MaryAnne Spinner, Chicago Master Gardener

With six months of winter left–or so it seems–we gardeners still need something constructive to do. To paraphrase a slam directed towards me years ago as a young French teacher at John Marshall High School: Those who can do; those who can't...read. Here are some suggestions for winter (and onward) reading material.

The American Gardener

The official magazine of the American Horticultural Society, based in Alexandria, Virginia, The American Gardener is published bi-monthly and a one-year subscription is included in the Society's annual membership fee. To join and receive a subscription, go to www.ahs.org. This publication has a scholarly bent but is not overtly technical, and it contains in-depth articles on subjects of wide interest. Current or recent pieces have dealt with new plant introductions, weed control strategies, green roofs (spotlighting Chicago's own City Hall), and the value of mycorrhizae in the soil. Monthly features include informative book reviews, news about garden shows and other horticultural events nationwide (useful when planning vacations), and one of my favorite features, a Pronunciations and Planting Zones page, which lists every plant mentioned in that particular issue. Have you ever wondered how to pronounce Polystichum acrostichoides? It's pah-LIS-tih-kum uh-kros-tih-CHOY-deez, and you should know that this lovely Christmas fern is hardy in USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 3-8, and in AHS Plant Heat Zones 8-1.

In addition to the magazine, AHS members receive a number of valuable benefits. These include access to an annual seed exchange program, discounts on educational programs (such as those offered by the Horticultural Gardening Institute), an excellent members-only website, discounts at one of my favorite mail-order sources for tools and equipment, Gardener's Supply Company, and free or reduced admission to scores of botanical gardens and garden shows nationwide. Sign up quickly, and you'll be entitled to a $5 discount on tickets for the Chicago Flower & Garden Show in March!

Horticulture

According to Horticulture's website (www.hortmag.com), this publication has been "the authoritative voice of gardening, providing inspiration, instruction, and entertainment for passionate gardeners" since 1904. I have subscribed off and on over the years, usually lured by well-written articles on a wide range of topics. The current issue, for example, features groundcovers, "Plants We Love" (must-haves that gardeners can't live without), and a treatise on annuals that can be planted early in the gardening season. There are also helpful reviews on gardening books and tools.

My biggest quibble with Horticulture, however (and the reason why I have let my subscription lapse a couple of times), is its heavy focus on narrowly drawn regional gardening issues. What the editorial staff considers to be a strength, I find irritating: each issue has significant content related only to specific regions of the United States. These regions are spotlighted on a revolving basis, so that with only seven issues, our part of the Midwest comes up only a couple of times per year. The current issue spotlights Southern California, the Southeast, the Pacific Northwest, and the Interior West–wherever that is! And unless you happen to have a second (or third) home in one of these areas, you are paying for substantial content of little value. It may sound parochial, but while I enjoy reading an occasional article on cactus gardens or the plantations of the South, I am frustrated by extensive commentaries on the cultivation of plants hardy only in my dreams. If this doesn't bother you, then you might give Horticulture a try–the publishers usually offer a free trial issue.

Garden Gate

I first learned of Garden Gate from an article in the Chicago Tribune on the fifty best magazines of the year. It was characterized as the gardening version of Consumer Reports or Cooks Illustrated, in that the publication takes no advertising and supports itself through its readership and ancillary publications. One thing that I like about this bi-monthly (to subscribe see www.gardengatemagazine.com) is that it arrives conveniently pre-punched to store in a three-ring binder. I wish more magazines would do that, instead of pushing pricey leather-bound editions or clunky magazine holders.

Within the pages of Garden Gate you'll find a wide variety of articles, from advice on pruning and deadheading, to step-by-step gardening projects (build a pond, put up a trellis), to plant-by-number container garden recipes. The articles are all clearly and simply written, but if you are a seasoned gardener you may find them a bit too basic. Also, there is very little photography in each issue; the publication bills itself as the "Illustrated guide to Home Gardening and Design", and indeed most articles are accompanied by rather diffuse water color illustrations rather than photos. All in all, I'd recommend this one primarily to beginning gardeners who would like to learn the fundamentals.

