France Royer and Richard Dickinson have created a great field guide for everyone who has ever wanted to know the name-or the story-of a wildflower. Perfect for your pocket, pack or glove box. Concise, readable descriptions accompany glorious colour photographs of more than 100 Alberta species, found from Red Deer to the Montana border, Banff National Park to the Cypress Hills.
With Wildflowers of Edmonton and Central Alberta, anyone can identify more than 100 common or characteristic flowering plants, from Edson to Vermilion, Fort McMurray to Red Deer. It's the perfect guide for beginner and intermediate naturalists. This easy-to-use book features a quick and easy key to identifying plants by species; detailed descriptions of 103 species, and descriptions of 44 related species; 225 full-colour photos; and a glossary of terms.
An exciting vision of the blossoming new role gardening plays for this generation and the next. In The New Canadian Garden, Canada’s gardening guru, Mark Cullen, explores new trends that are redefining today’s gardening experiences. Many of us are utilizing small urban spaces — balconies, patios, and even rooftops — and growing our own fruits, vegetables, and herbs, both at home and through community gardens. Mark has lots of suggestions about which crops will work best for your particular space and how to attract birds, bees, and butterflies to your garden. And he combines the best practical information with an insightful approach to help improve your gardening skills. The New Canadian Garden is a must-have reference for anyone gardening in a Canadian climate.
Uncommon Beauty explores the wildflowers and flowering shrubs of a large area including Jasper down to Cranston, over to Glacier National Park in Montana, and up to Lethbridge and Edmonton. Extensively researched by author and outdoors enthusiast Neil L. Jennings, this guide will inform and intrigue the reader, while also assisting with plant identification and recognition. Exceptional photographs of over 200 species of flowering plants, plus information about each plant, make Uncommon Beauty the ideal field guide for hikers (and amblers) of all skill levels. For ease of reference, the book is arranged by flower colour and by plant family. A complete index is included, using common and scientific names for all plants. One final cautionary note—the pursuit of wildflowers can be addictive, though not hazardous to your health.
The flora of the Rocky Mountains is spectacular, displaying its changing aspects throughout the growing season. As the snow cover melts back up the mountain slopes, the wildflowers spread their carpet through the forests, across the subalpine meadows and into the alpine regions. Kananaskis Country was established primarily for nature conservation and recreation. It contains three provincial parks with facilities for swimming, fishing, camping, hiking, and the general enjoyment of nature. The southernmost park, Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, includes several lakes and a large section of mountain wilderness with snow-covered peaks and glaciers. It is a "multi-use recreation area," offering the visitor a choice of hiking and interpretive trails. Sprawling across Alberta's prairies and foothills to the heights of the Rockies, Kananaskis Country is home to a particularly rich diversity of plant life. Plants of Kananaskis Country in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta describes in detail 423 of the most significant, identifiable or characteristic species of this region and refers to many other species. Beryl Hallworth and C.C. Chinnappa also provide an authoritative overview of this region, including information on its climate, geology, and vegetation zones and important notes on the history of human use of these plants.
American Horticultural Society Book Award Winner: “An essential reference for all who wish to understand the science of the all-powerful weed.” —Better Homes and Gardens “What is a weed,” opined Emerson, “but a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered?” While that may be a worthy notion in theory, these plants of undiscovered virtue cause endless hours of toil for backyard gardeners. Wherever they take root, weeds compete for resources, and most often win. They also wreak havoc on industry—from agriculture to golf courses to civic landscape projects, vast amounts of money are spent to eradicate these virile and versatile invaders. With so much at stake, reliable information on weeds and their characteristics is crucial. Richard Dickinson and France Royer shed light on this complex world with Weeds of North America. Organized by plant family, this encyclopedic volume features over five hundred species in two-page spreads with images and text identification keys. Species are arranged within family alphabetically by scientific name, and entries include vital information on seed viability and germination requirements. No matter what your philosophy on weeds, this guide provides much-needed background on these intrusive organisms. In the battle with weeds, knowledge truly is power, and Weeds of North America is perfect for gardeners, botanists, nature lovers, or anyone working in the business of weed ecology and control. “Royer’s photographs are almost perversely alluring. . . . How can you not be ensnared by a book populated by prostrate pigweed, tansy ragwort and dog-strangling vine?” —New York Times Book Review
This impressive, richly illustrated field guide identifies more than 150 noxious weeds. 800 colour photos show the weeds at five critical stages and help to distinguish another 100 related species. Information on weed legislation by province and state is also listed. A first of its kind, this book is an extraordinary resource for a multitude of users, whether farmer, landscaper, weed specialist, or gardener. [New book, Weeds of North America, available from University of Chicago Press.]
In Behind the Counter, Neil Jennings offers tips, tricks, shortcuts and techniques. Whatever one's experience level, there are things in this book that readers will find useful or thought provoking. Jennings started getting serious about fly-fishing in 1973 and has fished that way exclusively ever since. From 1982 through 2003 he was a partner/owner in a retail fly-fishing shop in Calgary , Alberta . During that time Neil was behind the counter, answering questions and giving advice to thousands of flyfishers, from wannabes to seriously talented anglers. Over the years, Neil learned a lot about fly-fishing, some of it by good example and some of it by bad. This book is a distillation of the best of that experience. One of the wonderful things about fly-fishing is that you have an opportunity to learn new things all the time.
A Delicate Arthighlights the paintings and photography of six artists in Alberta who with passion and long moments of observation have made an inspired contribution to wildflower art. Covering a period of one hundred years to the present, the story behind these creators Mary Schäffer Warren, Mary Vaux Walcott, William Copeland McCalla, Annora Brown, Robert Sinclair and Carole Harmon is also told. A blend of biography, botanical and regional art history and commentary by the artists themselves about their treasured subject, A Delicate Artis intended for the lay reader and is accompanied by sumptuous reproductions of the artwork and an alluring overall design that will appeal to anyone interested in art, mountain-life and gardening.
