PW: Who's buying gardening books these days? Define the customer and the demographic boundaries. How have these demographics changed in the last five or 10 years?
Steege: Gardeners are a fairly well educated audience. A recent survey by the American Nursery and Landscape Association found 40% with some college and 13% with graduate degrees. We see our audience having wide age and experience levels, but all are readers looking for more detailed, specific and unique information. They include older people who for years have kept up their lawns and some landscape plantings, but now have more time and money to turn gardening into a real hobby. In addition, there are the people in their late 30s and 40s who have never gardened, but whose education and experience have shown them the value of gardening, whether it's to improve their property or for their own well-being. The ANLA survey found that people gardened because they enjoy the outdoors (70%), it's good exercise (68%) and it's relaxing (66%). Over the last several years, we've seen more of a change in the level of sophistication and focus readers expect, rather than in the demographics of the audience.
Barash: Women buy the majority of garden books. Most are suburban homeowners, but more urban and apartment/condo dwellers are getting into gardening, thus buying books. There are many more "displaced Northerners" who have moved South for retirement who are literally out of their comfort zone when it comes to gardening. It's like they have to learn to garden all over again with different soil types, rainfall and heat to consider. As the baby boomers age, the southern migration will increase.
Rodale: We've noticed these changes in customer demographics: more women than men; younger than before. Before, this customer was in her 60s. Now she's in her 30s, 40s and 50s. Also, she's more affluent.
Smith: We see the market as being composed of two prominent groups. Younger, first-time homeowners make up one segment. These people are beginning gardeners and landscapers. More experienced, slightly older gardeners make up the second part of our customer base. These people were beginners 10 to 30 years ago, but they have become increasingly sophisticated in their tastes as well as their skill levels. For many of them the initial interest in making the home look attractive has been transformed into a true passion for plants and gardens.
Bolotin: There are really two kinds of customers. One is looking for how-to, budget-sensitive books, then there is the more sophisticated gardener who wants a really beautiful book. Today there is a growing sophistication about gardening, and that's something that Smith & Hawken has helped bring about. People are looking for true authorities. They really care about their gardens. They want something to have a particular look.
B'Racz: I think what I have noticed is that a younger generation is getting serious about gardening. I see organic, permaculture and biodynamic gardeners looking for information. For the last 10 years we have done quite well with organic gardening books, and now what were once considered alternative gardening books compose the bulk of our gardening section, and mainstream gardening books are now our "alternatives."
Childs: Baby boomers are moving into gardening in growing numbers as they have more leisure time. This trend will accelerate as boomers become "empty nesters."
Maupin: I was reading in the Prestel catalog about its new Icons of Garden Design and saw the greatest line: "Gardening," declared The London Times recently, "is the new sex." Otherwise, I'm not sure the demographics have changed. The baby boomers—I'll hate myself for saying this—seem to have to have a book for everything, and the publishing industry has responded to this. There are so many more gardening books than there used to be. Gardening books once took up a shelf. Now they have a whole section.
Rice: There seem to be three basic groups. One consists of people in their 20s, people who are dabblers, who have their first homes, apartments or terraces and want to dress things up. The second group reads Country Living Gardener magazine [a Hearst publication]. They're younger families who want to nurture their kids, their flowers, their gardens. Many of the same impulses are involved in all these interests. The third group are people who are 50-plus, which includes the boomer generation and even people into their 80s. For them, gardening can be a major leisure activity whether they're retired or not.
Shakeley: Because the market for gardening books still seems soft, we don't have enough of a sense of the particulars of the market to answer this question.
PW: What are today's consumers looking for in terms of topics, approach, etc.?
Shakeley: As in all of publishing nowadays, I think consumers are comforted by authors whose names they recognize and trust. It's one of the reasons we were anxious to sign up P. Allen Smith, for example. He's a great gardener, and his voice in the series of books we plan will be very appealing to other gardeners. But because he is on the Weather Channel and has his own syndicated TV show, his book is more likely to stand out in the crowd.
Smith: New homeowners are looking for books that teach them basic skills, while more experienced gardeners are looking for information about more specialized topics, such as propagation and pruning. Gardening with perennials, using stone in the landscape and water features are still hot topics. All readers appreciate books that inspire them to create beautiful gardens and also teach them how to do it.