The Garden

This monthly publication is the journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the United Kingdom, and a one-year subscription is included in the society's membership fee (sign up at www.rhs.org.uk) . OK, so there's some head-shaking out there–if I'm not fond of magazines with a heavily regional American focus, why would I possibly recommend a British gardening journal? Because it's got top-notch scholarship, elegant writing, outstanding photographs, and each issue is crammed with information that those of us in Zone ±5 can use. The current 71-page issue, for example, has features on euphorbias, nasturtiums, compact evergreens, trees that produce charming catkins, and instructions on how to build dry-stone walls. This month's Gardening Advice Service column offers information on growing rhubarb, pruning blueberries, choosing hedges, and sowing tender veggies, and there is a complimentary online gardening advice service available to members. Yes, a number of pages in each issue are devoted to English gardens and garden shows, but that can be a good thing, too.

In fact, I first subscribed to The Garden in conjunction with last May's trip to England, when I planned to visit several famous country gardens as well as the legendary Chelsea Flower Show in London. Conveniently, members of the RHS can order discounted tickets for members-only viewings to Chelsea, and can also obtain discounts for flower shows at Hampden Court, Tatton Park, and London. In addition, members receive discounted or free admission to numerous public and private gardens throughout the UK, including the excellent RHS Wisley and its famous trial gardens. (If you've ever seen the designation "Award of Merit" attached to a plant, that award came from a Wisley trial.) But even if you aren't planning a trip over the pond, consider The Garden. I'm not heading to the UK again for the immediate future, but I renewed my RHS membership again this year just to keep my subscription going.

Chicagoland Gardening

At the other end of the spectrum, Chicagoland Gardening is the quintessential local magazine. Its subtitle, The Garden Magazine for Our Region, is both precise and accurate. This bi-monthly publication (see www.chicagolandgardening.com) offers features on plants, garden design, and gardening advice all geared to our area, and nearly all of the advertising is local, too. The current issue has articles on new plant introductions, streptocarpus (one of my favorite houseplants), threatened native species, and EarthBoxes (the latter jointly written by a Chicago Master Gardener). Local gardens and gardeners are highlighted, in a radius that encompasses close-in areas of Indiana and Wisconsin for those of us who like field trips.

Monthly features include a column on plants recommended for our locale that is written by Chicago Botanic Garden staff, a Q&A column, a humor piece by Mike Nowak, and the exceedingly useful Calendar of Gardening Events, which lists upcoming garden seminars, shows, classes, and the like throughout our area. Chicagoland Gardening also publishes a gardener's resource guide keyed to a pull-out map of area garden centers and nurseries, which should be tucked into the glove compartment of every Chicagoland gardener's car.

Martha Stewart Living

We all have skeletons hiding in our gardening closets. Mine is a fondness for the oft-ridiculed "homekeeper's" bible, Martha Stewart Living (www.marthastewart.com) . Although I'm a klutz with pie dough and would never dream of making my own window shades or rabbit hutch, I'm a fan of Martha's efforts to beautify life, and I believe that this slick monthly publication gets a raw deal from those who have never read it.

Although not strictly a gardening magazine–it contains significant content on cooking, crafts, and decorating–the gardening features are outstanding. They are well-researched, clearly written, and gorgeously photographed, whether the subject is hydrangeas, hanging baskets, or (like this month) ferns. The annual gardening issue is chock-full of goodies, and the website has a number of practical features such as Gardening 101 (primers on various subjects), a compendium of Martha's classic Good Things (first aid for gardeners, how to clean and store pots, how to maintain tools), and a searchable Plant Encyclopedia. If you're willing to give Living a try, start by picking up the special garden issue this year on the newsstands–you can always hide it behind a copy of The Economist.

Do you have a gardening question? Email the Extension's Electronic Plant Clinic at rwolford@uiuc.edu, and our Master Gardeners will be glad to assist you.