Growing Trees from Seed: A Practical Guide to Growing Native Trees, Vines and Shrubs (Updated)

Maintaining and in same cases restoring, the environment with native trees and other plants is vital and Growing Trees from Seed is a wonderful resource to help achieve this goal.--N. Glenn Perrett"Lake Wah-Wash-Kesh Conservation Association" (12/01/2008)
This volume has the look of a glossy tome destined for the coffee table.--Jon Fear"Waterloo Regional Record" (12/13/2008)
If there were popularity contests for plants, trees would doubtless be the winners. Of all the books on trees, [this is one] of my favorites.... This groundbreaking guide provides all the information gardeners need on these native plants. It covers everything from the ecology of plants to seed collecting, seed planting, and growing natives. Illustrated with color photos and line art, it profiles over 200 native species [and] makes a valuable contribution to the natives versus invasives debate.-- (11/01/2008)
I get a lot of gardening books at work, but very few of them get to come home with me. Growing Trees from Seed is one of them.-- (10/12/2008)
I have been growing trees from seed since 1952... I wish this book had been available to me when I began, so that I could have avoided making all my own mistakes!... Throughout the book, Kock shows an acute awareness of the virtues of native trees.... Growing Trees from Seed is not merely a how-to reference...it gives the reader a context, philosophy, and background that I have not often seen elsewhere.-- (10/31/2008)
I grew a native magnolia from seed once after taking a course at the Royal Botanical Gardens... I nursed it through three seasons before I killed it by moving it at the wrong time. To avoid such foolish mistakes, [this] book might be your best companion.-- (09/25/2008)
Starting a tree from a seed is not just rewarding. It's a way to vegetate your landscape cheaply while fighting global warming and perserving biodiversity. For Henry Kock...it became an obsession. He spent more than two decades learning the singular germination needs of various native trees and shrubs, and decided he would share his secrets with others in a new book.-- (10/09/2008)
If you want to know how to look after plants, there was never a better person to ask [than Henry Kock]. He could take the complex bits and pieces of horticulture and make you understand the parts you need to know. The secrets of trees are secrets no longer... Kock helps us understand the how and why of it all. Three of Kock's colleagues, Paul Aird, John Ambrose and Gerry Waldron, are to be thanked for taking an almost complete book and pulling it together so well. It's a grand testament to Henry's life.-- (10/14/2008)
A gardener's most optimistic acct of faith is growing trees from seed. And growing native trees is even more crucial in these times of shrinking biodiversity. A devout champion of our native flora, the late horticulturist Henry Kock was working on this book when he died in 2005; now Growing Trees from Seed has been completed by his colleagues Paaul Aird, John Ambrose and Gerald Waldon. Drawing on Kock's deep knowledge, keen eye and dry wit, it contains all you need to know about collecting, storing, germinating and nurturing the seeds of our very future.-- (09/01/2008)
A guiding hand and inspiration.--The Washington Post (10/09/2008)
Inspiring to gardeners, educators, and conservationists alike, this book on the selection of native tree stock and its propagation provides a hands-on approach to growing plant from seed successfully.--National Garden Clubs, Inc. (11/01/2008)
Kock demystifies the whole process, through all the stages, from identifying trees, shrubs and vines to recognizing when their seeds are ripe. He details the full range of propagation techniques, warning of dangers, offering solutions, never making things seem out of reach or difficult for someone new to the enterprise. He writes from decades of experience and sprinkles the text with engage stories.... For anyone who had even a passing acquaintance with Kock from the courses he taught at the arboretum or the public talks he often gave, the voice that shines through this text will be a poignant treasure. The triumverate of friends and colleagues who finalized the book for publication...deserve many thanks for completing the project following Kock's untimely passing. I'm sure that Henry is beaming his big grin through his big bushy bear now that his words are becoming the seeds for many tree-planting actions. Forests will grow thanks to the lessons he's shared. We'll all be wiser-- (01/01/2009)
Even if you never plant a single seed (although after reading this book you probably will), the information contained in these pages will change the way you think about trees and the environment. This book is worth its weight in gold.-- (04/01/2009)
Informative ... An invaluable resource.-- (11/18/2008)
