Geared for professional perennial growers, this updated reference helps growers fight the most important factors leading to plant loss: insect and mite pests and diseases. The destructive pests are each given a chapter, with headings covering identification, life stages, monitoring, and controlling each species of each pest. Similar chapters do the same for diseases—with disease updates from the U.S. and international markets added. The lists and descriptions of beneficial organisms have been updated to reflect the latest research and successes, while an entirely new section has been added, comprised of four smaller chapters about controlling pests and diseases in four staple crops—Anemone x hybrida, Aster, Hemerocallis (daylily), and Hosta. The final section, A Visual Record of Plant Damage, includes 156 photos arranged by perennial species, showing damage from pests and diseases that can be used to help troubleshoot crop problems.

Stanton Gill is the principal extension regional specialist at the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension and a professor of integrated pest management at Montgomery College. He is the coauthor of The Ball Identification Guide to Greenhouse Pests and Beneficials. He lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Raymond A. Cloyd is associate professor and extension specialist in ornamental entomology/integrated pest management at Kansas State University. He lives in Manhattan, Kansas. James R. Baker is professor emeritus of extension entomology at North Carolina State University. He is the coeditor of several books, including Insect and Related Pests of Field Crops and Insect and Related Pests of Turf. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. David L. Clement is the center director and plant pathologist for the Home and Garden Information Center at the University of Maryland Cooperative Extension. He lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Ethel Dutky is director of the plant clinic at the University of Maryland.