This handsomely illustrated and thorough treatise is far more than a manual on planting and maintaining moss. The book aims to be of practical help in understanding some of the common mosses, lichens, and liverworts, and in distinguishing them from the familiar non-mosses such as Irish, Scottish, and Spanish "moss." There are descriptions for transplanting, propagating, and growing them as ground covers, in container gardens, and for bonsai arrangements. Exhilarating to gardeners and non-gardeners alike are the fine photographs, ranging from panoramas of moss carpets and temple gardens in Japan to close-ups of sea lettuce-like mosses and spore capsules. George Schenk writes that he is primarily interested in garden art rather than science, but he offers enough of each to inspire broader exploration of these minute, but certainly not minor, plants.
|
