In a Southern Garden: Twelve Months of Plants and Observations

Reading Hipps is like visiting on the veranda with a good friend who's articulate, funny and an expert gardener to boot. Her elegant prose (``Only in March may one glimpse a frothy white pear tree sporting a single perfect cardinal like a boutonniere'') has often graced the pages of Horticulture magazine. This, her first book, is equally well informed and witty: she describes the spiny yucca as ``a wicked plant. Just the thing to mass beneath a wayward teenage daughter's window.'' Although written from her vantage point in Huntsville, Ala., this volume is definitely not just for Southern gardeners; enthusiasts in every region will find much to enjoy and profit from here. Organized around the calendar year, the chapters examine seasonal highlights of Hipps's own garden, share information on subjects ranging from propagation to slug control and bolster everything with expansive, eclectic plant lists. An index would have been helpful, but the pleasures of this book make that a faint complaint. (Apr.)