by Warren Leach

After 7 years of writing, photography, and editing, Warren Leach's new book Plants for the Winter Garden will be released by Timber Press (Hachette Publishing Company) on November 5, 2024.

Within this comprehensive reference book lie the secrets to keeping your garden beautiful despite the elements, with design and planting concepts for prolonged wintry conditions.

Though many plants go dormant in wintry months, numerous inspiring cultivars and varieties hold their interest through the cold and snow, including brightly colored twigs, buds, and berries, dazzling winter flowers, and dried seed pods. Plantsman Warren Leach shares expertise and techniques perfected over thirty years of gardening in frigid eastern Massachusetts, including: 

  ·Incorporating structural elements like stone walls, paths, and hardy containers

  ·Accentuating plant shapes that hold their form year-round

  ·Siting and pruning evergreens for maximum effect

  ·Showcasing trees with textured or colorful bark

  ·And so much more!

Plants for the Winter Garden extends the possibilities for the cold-climate gardener and provides invaluable insight that will make any garden thrive during the cold season.

Notes from the author:

Gardening for the winter season, at the northern latitude of 42 degrees where Boston is situated, may seem absurd at first. However paradoxical, the winter season can well be a highlight of a garden's beauty. In this season of shortened daylight and elongated shadows, silhouettes of trees show off their sculptural qualities, especially against a canvas of white snow. Winter's cold intensifies the coloration and ornamentation of twigs and bark on trees and shrubs. Most amazingly, flowers also bloom throughout the winter season which begins with a killing frost in November and proceeds through March. Savvy gardeners have always looked beyond summer blooms with an eye on the ornamental fruit of pollination, attractive remnant seedheads and evergreen foliage that gives structure to the garden.

Timber Press contacted me in November 2017 to write a new interpretation on the winter garden. Plants for the Winter Garden - Perennials, Grasses, Shrubs, and Trees to Add Interest in the Cold and Snow has now been published and will be available November 5th. I believe that my diligence of providing over 500 photographs annotated to my text that comprises fifteen chapters, and my editor's patience has honored the publisher's request with a book of unique substance and artistry.

Warren Leach
An Introduction

Warren Leach is a passionate plant collector, nurseryman, horticulturist and landscape designer with a depth of knowledge of all garden plants - both perennial and woody plants and tropical and temperate. Warren is also an admired speaker, writer and educator.

For more than thirty five years, Warren has been creating beautiful landscapes throughout New England as well as making captivating and educational display gardens at Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth. He is co-owner of this specialty nursery that is a prominent grower of daylilies, iris and distinctive perennials and woody plants.

Warren is an award winning landscape designer, twice receiving the National Landscape Association Regional Certificate of Merit for Residential Landscape Design. Images of his garden design at Brigham Hill Farm in North Grafton, Massachusetts are archived at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

In 2009, the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association presented him the 1st Place Award for Residential Design and Installation. In 2010, Roger Swain presented Warren and wife Debi Hogan with the Elisabeth and Roger Swain Award for Design and Execution at the Rhode Island Spring Flower and Garden Show. That same year the Massachusetts Horticultural Society honored Warren with a Gold Medal for his horticultural expertise, landscape design as well as years of forcing plants and creating exceptional displays in the New England Spring Flower Show. For six years between 1996 and 2013, Warren and his wife Debi Hogan Chaired the Miniature Gardens Competition in the Flower Show and also created award-winning miniature gardens.

Warren has taught horticulture and landscape design at numerous horticultural institutions throughout the Northeast including: The University of Rhode Island, the Brown University Learning Community, Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education, the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Horticulture Magazine and Radcliffe. He has also offered programs for numerous garden clubs, botanical gardens and professional organizations.

Warren’s new book, published by Timber Press, Plants for the Winter Garden, will be released on November 5, 2024. Articles written by Warren, have been published in Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Green Scene, American Nurseryman and Boston magazines.

                                Celebrating the Winter Garden

                              Other Garden Talks Availableby Warren Leach

Rugged shrubs in permanent pots add life to the frozen landscape

by Warren Leach

Horticulture Magazine

November / December 2024

pp. 26 - 33

article excerpted from Plants for the Winter Garden

by Warren Leach

Fine Gardening Magazine

April 2023

pp. 46 - 55

                                                                Book Reviews

Plants for the Winter Garden, Perennials, Grasses, Shrubs, and Trees to Add Interest in the Cold and Snow by Warren Leach

Within this comprehensive reference book lie the secrets to keeping your garden beautiful despite the elements, with design and planting concepts for prolonged wintry conditions.