Barash: People have less and less quality free time, so they are considering their garden to be their refuge, sanctuary or sacred space. Especially for people who live in the corporate "cubed" world, the garden becomes a special place that they can truly call their own. For any project, whether it is building a trellis or pruning roses, people want clear, step-by-step instructions along with the inspirational photographs that show what the final result will be.
Bolotin: There's a kind of sophistication that shows up in what people are looking for in books. They're able to deal with a topic in depth—like 100 Old Roses. Some of the books that have done particularly well for us include Smith & Hawken: The Book of Outdoor Gardening and The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch. The strengths of these books speak to today's sense of style.
Maupin: I think there is suddenly an interest in water features in the garden—ponds, fountains, little waterfalls. Also dry streambeds. I know there is more interest away from the English garden, that idea of an ideal garden. Also, people are becoming more interested in bulbs. Not just commonplace tulips, daffodils and grape hyacinths, but in more adventurous bulbs, like cannas and other tropical, beautifully colored flowers. On another level, I think many people are buying gardening books the way they buy cookbooks: to read them for the enjoyment of reading them, not necessarily to use them.
Nurnberg: They're looking for an inspirational, yet somewhat practical book. It doesn't have to be the fully step-by-step practical—just ideas of what they can do, whether they have three acres in their backyard or a 10 x 20 foot space. Obviously a lot of people are selling small-space gardening, even if it's just for a balcony or a planter on a window ledge.
Rodale: Our bestsellers are still books on perennials and gardening-for-birds books.
Tenenbaum: Judging from the encouraging responses to our new Taylor's Guides, the topic is landscape design. Approach? Books that can be turned to again and again—modern, handsome, readable reference books. As the basic how-to-garden books become less interesting (to me as an editor, certainly), I like a book that also has a more general appeal. Our April release, America's Famous and Historic Trees, is a book for history buffs, tree lovers and—yes—gardeners. Starting in April, PBS stations will be offering this book for their fund-raiser showings of Silent Witness, a program based on the Famous & Historic Tree project of American Forests.
B'Racz: Concerns about the depletion of the soil and organic-stewardship land approaches are certainly apparent now. Herbal and Zen healing gardenings or "hard" landscaping are popular topics.
PW: How has the gardening industry changed over the past 10 years, and how have the books kept pace with those changes?
Shakeley: Gardening is a bigger industry in one sense, in that more money is being spent on it, but apparently when those figures are broken down, a lot of the increase has been in lawn care and patio furniture. People seem to want to live outdoors, if not necessarily to work there, so the fascination with "garden rooms" has been growing, and we are publishing in this area, with Martha and Chuck Baker's The Outdoor Living Room, for example.
Rodale: Many gardeners have become more sophisticated, so we've put more emphasis on design and sophistication in our titles. Many readers are really drawn to the way a book looks, not what it says. Yet there is still a huge population that doesn't have very sophisticated taste. These are parallel markets that are very different from each other, and you have to create books for both.
Barash: The gardening industry keeps growing. Ten years ago, water gardens were a luxury for only the rich or the very serious gardener. At that time the National Gardening Survey did not even include water gardens as a specialty area. Today water gardens are popping up everywhere—from tabletop gardens for the urbanite, to containerized fountains and water gardens. And it's a half-billion-dollar industry with new books on the subject appearing each season. Ten years ago, most of the sales of plants were through nurseries and garden centers as well as by mail-order. Today there are fewer of these venues (and those that remain have generally become specialists—wildflowers, perennials, water gardening, etc.) and much of the plant material is purchased in the "big box" stores and chains.
Doyle: The gardening industry is much more heavily dominated by the big home-center chains with their accompanying nurseries. This has a tendency to reward publishers with books that address a mass audience and stay focused on highly practical, useful information.
Garman: The industry has grown and parts of the market have gotten more sophisticated—some gardeners have reached the position of being less interested in the standard "formula" books.
B'Racz: Today's gardeners, in our store, are organic, compostic, Zen, permaculture and biodynamic types. Our local nurseries and gardening stores have evolved to support this kind of gardening, and we see more books on these topics available from publishers.
Maupin: I think gardeners are becoming more sophisticated, and this has both a cause and an effect. The gardening industry is responding to this heightened sophistication, and so are publishers of gardening books.
