states covered by these two beautiful books. “Native Plants of the Southeast: A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 460 Species for the Garden” by Larry Mellichamp was published by Timber Press this year. It is a 384-page, 8 by 10-inch hardback with 542-color photos. The list price is $40 (www.timberpress.com) and $25 at online retailers. The author, Larry Mellichamp is a botany professor at the University o...