Though many plants go dormant in wintry months, there are many inspiring cultivars and varieties that hold their interest through the cold and snow, including brightly colored twigs, buds, and berries, dazzling winter flowers and dried seed pods. Plants for the Winter Garden extends the possibilities for the cold-climate gardener and provides invaluable insight that will make any garden thrive during the cold season.Plantsman Warren Leach shares expertise and techniques perfected over thirty years of gardening in frigid eastern Massachusetts. Discover how to incorporate structural elements like stone walls, paths, and hardy containers that keep gardens intriguing when covered with snow; accentuate plant shapes that hold their form year-round; site and prune evergreens for maximum effect; and showcase trees with textured or colorful bark that stand out in gray months. And much more!

Home & Garden | Reference

This book is a great book for anyone interested in hardy plants for the winter. Being a New York native and currently living in Colorado, I am no stranger to harsh winters. This book is very informative and provides not only in depth details but beautiful supporting pictures as well. I appreciate the several shrubs and trees mentioned, along with tips for their maintenence and protection throughout the year. It's very helpful and insightful, and I plan on incorporating some more resilient plants into my landscaping.

Thank you NetGalley and Timber Press for this informative reference book.

Featured Reviews

Kaila W, Reviewer

“An enthusiastic embrace of the winter season” is a theme woven throughout this book. Exquisite winter photos are featured throughout, showing you what might have been in your garden had you given it some thought.

I will be thinking long and hard about the ideas in Plants for Winter Garden. I learned about marcescent winter foliage and using bark to add cold weather interest.

The Gestalt of Groves was a particularly interesting chapter. So many design ideas were presented in an approachable way. Forms, fruits and blooms for the winter made me consider how to use these elements in a creative way.

If you are wanting to up your winter gardening game, this is the book for you.

Stacey D, Reviewer

A much needed dive in to the seasonal winter gardening, my winters can vary greatly in temperature as apposed to the rest of the states so I was elated to find another New England minded gardener to get suggestions from! Warrens tone was easy to read along with and I feel like I have all the information I need to expand my winter garden! Thanks for access to this great ARC Netgalley and Timber Press! Thanks to this title I will be able to complete scape my space in to a whimsy winter space.

Rin K, Reviewer

Winter gardens often go unnoticed. This book enlightens us on winter garden plants and the methods of planting for winter. I suggest this book to all gardening enthusiasts.

Michael W, Reviewer

The first thing you notice about this book is how beautiful the photographs are! The second thing you notice at how beautiful plants can be in the bleakest season-winter! This book does a fantastic job bringing attention to the beauty of the winter landscape and highlights many ways in which winter plants (both green and not) can be so beautiful if you stop to appreciate them. This book also includes chapters on entry garden design and views of winter plants through windows both of which were so unexpected but greatly appreciated!

The only thing that I didn't enjoy in this book is the captions for photos. All the captions feature the Latin names for plants and it would be much more accessible if the common names were also used.

Renee P, Reviewer

This was really well written and researched. I felt like I really gained a lot of practical knowledge from reading this. I am excited to implement what I have learned. This was very user friendly and easy to follow.

Jessica R, Reviewer

Clare R, Reviewer

As a new gardener who is prone to go for the colorful summer stunners, I found this to be a useful and practical guide to plants that add interest when little else will. A fabulous resource for people just like me.

Becca B, Reviewer

One of my goals is to have some color in my landscape every month of the year (and I live in a temperate zone). So, this book was very attractive to me and I was NOT disappointed! Most books of this type might begin with a heavy section on the landscape design, which would overwhelm me immediately. I really liked how this book begins with a general design introduction, then highlights a great variety of plants that can add variety to the winter landscape. I found all sorts of ideas of plants to add to my property, with the help of abundant beautiful photos. With those ideas in mind, I was better able to then absorb the last sections of the book, which describe how to design a good winter landscape. Example properties are shown in both winter and summer views. The very last part of the book discusses practical aspects of maintenance of the plants. I loved this book and will purchase it for my own library!

Thank you to Timber Press and NetGalley for providing an advance review copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

Catlin P, Reviewer

Award-winning landscape designer Leach shares his decades of horticultural experience and passion for winter with readers. His book's 15 chapters educate readers on how to create a visually pleasing garden—with more than the typical pine trees and holly bushes—during the harsh winter months. Leach reminds readers to consider leaf and bark texture, the reflective qualities of leaves, the interplay of color, and a plant's physical structure when buried under snow. Each entry of a featured plant includes its scientific and common names, a brief horticultural history, mentions of adaptability issues, and soil and light requirements. There are plenty of full-color photographs too. There's even a gallery of front garden entries. These show dramatic, beautiful winter gardens that incorporate the various elements discussed throughout the book.

VERDICT Readers in garden zones 4–7, based on the average extreme minimum winter temperature for the area, will enjoy Leach's poetic and reverent writing style and tones as they learn how to protect their gardens from deer and the wintry elements.

—Aspasia Luster