Moss Gardening: Including Lichens, Liverworts, and Other Miniatures
A delightful book that encourages gardeners to pay closer attention to the subtle beauty of miniature landscapes and introduces one of the glories of Japanese gardens into American designs. The author writes entertainingly of mosses on rocks and walls, in containers, and as a lush ground cover, and he presents a gallery of his favorite moss species.
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One of the glories of Japanese gardens may find its way into your design with this expert's encouragement on how to care for the subtle beauty of miniature landscapes. Fine Gardening "The book's best feature is its stunning close-up photography. High-quality color photographs by the author and others lovingly bring these tiny plants into view. These modest plants are anything but humble when seen close-up. For those of us who see beautry in a moss carpet or a lichen-covered rock, here, finally, is a book worthy of a place on the gardening shelf." —Jim Bennett, Fine Gardening, January/February 1998
\ Mosses, lichens, and other cryptogams, collected on a trip, make elegant souvenirs of travel. No little gimcrack replicas of the Eiffel Tower or of Mickey Mouse, these. Rather, they are tokens rare and tasteful beyond price. In fact, you could not buy them if you tried. And so, bits and pieces of any likable, lowly plants that one discovers in trekking the world are apt to be wrapped in a tissue and pocketed, or (in the case of the premeditative, prepared collector) plastic-bagged and satcheled. We collectors must, of course, take care to prevent the importation of pests along with our trophies. We must, as well, give the plants protective care during the trip and afterward at home.\ On motor trips during the summer, mosses and any of the other primitive miniatures that have been collected when dry and dormant should be left dry for the trip and kept away from heat as much as possible. Then, too, they must be kept in a place where they will not get crushed. Where to put them? If one travels with friends or family in a vehicle packed to the gunnels (the usual situation), there may yet be one remaining spot of available space and safety: beneath the front seat. This happens to be one of the better places even if the vehicle is not crowded, a location insulated from direct sun and below the worst of the buildup of heat when the vehicle is parked with windows closed. But be sure, before placing plants upon it, that the floor does not heat up with the running of the engine.\ Plants that are to be stashed under the seat should be closed in bags or wrapped in newspaper or cloth to keep any draft from reaching them, since a breeze from the vehicle's air vent or air-conditioning could be damaging. On arrival home, the summer-dry plants, set out in the open, will wake up quickly and start growing (or start thinking about it) as soon as autumn rains have begun.\ Mosses and other primitive miniatures collected in moist condition are especially sensitive to heat during travel. Seal them in plastic bags and place them on ice in a portable food cooler, if you can squeeze them in. Small hope, so I find in my own travels with friends. Soft drinks or wine and cheese take precedence. In that circumstance, my only recourse has been to place any moist plants under the seat.
Preface9Ch. 1As One Moss Gardener to Another13Ch. 2Definitions19Ch. 3In the Gardens of Japan31Ch. 4In Public Gardens of the West40Ch. 5Mossy Rocks54Ch. 6The Camp Followers64Ch. 7Moss Carpets79Ch. 8In Alpine Gardens109Ch. 9Mosses and Lichens in Winter, A Photoessay122Ch. 10In Containers128Ch. 11Bonsai Mosses151Ch. 12Transportable Trophies163Ch. 13Bugaboos168Ch. 14Portraits175Ch. 15Potential Nursery Plants245Further Reading252Index of Mosses and Other Bryophytes258
\ The Washington Post"Read [this book] if you want to gain a healthy respect for and excitement about mosses." \ —Joel M. Lerner, Washington Post, February 17, 2001\ \ \ \ \ Seattle Times"Schenk has a gift of gab as great his gift of vision. He introduces his subjects enticingly, then starts to get technical ...Indeed, there is much more here than any one of us would suspect possible. The photographs, too, are amazingly varied, considering they are all of moss ...Schenk's book will open our eyes and instruct our fingers. His own dirt-stained hands are his offered proof of his right to write this book — and a most convincing one." \ —Ann Lovejoy, Seattle Times, February 1, 2000\ \ \ "The book's best feature is its stunning close-up photography. High-quality color photographs by the author and others lovingly bring these tiny plants into view. These modest plants are anything but humble when seen close-up. For those of us who see beautry in a moss carpet or a lichen-covered rock, here, finally, is a book worthy of a place on the gardening shelf." \ —Jim Bennett, Fine Gardening, January/February 1998\ \ \ \ \ A marvellous, fully color-illustrated, and thorough treatise on both common and unusual mosses, lichens, and liverworts, with descriptions for transplanting, propagating, and growing them as groundcovers, in containers, and for bonsai arrangements. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.\ \
