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- Verified Buyer
I have owned a copy of this book for many years. It has been my gardening bible. This copy was purchased as a gift for a gardening enthusiast. It is just full of all kinds of information and LOTS of photos. It is like a gardening how-to book and encyclopedia combined. The inside covers have visual glossaries for leaves, flowers and growth habits, keys to symbols used in the entries and zone map and hardiness explanation. This information is useful when deciphering the individual entries in the body of the book and explained in the first 10 pages. The next 20 pages have lots of general information on botony (the plant kingdom, the life of a plant, leaves and flowers) and information on cultivation(hardiness, gardening in different regions, the garden environment, outdoor cultivation, care under glass, pruning, pruning groups, propagaton, plant problems, organic issues and native plants. There are lots of photos and drawings to illustrate the descriptions. The next 20 pages have descriptions and the care of plants by the following groups: trees, shrubs, climbers, perennials, rock plants, annuals and biennials, bulbous plants, orchids, bromeliads, cacti and other succulents, palms and cycads, ferns, aquatic plants, grasses and bamboos. Each group is documented in a 2 page spread describing the plant group, its uses and features and cultivation. This section contains numerous photos of plant groupings and design suggestions. The remaining 1000 or so pages-did I mention this book is sort of heavy?-has the plants listed by Genus, Family and then individual plants with LOTS of photos. Do not let the scientific names put you off. If you don't know the scientific name of what you seek. The index in the back has common names followed by suggestions for a scientific name. The entries have all the information you would expect specific to the family and genus followed by individual plant entries and alternate (common) names, growth habit and cultivation information specific to that plant and many photos of the varieties of that family of plants. As an example, the clematis listing covers 5 1/2 pages and has 54 photos of different clematis flowers labeled, the magnolia listing is on 3 1/2 pages and has 35 photos and the rosa (rose) has 25 pages and even more photos to identify the flowers. I have referred to this book when gardening both for ideas and instruction, when looking something up for children's homework, and just for design ideas or to look at the pictures of colorful flowers during the snowy months of winter. This is the best general reference for gardening. With its size, it can double as a place to press those pretty blossoms you've grown.
