America in Bloom: Great American Gardens Open to the Public

Maybe I'm slipping into sentimentality. As I find old books that are candidates for weeding, I keep wanting to save them instead of removing them from the collection. Well, not all of them, as I do get satisfaction from weeding out ratty and out-of-date items, but when I find a nice condition book with timeless content, I want to put it into the path of an appreciative reader - who might actually be me.

Today I found America in Bloom: Great American Gardens Open to the Public with photos by Murray Alcosser. Though it was published by Rizzoli in 1991, I suspect the gardens all still exist. I would not rely on the phone numbers in the back of the book, but I look at the gorgeous color photos with longing to take a cross country trip. Thirty-eight gardens are featured, of which four are in the Chicago area. Most of the gardens are on the west or east coasts. With little text, readers mostly learn that the gardens exist and see how glorious they are, but that is the point of this coffee table book. For that purpose, the book still works. I will save it for another weeding day.

America in Bloom: Great American Gardens Open to the Public. New York: Rizzoli, 1991. ISBN 084781326.