Allergies and Gardening

I strongly urge you to read the remainder of section one to learn more about pollen and its production. Many factors enter into the rating scale to determine if a particular plant is low or high on the OPAL scale. While reading this section, you'll receive a basic botany lesson which will help you make better personal choices in selecting plants for your garden.

Section II lists thousands of commonly found plants. You'll find its allergy rating and other comments about each variety. I appreciate the fact that Ogren lists common names for the plants and then tells you the Latin or "scientific name" you need to find the information. If the tree has many different cultivars, each is listed with it's own allergy rating. Note that male cultivars always rate high while female varieties rate very low. The book concludes with a horticultural glossary, some suggested references, and a pollen calendar which shows the months when various species release their pollen.

With this book in hand while shopping at your local nursery, you can begin to select plants with a low allergy rating. This will at least limit the pollen production in your own yard. If more people become familiar with the concept of allergy-free gardening, we can begin to lower the air-borne pollen count in our own neighborhoods.

Since I am an indoor gardener in addition to my outside gardening, I went through the plant list and located the main genuses of plants that I collect. These included cactus and succulents, and flowering plants such as African violets, Begonias, and Impatiens. I was very pleased to learn that each of these rates toward the low end of the allergy causing scale.

Recommendation

Education of city planners, the general public, and certainly, landscapers is needed regarding this issue. I feel this news should be front page news in every newspaper in the nation today! Perhaps this book will lead to a public outcry against current practices in plant choices. The situation can be turned around and allergies or asthma would begin declining instead of doubling every decade.

I cannot make my recommendation concerning this book strong enough. It absolutely belongs in every allergy suffer's home, in every doctor's office, at every greenhouse or garden center, and on every landscaper's desk. If even one person in your family suffers from pollen allergies, please visit Ten Speed Press and purchase this book today. You'll be glad you did

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