Childs: Gardening book sales have been largely flat, as a category, over the last four years. While Taunton has been able to reach a growing community of savvy gardeners, it is still a challenge to attract attention in this heavily published, slow-growth market.
Steege: Today's gardeners have so many more products to choose from. The gardening industry has fed the trends. Readers will be able to go to their garden centers and find more and more plant choices, whereas 10 years ago most centers didn't offer much more than geraniums and impatiens. Water gardening is another example of the industry responding to and promoting a popular hobby.
Tenenbaum: Ten years ago gardening was considered such a hot subject that almost anything seemed publishable. I think things have settled down. Some of those earlier books were good enough to become steady backlist bibles—and I count our Taylor's Guides among them—but some of the silliest books have disappeared. I am getting far fewer proposals for fringe books.
PW: What role does the Internet play in the gardening industry/garden book publishing?
Childs: The Web gives gardeners access to basic climate, planting and gardening advice. Over the long term, it may replace more basic-level gardening information.
Barash: The influence of the Internet is tremendous. People no longer want to read an entire book, nor do they want to have to sift through pages of information. Our books are "spread oriented"—when you open the book to any page, the left and right pages unite to form a spread that contains a single idea, topic or project. There are more graphics—tables, charts, illustrations and photographs. The text is much more concise and less flowery. Every part of the page has to earn its keep—nothing superfluous.
Shakeley: I think that as with other lifestyle reference areas, like cooking or hairstyles, the Internet is the source for a quick answer to a reference question, as well as a shopping resource. But because the Web cannot—yet—do as good a job of efficiently conveying visual information, the inspiration is still coming from four-color books.
Steege: Dozens of garden Web sites provide gardeners with everything from searchable databases and continuing education courses to forums and online shopping. One of the most useful is GardenGuides (www.gardenguides.com), which is filled with interesting articles, a gardeners' forum, mail-order seeds and vegetable, flower and herb guides. Botanical gardens, cooperative extensions and university Web sites are also valuable resources, and the best of them are quite up-to-date. But because there are so many, it may not be easy or fast for gardeners to find what they need. And in most cases you don't get the consistent, personal impact of a good garden book. By contributing to the pool of information, Internet resources work together with garden books to fuel gardeners' interest.
Doyle: Direct Internet sales of our gardening titles have grown pretty dramatically over the past three years. To some extent, we feel as though we must now compete for book sales with a growing body of gardening information available online. This impact has been limited, however, by the fact that, at least in the short term, the category hasn't been friendly to most dot-com entrants. The largest impact of the Internet, however, has been in easing the process of knitting together far-flung editorial teams.
Garman: The Internet brings together people/gardeners from all over the world to discuss topics that are of interest to them and offers them the opportunity to recommend new books and great Web sites. On the whole it's a great new tool used to communicate effectively and inexpensively. It works as well for the gardening world as it does in any other arena.
Tenenbaum: Houghton Mifflin has a new garden site, www.taylorsgardeningguides.com, that lets the gardener get a close-up look at our books, gives advice on which titles would be suited to your interest and/or experience level and supplies helpful gardening hints from the editor.
Maupin: I have no idea about the role of the Internet. I have a feeling—and this is just a feeling, with no real evidence—that people like to compare gardening books on site. I think they like to look at several books on container gardening before selecting one rather than buying a pig in a poke on the Internet.
Nurnberg: I haven't a clue. I don't know what role the Internet plays in anything. On the whole, I think gardeners are visual people. I think they like to look at books, look at pictures, dream about gardens.
Rice: There's a statistic that I think is amazing. Of all the Country Living Gardener subscribers, 70% use the Internet to find gardening information. Of course, many mail-order catalogues have gone online, and many smaller garden suppliers have Web sites. There are a lot of design programs for gardens that can be downloaded, and there are the garden chat rooms. Country Living Gardener has its own Web site.
Rodale: It's hard to gauge the effect of the Internet. Its role has been so up and down. Amazon is great but not huge volume. The Internet helps with backlist titles and for people looking for specific things. We've noticed that whenever we do direct mail, there is also a jump on Amazon. It took us a while to convince booksellers that when we do direct mail, we're not competing with them, we're advertising for them, the same way that car companies do. When we do direct mail, bookseller sales jump, too.
Bolotin: Not much.
