American Horticultural Society Announces Book Award Winners

The American Horticultural Society (AHS), which has its headquarters off of the GW Parkway near the banks of the Potomac River, has announced the six recipients of its 2013 Book Award.

The Book Award is presented to authors of outstanding gardening books published in North America. Books are judged by the AHS Book Award Committee on qualities including writing style, authority, originality, accuracy, and design quality, according to a release sent by AHS.

This year’s six recipients, published in 2012, are:

• The California Wildlife Habitat Garden by Nancy Bauer (University of California Press)

• A Guide to Bearded Irises by Kelly D. Norris (Timber Press)

• The Organic Seed Grower by John Navazio (Chelsea Green Publishing)

• A Rich Spot of Earth by Peter J. Hatch (Yale University Publishing and Thomas Jefferson Foundation)

• The Seed Underground by Janisse Ray (Chelsea Green Publishing)

• World’s Fair Gardens by Cathy Jean Maloney (University of Virginia Press)

This year's Book Award Committee was chaired by Susan Appleget Hurst, a garden communicator in Winterset, Iowa. Committee members included Brandy Kuhl, head librarian at the Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture in San Francisco; Kathy LaLiberte, Vermont-based marketing consultant and garden writer previously with Gardener’s Supply; Rand B. Lee, a freelance writer and editor specializing in Southwest gardening, plant history, and cottage garden design; W. Gary Smith, an award-winning garden designer and author in Toronto; Greg Williams, producer of HortIdeas newsletter in Gravel Switch, Ky; and Marty Wingate, a garden writer and speaker based in Seattle.

The 2013 Book Awards will be presented on June 6 during the Great American Gardeners Awards Ceremony and Banquet at River Farm in Alexandria.

For more information about the awards, visit www.ahs.org/awards.