Fall & Winter Bloom in the Solar Greenhouse, James L. Jones, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 29, 2012), 168pp, 10 x 7 inches, softcover; publisher's price: $35.00, Amazon price: $31.50.
This self-published volume by past NARGS president James Jones is written from his long experience and his conversion of heated conservatory and greenhouse to greenhouses heated solely by the sun. Nevertheless, don't be fooled: his "sunhouses" – his term for solar, or unheated, greenhouses – are carefully calculated to provide different winter habitats with three different minimum temperatures
His concentration is on fall and winter flowering plants because, as he says, "For myself, my vision of what I wanted from the sunhouse made the choosing that much the easier: a wintertime complement to the summer garden."
Discussions on rationale, on construction, and on his calendar for his sunhouses, complement an extended listing and discussion of the plants that he recommends – and they are all ones of which he has personal experience. And they are a truly eclectic bunch – Cyclamen rub shoulders with Crassula and Cymbidium, South African Erica and Oxalis, Australian Protea, Lachenalia, rock garden classics such as Morisia monanthos and dwarf Narcissus.
The type size is large and well-spaced. The one problem with the book is the quality of the pictures, which are not as bright as the original photographs deserved. But that quibble aside, this is a genuinely personal account – idiosyncratic and great fun.
Malcolm McGregor is Editor of the Rock Garden Quarterly and resides in the UK.