PW: What do you do to make your titles stand out in this crowded market? What about specific promotional tools/campaigns? Also the look of the book—more illustrations, more detailed instructions.
Rodale: We're concentrating more on designing books that stand out because they're beautiful—beautiful in terms of the quality of the images and in terms of their reproduction. We're also choosing authors who are willing to promote their books. The whole idea is to create an inspiring package.
Childs: Highly promotable authors are a key to success. We've just launched a new series, The Fine Gardening Design Guides, that are branded with Taunton's Fine Gardening magazine. Branding and promotable authors are essential. The books themselves should deliver applied inspiration on every spread. Almost every publisher, if they want to make the investment, can publish a beautiful gardening book.
Garman: High-quality information presented by plant experts is our angle yesterday, today and tomorrow. Today's consumers expect lots of color in their books.
Doyle: Our garden books are always heavily illustrated, but it has become all but impossible to find a competitive advantage in this, since it is too much the norm at this point. We have staked a lot on investing heavily in regionally specific garden titles. This seems to be paying us back well.
Steege: We look for focused topics written and photographed or illustrated by experts. Every photo or illustration has to earn its place, either supporting a concept or inspiration the author wants to illustrate, or clearly showing how to accomplish a particular technique or project. For The Herbalist's Garden , our primary gardening book this spring, our plans include a five-city tour, lectures at unique venues like the Smithsonian Associates and Plimoth Plantation, and garden tours for local media. Because of our sales opportunities with garden centers, we've scheduled events in each locale that include both a traditional bookstore and a garden center as sites for lectures and book signings.
Tenenbaum: We are producing a Plexiglas in-store display to hold the new Taylor's titles. All our books and ads feature the trademarked line—"The Name the Experts Trust." We try to make sure that no matter where potential buyers look—bookstore, catalogues, Internet, nursery, gift store, etc.—they will be able to find our books. We attend many regional garden shows, send mailings to nurseries, advertise monthly in Horticulture and Fine Gardening and in magazines for the retailer. The look of the books is very important. Our Taylor's line is being completely updated. The original series of guides dates back to 1986. We have taken the most popular subjects in that series—annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, roses, ground c0vers and bulbs—and have published completely new books, with new information, a new design, a larger-sized format and larger photographs.
Bolotin: We have a promotion going on right now that includes about 50 different titles, a Workman Home and Gardening Promotion, that will go until April 15. An order of 25 or more books will get an additional 5% discount. The promotion includes Workman, Storey, Artisan and Algonquin titles. We work with Smith & Hawken stores in terms of book displays. Detailed instructions are important. A book that has done well for us is Smith & Hawken: Forcing, Etc. It's a beautiful book for a sophisticated market that deals with the subject in great depth. It takes the reader seriously.
Herbert: Many of our stores display at least one shelf of books by facing the books out so they show off the many bright and interesting covers. Aside from monthly promotions where a particular publisher is featured, we also do a yearly gardening table. We like to highlight new and bestselling backlist titles on a front-of-store table every spring. We give stores the option of putting the table up when it's "gardening season" in their area (March—May).
Nurnberg: One thing we try to do is to give more book for less money than most people, so price becomes an important factor. I don't think you can sell somebody a $40 inspirational book very often. We try to be at the lower end of the price spectrum and at the upper end of the size and format. An example of that is a book we did called The Ultimate Gardening Book— 448 pages; 8 1/2 x 11 inches; 4 lbs. We did heavy-coated stock paper. We're selling it at $24.95, so it really stands out on the shelf. That's basically our philosophy—to be not the bottom of the market but the lower end of the price structure, close to the lowest but not the lowest—the one with the most value.
PW: How do your sales patterns break down between garden centers and traditional booksellers? Are there any other nontraditional sales opportunities (catalogues, gift market, etc.)?
Garman: Garden centers and other plant-oriented retailers perhaps seem to understand the market cycles better than do most trade book dealers. Online discount booksellers seem to do pretty good business.
Barash: Almost twice the number of our hardcover books and those with a price point over $20 are sold at traditional booksellers, especially the large chains, rather than at large garden centers. The trade paper and less expensive books generally do better in the home store chains with garden departments (Home Depot, Lowes, K-Mart, etc.). Small, individually owned garden centers are markets well worth exploring.
