I'm back after a turn-of the-year hiatus* – with news of my new book.

Powerhouse Plants, available in the US and also available in the UK, is a book of over five hundred different multi-season plants. That is, plants which give more than one season of interest in the garden. So - you buy one plant, and it does two different things at two different times of the year! Don’t you just love a bargain? It’s like having two different plants in the same place for just one price. And some plants have three, or perhaps even four, seasons of interest.

So when you look at a plant in flower, or with colorful foliage, at the garden center or in the nursery, ask yourself a question: What else does it do? If what you see is all it does, perhaps you need to chose a different variety.

The slide show above (hover your mouse point over it to take control) will give you plenty of ideas and think too about these fantastic multi-season Powerhouse Plants:

• The peony whose foliage emerges in a mass of crimson-bronze in spring, and is then transformed into fragrant double pink flowers in summer
• The viburnum whose elegant tiers of white spring flowers are followed later by red berries and purplish autumn foliage
• The dogwood whose red stems light up the winter but which follows up with golden foliage, along with white flowers and finally blue-black berries
• The ornamental grass with variegated summer foliage, reddish autumn flower plumes, and biscuit brown autumn and winter foliage
• The witch hazels with fragrant winter flowers followed later by fiery fall color.

The list of these multi-season performers goes on, in fact the list goes on to number an amazing five hundred and ten plants! And I discuss them all in my new book, Powerhouse Plants, with gorgeous photography mainly by my wife judywhite.

So my new book, Powerhouse Plants, reveals over five hundred plants with more than just one season of interest. Bargain planting at its best. So when you’re shopping for plants and are tempted by what you see, ask yourself the question: What else does it do?

Order Powerhouse Plants by Graham Rice from amazon.com

Order Powerhouse Plants by Graham Rice from amazon.co.uk

* In North America, the word “hiatus” simply means a break, with no special connotations; in Britain, it also means a break, but there are always overtones of drama or something out of the ordinary. Here, we’re going by the American version…