Product Description

With allergy problems reaching alarming, epidemic levels, horticulturist Tom Ogren sets out to investigate the role that urban landscaping plays in this urgent health crisis. What he discovered was startling: The vastly disproportionate cultivation of all-male plant varieties produces large amounts of intensely irritating airborne pollen. This extensively researched, comprehensive, plant-by-plant reference alerts gardeners and helps them make landscaping choices that can drastically reduce their exposure to harmful allergens. Complete with alphabetical entries of basic planting information, growing zones, and allergy ratings.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1327723 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Released on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Library Journal
This book presents a new idea and does so very well indeed. Ogren, a former landscape gardening instructor, proposes that in our private and public landscaping we need to reduce the use of plants that cause allergies. Until the publication of this book, the information needed to make allergy-free choices had not been compiled in one easily accessible source; nor had a scale been devised for rating plants that cause allergies. Here, Ogren accomplishes both these aims. His introductory material presents many plants and allergies new to this reviewer, and he shows how to apply his ideas. The main part of the book consists of plants listed in alphabetical order by their scientific names, with numerous cross references to their common names. Brief annotations provide descriptions and notes regarding allergies. The most important feature, however, is the rating of plants on a scale from one to ten (with ten causing the worst allergic reactions). As David Stadtner, a practicing allergist, writes in his foreword, "the book should be in the library of every nursery and municipal park department." It should be in public and academic libraries as well.
-Carol Cubberley, Univ. of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
“ALLERGY-FREE GARDENING will quickly prove its worth on the shelves of allergy sufferers.” —Indianapolis Star “Tom Ogren likes to talk about sex, sex, and more sex . . . with the allergy season in full bloom, this fascinating and useful book is a must-read for garden-loving allergy and asthma sufferers.”—San Jose Mercury News “This first-of-its-kind reference offers the avid gardener, landscape designer, and urban planner a chance to create a safe haven that offers allergy relief to the asthmatic, hay fever, and sinus community.” —Booklist“Will quickly prove its worth on the shelves of allergy sufferers.” —Indianapolis Star“This year’s break-through book.” —Harrisburg Patriot-News“This fascinating book will be a blessing.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer“Look for Thomas Leo Ogren's innovative book.” —Orange County Register E: The Environmental Magazine tells us that a copy of the book “should be as close at hand as your Benadryl.”


From the Trade Paperback edition.

About the Author
THOMAS L. OGREN is a former landscape gardening instructor, nursery owner, gardening radio show host, and author, with an M.S. in agricultural science. He currently resides in San Luis Obispo, CA.


From the Trade Paperback edition.