About the Author

Steve Bender is a senior writer for Southern Living and a contributor to several books on southern gardening. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama.|Felder Rushing is a seventh-generation Mississippi gardener, an author and columnist, and host of radio and television gardening programs. He lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

Reviews

An entertaining and insightful ode to the fragrance, color, and history of old-fashioned plants and the people who love them."Southern Living"

Rushing and Bender are storytellers in the great Southern tradition, and expert gardeners, too. "Horticulture"

"An entertaining and insightful ode to the fragrance, color, and history of old-fashioned plants and the people who love them."Southern Living""

"Rushing and Bender are storytellers in the great Southern tradition, and expert gardeners, too. "Horticulture""

Each plant in "Passalong Plants" is accurately described in the intimate language of front porch talk."New York Times Book Review"

The perfect marriage of two noble traditions: southern storytelling and a gardener's love for sharing plants."American Horticulturist"

This book will 'passalong' among friends faster than weeds sprout."Fine Gardening"

An entertaining and insightful ode to the fragrance, color, and history of old-fashioned plants and the people who love them.

"Southern Living"

Rushing and Bender are storytellers in the great Southern tradition, and expert gardeners, too.

"Horticulture"

"An entertaining and insightful ode to the fragrance, color, and history of old-fashioned plants and the people who love them.

"Southern Living""

"Rushing and Bender are storytellers in the great Southern tradition, and expert gardeners, too.

"Horticulture""

Each plant in "Passalong Plants" is accurately described in the intimate language of front porch talk.

"New York Times Book Review"

The perfect marriage of two noble traditions: southern storytelling and a gardener's love for sharing plants.

"American Horticulturist"

This book will 'passalong' among friends faster than weeds sprout.

"Fine Gardening"

Two established authors and gardeners reintroduce plants that gardeners pass along to one another but that are hard to find in commercial outlets. While the focus is on the South, where the authors have firsthand knowledge, Northern gardeners will still find this book useful as many of the plants are hardy. Writing in a humorous, casual style, Bender and Rushing describe 117 ``passalong'' plants, including trees, shrubs, vines, annuals, and perennials, as well as plants that are fragrant, invasive, weird, or garish. They devote a page or two to each plant, giving history, propagation, their personal experience, and--briefly--size, hardiness, origin, light and soil needs, and mail-order sources. About every third plant has a photo, but many lesser-known plants are not illustrated. The humor ranges from heavy-handed to hilarious, as in the tongue-in-cheek chapter on kitsch as garden art. Useful in large gardening collections, especially in the South.-- Sharon Levin, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington