"Anyone with a feeling for delicate light and pattern and with an interest in bringing bloom and color into the adversity of winter will find this book a delight. There are two awakenings in the garden, Elizabeth Lawrence points out, one in the spring and one in the autumn; but it is in autumn that the garden year really begins. Then, when the dead stalks of summer have been cleared away, the flowers of winter are left--'small and frail and smelling of spring.' Here then are suggestions for extending bloom beyond the fall frosts and starting it ahead of spring. The author writes primarily of her own garden in North Carolina, but also of those she has seen, or read about, or knows through friends and correspondence all over the country and abroad. She offers ideas for New England as well as the South, for the Central States, and for the West Coast. When she writes of Christmas and the new year she surrounds them with knowledge of ancient customs and uses. In fact, the book looks both ways in time, connecting experience from past centuries--of such observers as Thomson, Wordsworth, Thoreau--with excitement for fresh and original possibilities. The suggestions are specific, discussing plants that have, or have not, proved effective against a wall, species that can be nurtured in a sheltered corner, evergreens and vines whose foliage or berries will provide winter color."--bk. cover