Tenenbaum: I believe we sell more of our garden books to traditional booksellers, but we are upping our efforts (and seeing good results) in the nontraditional, special sales markets.
Doyle: We target the garden centers and find 60—80% of our sales in those venues. We also do well with certain types of books in the warehouse clubs.
Steege: Storey has a long tradition of selling into special markets such as nursery and garden centers, as well as through book clubs, catalogues and the trade.
Bolotin: Eighty percent of our sales are from traditional bookstores, 20% other.
Nurnberg: Interestingly a lot of people think the market is pretty much nontraditional, but I don't. I think that the bookstores have done a superb job of selling gardening books, and people go into bookstores to buy gardening books. We sell some of our books terrifically well in the nontraditional markets, but it's a select number. The more upscale you go in terms of the inspirational and the style and that aspect of it, it tends to be the less there are in the traditional/nontraditional markets. It's probably the opposite of what most people think. We're in other areas. Actually, rather than the garden centers, gardening books sell better in the do-it-yourself markets like the Home Depots, which have gardening sections.
Rodale: I don't have exact figures. I think we will spend more time on nontraditional sales opportunities in the future. To date we haven't focused much on that. We want to place books where people are already thinking about gardening. We attended the National Hardware Show and learned that one of their biggest growth areas is in garden ornamentation and decoration. That would be a good area to place books.
PW: What percentage of your market is novice vs. expert? Are your titles geared for the novice or expert gardener? What are the specific elements that appeal to each of these groups?
Rice: Our books are closer to the novice/intermediate gardener, books that they might buy for themselves. They want success and they want it quick and they want it easy. Expert gardeners are committed gardeners who tend to specialize more. They may grow orchids or roses, plants that need to be babied. Some city gardeners even install special lights or create a special room for growing their plants.
Barash: Most of our books are geared to the novice or intermediate gardeners who are attracted to the combination of inspiration and how-to information in the books. Again, it's the combination of inspiration and instruction that is most appealing to them.
Childs: Taunton's books reach gardeners who want to move beyond planting a flat of annuals every spring. We reach this market with authentic, expert advice on a broad range of gardening topics.
Doyle: We haven't found much reward in pursuing that distinction. You have to please both camps—or, more specifically, you have to please the novice whose interest in the subject may grow very deep, very suddenly. Gardeners have a tendency to fall in love with what they're doing. That is why the category is so special.
Bolotin: Our books can be used by both novices and experts. Barbara Damrosch's Garden Primer, which we published in 1988, speaks to beginners and tells them what to do. It continues to sell very well.
Tenenbaum: We don't publish to novice or expert groups, but to people with a real interest in gardening, no matter how much or little expertise they have.
Herbert: Although we carry an exhaustive selection of gardening books, our bestselling titles are often the basic how-to gardening books.
Rodale: Rodale has traditionally been an expert-gardener publisher. Now we're trying to spend more energy on beginners by publishing simple, step-by-step books. In our case, we've got the mission of organic behind us. We will not publish any book recommending chemical fertilizers. Six months ago we started our Organic Gardening Basics series. You cannot publish a 500-plus page book for beginners. There must also be a different style of writing. Even visually there must be the appearance of less text so you don't intimidate the beginner.
PW: Has the aging of the baby boomers affected this category? If so, how does that effect manifest itself in your sales and the subjects covered?
Smith: Aging baby boomers probably make up the largest segment of our expert gardener readership. Many of these people have been gardening for 20 to 30 years now and have learned a great deal in that time. For many of them, gardening has become an important means of self-expression. Their influence is likely to become even stronger as they retire and devote more time and energy to their gardens. Books such as the regional Home Landscaping series and Complete Home Landscaper have been particularly popular with this group.
Rodale: The aging of the baby boomers has dramatically affected our business. Boomers don't garden more, but they're very picky about what they will or will not buy. We've done research to trace what motivates people to garden organically. Ten years ago people answered, In order to grow healthy fruits and vegetables for less money. But now there are organic vegetable stands everywhere. So people today don't garden organically to save money, but to reduce stress or to create a beautiful environment.
Steege: Aging baby boomers are a very important constituent. Most have the time and money for gardening—and for books about it—and they also are often longing for a foil to their high-tech worlds. People in this group very often see gardening as a source of spiritual refreshment, a way to take time to nurture the soul, and way to connect one with the rhythms of the natural world. Looked at this way, gardening becomes an important center of the home, and this trend seems bound to continue as the population ages.
Garman: We have noticed books and magazine articles on body-mindfulness, arthritis-friendly gardening in the market, but this trend has not yet shaped our editorial direction.
Maupin: Because the baby boomers have more disposable income and always have had, they can buy books on any subjects. With so many gardening books and magazines available, and with so many choices that are truly beautiful, the baby boomers are simply buying more.
Shakeley: Baby boomers should be moving toward gardening as they age, but I sense that they haven't quite given up skiing yet. I think that baby boomers have always had an issue with stopping to smell the roses—figuratively and literally—but I think in the next decade they will suddenly discover the pleasures of a garden's slower pace. This means there should be a whole new crop of beginning gardeners coming along.
Rice: The baby boomers represent a huge group of people, and playing tennis or racquetball on weekends may have become too stressful on their bodies. Any sport that's stop/start doesn't do good things to joints. Gardening isn't as difficult. One point of gardening is that there is a therapy aspect to it. As people get older, gardening can give them a sense of well-being and mind-body connection. More attention is being paid now to disabled gardeners, gardeners with arthritis, people who have had sports injuries. People want some kind of permanence, and when you grow things you both literally and figuratively put down roots.
PW: What are you looking for when you sign up a gardening book?
Rice: We look for authors who have a point of view. We want a writer to be passionate about a topic.
Rodale: We're looking for substance, for promotability and for "something different"—a new angle, a new topic, a new area.
Garman: A unique contribution and an expert author.
Childs: A unique point of view with a strong practical gardening application. It's important to have authors who are clearly the best in their respective fields. We also look for topics that have backlist staying power.
Doyle: I only want titles that have mass potential. Although I love some of the more personal, highly reflective titles that come along each year, that is not our business.
Smith: We look for books on popular topics that we believe have not been fully explored. The author has to be an expert in the area, of course. It helps if the author has been writing about the topic or teaching it, because those experiences let you know what needs to be explained and how to explain it. For example, Michelle Wiggins, the author of Gardening with Kids, runs a children's teaching garden. Her expertise as both a gardener and a teacher made her an ideal author for the book.
Tenenbaum: An author who has a strong personal voice. And deep personal experience in the subject—not someone who picks a subject and researches it. And I have a special place in my heart for a graceful writer with a sense of humor. The best example of this I have is our New England Wild Flower Society Guide to Growing and Propagating Wildflowers by Bill Cullina [Houghton Mifflin].
Nurnberg: I'm looking for great photos, or at least the possibility of getting great photos. I'm looking for a new variation on an old theme, because basically nothing's new in publishing.
PW: Are specialized books outselling the broader titles, or vice versa? Is there a place for targeted regional gardening titles and/or books on narrowly focused topics?
Herbert: Without question, broader titles outsell niche titles. There are titles that our regional buyers buy—the idea being, if it's a gardening title specific to a certain area, the sales will be generated from only that area. We try to put the books in the hands of the buyers who can most effectively care for their distribution and sales.
Maupin: Specialty books are absolutely outselling the broader titles. And there is absolutely a place for regional gardening titles. We have done particularly well with Lauren Springer's The Undaunted Garden, also with her Passionate Gardening.
Steege: The success of our Vegetable Gardener's Bible shows there's still value in a broad-based approach to certain topics, but we are also looking for more focused, niche topics for our particular market. Garman: We don't much do regional books, but they should sell well, because in many cases gardening issues are regionally driven. Trends seem to indicate that general publishers are backing away from broader titles, perhaps having had lack of sales success. Our books are geared toward high-level horticulturists and avid gardeners and have always covered relatively narrowly focused topics.
Doyle: Regional titles are very important to us. Niche books can work, particularly for landscaping topics, as long as there is broad interest in that activity and as long as the contents are kept highly practical.
Shakeley: We have had a lot of success this fall and on into the spring with Ken Druse's Making More Plants, which is a comprehensive book about the specialized topic of propagation. Because of Ken's profile in the field, it has really pushed ahead, even though it is relatively expensive.