Kock's passion for the environment and trees shines through, and this makes the book not only a rich and detailed resource for gardening enthusiasts at all levels but also a fitting tribute. Recommended for all public and academic libraries with horticultural collections.-- (11/01/2008)
This authoritative book could not have come at a more opportune time.... The book covers everything from tree identification, finding seed, taking seed to seedlings, restoring the natural balance and controlling invasive species. Line drawings abound to help readers with understanding the subject.-- (11/28/2008)
Gardeners looking for help with the challenges of growing trees and shrubs from seed will be very pleased with this book. Using a conversational style and discussing as much natural history as propagation, Kock covers all the major native trees and shrubs of the Great Lakes region in the U.S. and Canada. The author provides good information about when fruit is ready to harvest, how to extract and treat the seeds, and how they germinate and grow. The book is replete with excellent, detailed pencil drawings of fruit, seeds, twigs, and leaves that will help with plant identification. Sidebars in appropriate places warn of related exotic invasive plants.... Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduate and general readers.-- (06/01/2009)
This 240-page hardcover book outlines the practical steps to growing trees from seed while providing the reader with interesting information on the identification, origin and growth of various species of trees and shrubs.--New Brunswick's Private Forestry Resource Centre, (09/01/2008)
Henry Kock's Growing Trees from Seed is a beautiful volume and decidedly useful as a growing guide. But it also earns pride of place in my library simply as an excellent reference book about trees, shrubs and woody vines.-- (11/30/2008)
If there is a Garden Book of the Year, it's Growing Trees from Seed by Henry Kock.... Here is a lifetime of knowledge, lovingly assembled.... Even those who aren't passionate about trees will find this book wonderful to dip into and an invaluable reference about the culture of trees and their place in our lives.-- (11/28/2008)
In this book the authors reveal the "secret" of knowing which seeds to collect, how to treat them in order to have success with germination and how to care for them.... The thesis of Kock's book is that growing trees from seeds can be included in the grand scheme of your horticultural endeavors.-- (02/01/2009)
Respected environmentalist Henry Kock has left behind in his death a bible for are tree and shrub growers... The 280-page book is a practical guide for those who want to learn how to grow their own trees and shrubs.-- (08/28/2008)
Thanks to this book, any gardener can now grow trees from seeds within as little as ten years. The secrets are to know what seeds to collect and how to prepare and plant them. From their extensive knowledge, the authors guide the reader in identifying native trees, vines and shrubs and describe how to propagate them.... There is no better guidance on how to grow native trees from seed.-- (01/01/2009)
In this comprehensive coffee-table-sized guide, Kock, a Canadian horticulturist who died in 2005, not only shows how to find and propagate native woody plants but also helps readers understand plants as members of communities f plants and animals rather than as isolated specimens. He tells how to differentiate native plants from invasive exotics and how to collect, clean, germinate and plant seeds and set up a nursery, along with intriguing suggestions (keep a toad in a cold frame to eat slugs) and surprising facts (earthworms are not native to the glaciated areas of North America, and contrary to popular gardening belief, they do a huge amount of damage by dragging undecomposed organic material into the soil, where it does not belong). The book's focus is woody regions of the Great Lakes bioregion, but Kock assures that the techniques will apply to other regions and species as well. With beautifully detailed drawings and color photographs, the boo provides both inspiration and knowledge.-- (08/04/2008)
Henry Kock's passion was propagating and saving native woody plants. The late horticulturalist's knowledge lives on in Growing Trees from Seed: A Practical Guide to Growing Native Trees, Vines and Shrubs. The book, written by Paul Aird, John Ambrose and Gerald Waldron, explores both the reasons for propagating these plants from seed and the methods for doing so, it addresses where to find seeds, which ones to collect, how to store, prepare and sow them, and how to care for the young plants that sprout. The book presents techniques that have been used successfully in the Great Lakes growing area.-- (07/31/2010)
[Kock] and his co-authors cover the ecology, abundance, fruit characteristics and edibility of more than 200 trees, vines and shrubs.--Ken Smith"The London Free Press" (10/11/2008)