A scholar among professional gardeners, Christopher Lloyd is famous throughout the English-speaking world for his articles in Country Life - decades of sustained brilliance and entertainment, unparalleled in gardening journalism. He is renowned also in Britain for the gardens of his Sussex home, Great Dixter, where he ceaselessly experiments with new ideas. Thirty years ago he wrote the classic Well-Tempered Garden. Now, he presents his lifetime's study of the gardener's main materials - perennial plants. Describing over one thousand plants, with common names, descriptions and judgements on thousands of species and varieties, he outlines how to choose perennials, what to choose and what absolutely not to choose. Most encyclopaedias show garden plants impartially: the easy and the difficult, the graceful, the graceless and the frankly awful, all without any discrimination. Lloyd goes further. With every group he discriminates, appraises, warns, speculates and experiments, offering an individual perspective on horticulture that will entertain, enthuse and inspire.