Rice: We do more of the tightly focused titles—like Courtyard Gardens or because the others are such huge undertakings. In addition, The Practical Herb Gardener—it's hard to go up against the big, established titles. I think regional gardening is an important area to address. Again, you don't want people to be disappointed by trying to grow something that's not appropriate for their zone.
PW: Do you think gardeners are changing any of their practices to reflect concerns about environmental damage? How are you blending this into your publishing program? For retailers, how are you seeing this reflected in your sales?
Rice: The flower children have grown up, and there are now a lot of products addressing concerns with environmental problems. In Country Living Gardener, we tell people what to do for their garden organically before they go to chemicals. People today know that the chemicals they put on their lawn may do something to them, too.
Bolotin: Whenever we do a revision of a book, we're always sensitive to the environment. Our spring book Weedless Gardening [by Lee Reich] suggests that you work with nature rather than against it. You minimize soil disruption and help keep weed seeds dormant. There's less labor involved. It's organic and safe.
Garman: Environmental concerns seem regionally driven. Given that our focus is primarily on reference books about the plants, we let our expert authors set the tone. These cutting-edge experts do tend to be concerned about issues such as pesticide use and various conservation issues; perhaps this attitude is making general headway in the gardening community as a whole.
Smith: Yes, gardeners are becoming more concerned about the environmental and personal effects of their gardening practices. As increasing numbers of horticultural pesticides are restricted or banned, gardeners cannot help but be aware of the damage they may have caused. Experienced gardeners are more likely to notice subtle changes in the garden as a result of chemical usage, such as fewer earthworms or more populous insect infestations. At a recent trade show I attended, this movement was made clear by the huge increase in the number of new "organic" potting and transplanting soils.
Nurnberg: There's a tremendous interest now in gardening that is environmentally sound. That really makes sense, including the popularity of Xeriscaping, which is a book we're coming out with on dry gardening, where you're not wasting water. We're doing books that very much take into account environmental practice.
Maupin: Water is such a crucial factor here in the West, everyone is absolutely concerned about environmental issues.
B'Racz: There is definitely more of a general concern about gardening being good medicine for the earth and also about how to landscape around the "home" and how that home needs to be earth-friendly. Alternative methods of "living" that are good for the garden and environment are what we keep in mind when presenting these books and reviewing them in our newsletter.
Herbert: Our prime selling books continue to be traditional gardening. Since most alternative gardening titles are bought by hard-core gardeners, only our top-selling gardening stores carry specialized gardening books.
Rodale: We know that the sale of organic food has never been higher, and we've seen growth in the figures for people interested in organic gardening. But there is also an attitude that other people should worry about the environment. We're trying two approaches to raise environmental consciousness. One approach is that we're going much more overtly organic. But with other books, the message is more muted. We're trying to do what I call seducing people into doing the right thing. Different people will respond to different pitches. Not every book has to be the same. People with small children tend to be more environmentally responsive than other groups.
PW: What topics are no longer of interest to gardeners? Are there any topics that are underpublished?
Herbert: There are so many publishers doing excellent work on publishing gardening titles that it seems like there's no stone left unturned. Everything from a general how-to growing book to specific plants to the history of a particular plant to gardens in Europe are covered. There's no drought holding those books from blooming.
Steege: Gardening is so cyclical! A couple of years ago the word was that annuals and vegetables were out—now they're both considered the upcoming topics. I wouldn't count any gardening trend as gone forever.
Doyle: There is a strong element of fashion in gardening, and ideas and enthusiasms do come and go. Houseplants aren't huge like they were in the '70s. But it's hard for me to imagine that there is any topic that is underpublished at the moment. Gardening is very nearly as overpublished a category as cooking has been for a decade or so.
Maupin: There are fewer books being published about indoor gardening, meaning houseplants. There are some subjects—lawns, lawn care—of which we will sell a certain number, and that's it. The English gardening books have sort of hit the wall; most experienced gardeners have concluded that the English garden is harder to achieve than they had imagined, and they've gone on.
Childs: Many gardening topics are "evergreen," e.g., roses, annuals, basic garden design, etc. However, most of these topics are continually overpublished each year.
