The Midwest presents special challenges to the aspiring flower gardener. Hot winds, intense sun, and unrelenting summer heat, combined with bitter cold in the winter and sudden shifts in temperature, call for hardy blooms and careful planning by those who tend them. In this practical, charmingly user-friendly guide to gardening success, veteran gardener Linda Hillegass outlines her tried-and-true strategies for outmaneuvering the midwestern climate to cultivate a thriving garden. Addressing both aspects of this distinctive climate, where plants must be resistant to extended periods of very high heat as well as to subzero winters, Hillegass catalogs the flowering plants best suited to the extremes of a region that extends from South Dakota and Nebraska east to Indiana (USDA zone 5 and the southern half of zone 4) and also includes Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois.She offers guidance on preparing and enriching the soil, composting, planting and transplanting, watering, pinching and pruning, and combating pests. She also provides a gardener's chronology of how long and how frequently specific plants can be expected to bloom. Her tips will help maximize each plant's beauty over the course of the season and, for the many perennials she discusses, from year to year. If visions of daffodils, dahlias, and daylilies dance in your head through the long months of a midwestern winter, this is the book for you. The novice gardener, the experienced gardener new to the Midwest, and the midwestern gardener who has despaired at delicate flowers withering under the unforgiving sun will all welcome Hillegass' friendly, encouraging, and eminently practical guide.