LOEWER, (Henry) Peter 1934-

PERSONAL: Born February 13, 1934, in Buffalo, NY; son of Henry Christian (a design engineer) and Ruth Isabelle (a fashion designer; maiden name, Duerstein) Loewer; married Jean Jenkins (an illustrator), February 13, 1959. Education: University of Buffalo, B.F. A., 1958. Politics: Republican. Religion: Episcopalian.

ADDRESSES: Office—Graphos Studio, P.O. Box 5039, Biltmore Station, Asheville, NC 28813. Agent—Dominick Abel, 146 West 82nd St., New York, NY 10024. E-mail—thewildgardener@earthlink.net.

CAREER: Gardener, artist, journalist, and writer. Graphos Studio, Asheville, NC, owner and art director, 1963—. Upper Delaware, art director, 1979-80; Sullivan County Democrat, editor, 1979-81; Warwick Photo Advertiser, production manager, 1983-86. Host of television series The Wild Gardener, WCQS, Asheville, NC. Botanical Gardens at Asheville, member of board of directors. Military service: U.S. Army, 1959-61.

MEMBER: American Society of Journalists and Authors, American Conifer Society, American Rock Garden Society, Alpine Garden Society, Himalayan Plant Society, Royal Horticultural Society, Men's Garden Club of Asheville (member of board of directors).

AWARDS, HONORS: Philadelphia Book Clinic Award, 1987, for Gardens by Design; National Agricultural Library, one of the fifty great garden books citation, 1988, for The Annual Garden; three awards from Garden Writers Association of America.

WRITINGS:

(And illustrator) The Indoor Water Gardener's How-to Handbook, Walker (New York, NY), 1973.

(And illustrator) Bringing the Outdoors In, Walker (New York, NY), 1974, 2nd edition, Contemporary Books, 1988.

(And illustrator) Seeds and Cuttings, Walker (New York, NY), 1975.

(And illustrator) Growing and Decorating with Grasses, Walker (New York, NY), 1977.

(And illustrator) Growing Plants in Water, Penguin (New York, NY), 1980.

(And illustrator) Evergreens: A Guide for Landscape, Lawn, and Garden, Walker (New York, NY), 1981.

(And illustrator) The Month-by-Month Garden Almanac, Putnam (New York, NY), 1983.

(And illustrator) Gardens by Design, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1986.

(Editor and photographer) Taylor's Guide to Annuals, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1986.

(Editor) Garden Ornaments, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York, NY), 1987.

(And illustrator) The Annual Garden, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1988.

(And illustrator) American Gardens, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor) Ornamental Grasses, Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York, NY), 1988.

(And illustrator) A Year of Flowers, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1989.

A World of Plants: The Missouri Botanical Garden, Abrams (New York, NY), 1989.

Letters to Sarah (juvenile), Fort Delaware Museum, 1989.

(And illustrator) The Indoor Window Garden, Contemporary Books (Lincolnwood, IL), 1990.

The Inside-out Stomach (juvenile), Atheneum (New York, NY), 1990.

(And illustrator) The Wild Gardener: On Flowers and Foliage for the Natural Border, Stackpole (Mechanicsburg, PA), 1991.

(And illustrator) Tough Plants for Tough Places: How to Grow 101 Easy-Care Plants for Every Part of Your Yard, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1991.

(With Anne Halpin) Secrets of the Great Gardeners: How to Make Your Garden As Beautiful As Theirs, Summit Books, 1991.

(And illustrator) The Evening Garden: Flowers and Fragrance from Dusk till Dawn, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1992.

Step-by-Step Annuals, Better Homes & Gardens Books (Des Moines, IA), 1994.

Wildflowers and Native Plants, Better Homes & Gardens Books (Des Moines, IA), 1995.

(With Craig Tufts) The National Wildlife Federation's Guide to Gardening for Wildlife: How to Create a Beautiful Backyard Habitat for Birds, Butterflies, and Other Wildlife, Rodale Press (Emmaus, PA), 1995.

Thoreau's Garden: Native Plants for the American Landscape, Stackpole (Mechanicsburg, PA), 1996.

Pond Water Zoo: An Introduction to Microscopic Life, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1996.

(With Larry Mellichamp) The Winter Garden: Planning and Planting for the Southeast, Stackpole (Mechanicsburg, PA), 1997.

Fragrant Gardens: How to Select and Make the Most of Scented Flowers and Leaves, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1999.

Outwitting Weeds, Lyons Press (Guilford, CT), 2001.

Solving Deer Problems: How to Keep Them out of the Garden, Avoid Them on the Road, and Deal with Them Anywhere!, Lyons Press (Guilford, CT), 2003.

Small-Space Gardening: How to Successfully Grow Flowers and Vegetables in Containers and Pots, Lyons Press (Guilford, CT), 2003.

Also author of The New Small Garden, 1994; and Seeds: The Definitive Guide to Growing, History, and Lore, 1996. Illustrator of ten natural science books, primarily for Macmillan. Author of the column "Back to the Garden," Sullivan County Democrat, 1977—. Contributor of articles and illustrations to magazines, including Woman's Day, Green Scene, American Horticulturist, Organic Gardening, Garden Design, and Gardens and Landscapes. Editor, Quill and Trowel, 1988-91, and American Conifer Society Bulletin, 1991—; contributing editor, Carolina Gardener.

ILLUSTRATOR

Alan E. Simmons, Growing Unusual Fruit, Walker (New York, NY), 1972.