Barash: Old-fashioned vegetable gardens—row upon row of vegetables in the "back 40"—are being replaced by kitchen gardens (a designed garden that can contain vegetables, fruit, nuts, edible flowers and flowers for cutting). It is a more versatile garden that is attractive enough to be planted in the front garden. Gardeners are learning to use edibles as ornamentals in the rest of the landscape—lettuces to edge a border, blueberry shrubs, prickly pears or figs as foundation plantings, showy varieties of tomatoes and eggplants in the middle of a border, and more. However, there is not as much information about this topic as there should be.
Smith:. There is room for more books about specific garden types and particular genera. As gardeners become more skilled, there's also room for books about advanced techniques such as propagation and home breeding and hybridization. Current books about the proper use of gardening technology, such as irrigation equipment or season-extension devices, still leave a great deal to be desired in level of information and accuracy, so there is a real need in that area.
Rice: You don't find too many books on trees and shrubs. They are more long-term projects. Although that may be changing as people are staying in one place longer. There is always room for more books on container gardening. A big area is regional natives. There is also room for more books for children. That's the time to get them interested. An attractive book on deer and other pests would probably do well. People now are turned off by gorgeous books without any relationship to reality—unless they are just great-looking coffee-table books.
PW: What new trends do you think will emerge in gardening books in the near future? How are you incorporating these trends into your publishing program?
Childs: Homeowners are starting to view gardening and landscape design as an extension of interior design. This trend will create several interesting ways to treat gardening in the overall context of the home and its landscape.
Smith: Gardens are assuming greater importance in people's lives, not only as a place to entertain, but also as a place to carry out more routine daily activities. This trend is likely to grow over the next few years, if only because of the aging baby boomer generation. Books that help people develop the garden as a living space are likely to sell well.
Maupin: I think the trend continues for having a concept for your garden. The idea of the garden as an outdoor room is popular and will continue to be. There is also a trend toward a focus on smaller gardens.
Nurnberg: Quite clearly the garden is just the next room in the house that's available, so it's extending your living space. I also think people are looking more for the body, mind and spirit approach to gardening. There will be more plants that are great for your breathing, plants that are great for your energy consumption, why and how you plant around the house or in an apartment that will improve your life. I also think practical is coming back. We did the Expert series, which has been tremendously successful for us, and we're bringing out some miniature versions, which we're calling the Pocket Experts. They'll be on specific subjects like The Pocket Flower Expert or Pocket Garden Troubles, or whatever.
Barash: People, even novice gardeners, are becoming plant collectors. For example, with the introduction of the sun tolerant coleus, the sales of that annual have exploded. Yet there are no books that address the many varieties. Small (in size, and low-priced) books on a single plant (even narrowing down a larger subject such as roses into shrub roses, low-maintenance roses, etc.) could be valuable to the consumer. Also, such books could readily be regionalized—100 best annuals for the upper Midwest, 100 best trees for southern Florida, and so on.
Doyle: People want to know about what works in their own backyard. They will always love to look at some miraculous hidden garden in Tuscany or the English countryside, but they're a lot more concerned about what it takes to grow asparagus in Cincinnati or to keep your rhodies happy in Seattle.
Garman: We're curious as to how e-book technology may transfer into the muddy hands of the gardening community, and we are seeing a demand for CD-ROM technology. Thanks to new plant exploration by the likes of modern plant explorers such as Daniel J. Hinkley and the diligent efforts of the nursery trade to then introduce and distribute these new plants discovered in the wild, gardeners have an ever-expanding palette. We successfully published Hinkley's The Explorer's Garden: Rare and Unusual Perennials last year, and this spring we will publish Jim Jermyn's The Himalayan Garden and Peter Thompson's book on Southern Hemisphere plants, entitled The Looking-Glass Garden.
Herbert: While I hadn't seen any one particular trend, The Tulip: The Story of a Flower That Has Made Men Mad by Anna Pavord (from Bloomsbury), Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean (Random House, and now Ballantine) and Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust and Lunacy by Eric Hansen (Pantheon) have shown that the area of gardening can feature and sell well books that go beyond the how-to of gardening. They've all shown that the history and culture behind a flower can capture everyone's imagination.
Rodale: I see an ongoing trend toward using the garden as a means of self-expression and for differentiating yourself from your neighbors—looking at your yard as a whole expression of your personality, like your home. Ethnic gardening is still an area with potential—finding a lot of varieties from different countries or cultures, sort of like global gardening. I keep waiting for the baby boomers to really become gardeners.