Bebe Miles, Wildflower Perennials for Your Garden, Hawthorn (New York, NY), 1976.

Jean Loewer, The Moonflower (juvenile), Peachtree (Atlanta, GA), 1998.

SIDELIGHTS: Peter Loewer once told CA: "I have been both a writer and artist since I was a teenager. An overwhelming love of nature, nurtured by both family and friends, has led to a critically successful career." As both an author and as the host of The Wild Gardener on an Asheville, North Carolina, television station, Loewer dispenses advice on how to nurture plants both domestic and wild. His Secrets of the Great Gardeners: How to Make Your Garden As Beautiful As Theirs contains a guided tour through the famed Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, including tips from the staff who tends to the foliage. For "gardeners hankering to crate a robust, unaffectedly lovely natural border," a Publishers Weekly reviewer recommended Loewer's The Wild Gardener, which the reviewer characterized as a set of "charmingly eclectic essays."

Not every garden is well-suited to its task, which is why Loewer wrote Tough Plants for Tough Places: How to Grow 101 Easy-Care Plants for Every Part of Your Yard. In this book the author shows how to transform problem spots into "spaces flourishing with green," as a contributor to Publishers Weekly put it, adding that Loewer "stubbornly—and charmingly—refuses to give up on areas that seem forbidding to plants." The reviewer also praised Loewer for offering, "as usual," a practical and comprehensive menu of gardening options. By the time The Evening Garden: Flowers and Fragrance from Dusk till Dawn was released in 1992, Loewer was recognized as "one of the very best gardening enthusiasts now writing today," in the view of a Publishers Weekly reviewer. The Evening Garden shows how day-lilies, cactuses, wildflowers, and orchids thrive during the evening hours; the book also covers the care and feeding of both indoor and outdoor plants. The author, said Horticulture contributor Christopher Reed, "celebrates in a most readably evocative style" the fauna that releases its fragrance at night, and "reflects on the beauty of 'the night and the light of the moon and the stars.'"

The Winter Garden: Planning and Planting for the Southeast addresses the needs of that portion of the United States that sees a relatively mild winter but is not entirely free of the occasional ice storm or heavy snow. Loewer and coauthor Larry Mellichamp list the suggested plants to withstand such conditions, and explain that even in winter some flowers will release their perfume during the winter months. The authors include "delightful tidbits," according to a Publishers Weekly critic, including the origin of the roast-beef iris, named because its crushed leaves smell like cooked meat. In Thoreau's Garden: Native Plants for the American Landscape, Loewer weaves excerpts from Henry David Thoreau's famous journals with his own notes on the named plants. "Yet another admirable book" was Reed's opinion of this release; his praise was echoed by Alice Joyce of Booklist, who said that for gardeners, "a new book by Loewer is cause for celebration."

For younger readers, Loewer has produced such books as Pond Water Zoo: An Introduction to Microscopic Life. An acclaimed horticultural illustrator, Loewer also provides the artwork for a book written by his wife, Jean Loewer. The Moonflower is a picture book that provides child-oriented scientific information along with the story of how the moonflower blooms and the many night creatures who share its world. A School Library Journal reviewer applauded the "beautiful illustrations" accompanying the "lyrical text" of The Moonflower.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 1996, Alice Joyce, review of Thoreau's Garden: Native Plants for the American Landscape, p. 1870; September 15, 1996, Susan DeRonne, review of Pond Water Zoo: An Introduction to Microscopic Life, p. 235; September 1, 1997, George Cohen, review of The Winter Garden: Planning and Planting for the Southeast, p. 47.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December, 1996, review of Pond Water Zoo, p. 141.

Fine Gardening, May, 1994, review of The Evening Garden: Flowers and Fragrance from Dusk till Dawn, p. 30.

Horn Book Guide, spring, 1997, review of Pond Water Zoo, p. 118; fall, 1998, review of The Moonflower, p. 379.

Horticulture, October, 1993, Christopher Reed, review of The Evening Garden, p. 72; November, 1997, Reed, review of Thoreau's Garden, p. 69.

Library Journal, January, 1993, review of The Evening Garden, p. 154; August, 1996, review of Thoreau's Garden, p. 99; July, 1997, Beth Clewis Crim, review of The Winter Garden, p. 113.

New York Times Book Review, June 6, 1993, review of The Evening Garden, p. 44.

People, June 4, 1990, Kristin McMurran, review of A World of Plants: The Missouri Botanical Garden, p. 33.

Publishers Weekly, March 23, 1990, Molly McQuade, review of A World of Plants, p. 76; March 29, 1991, McQuade, review of Secrets of the Great Gardeners: How to Make Your Garden As Beautiful As Theirs, p. 91; September 27, 1991, review of The Wild Gardener: On Flowers and Foliage for the Natural Border, p. 62; November 22, 1991, review of Tough Plants for Tough Places: How to Grow 101 Easy-Care Plants for Every Part of Your Yard, p. 53; December 28, 1992, review of The Evening Garden, p. 68; April 4, 1994, review of The New Small Garden, p. 76; April 1, 1996, review of Seeds: The Definitive Guide to Growing, History, and Lore, p. 73; August 4, 1997, review of The Winter Garden, p. 71.

School Library Journal, February, 1997, review of Pond Water Zoo, p. 120; August, 1998, review of The Moonflower, p. 153.

Southern Living, February, 1994, review of The Evening Garden, p. 70.

Washington Post Book World, December 5, 1993, review of The Evening Garden, p. 8.*