Graham Rice

This is a marvelous compendium of plants. Almost 500 pages of plant descriptions and beautiful color photographs make it a book that the curious gardener will dip into again and again. Plants are listed by genus and species, and a good number of cultivars are listed. Each genus is given a general description, followed by how it is best grown, how it’s propagated, and what pests it has. Then follows the various species within the genus, descriptions including origin, size, bloom time, color show more and size, scent and occasional tidbits about medicinal use or the like. One thing I love about this book as opposed to many other plant encyclopedias: it gives the American zone hardiness of the species.

But this is not just a straight encyclopedia; interspersed with the plants are sidebars and boxes with information on combining the plants to make beautiful vignettes that put plants with the same needs together, the structures of various types of flowers, plant history, diseases and pests of plants, and detailed propagation instructions for certain plants.

This book is great for looking up information, but it’s also wonderful for just leafing through it, stopping at reading at random spots- did you know that the Barlow type aquilegias make seed that’s true to type, while all other aquilegia’s promiscuously cross breed? And here I thought those Barlow girls were just as bad as their cousins! Drooling over this book has given me a lot of new ideas for the garden, and left me with serious zone envy. show less

Interesting book with plenty of good size photographs, but it falls into the same trap as all other books I have come across on dry gardening. Rather than accepting the problem and moving forward from there with a discussion of plants that will happily grow in dry shade it starts out telling us how to do away with dry shade, So following the first chapter about "Understanding Dry Shade" the second chapter proceeds to tell us what to do to change the situation under the headings "Reducing show more Shade" and "Increasing Moisture" so we no longer have dry shade - the book does not really to live up to the title "Planting in Dry Shade". show less

Very text heavy guide to perennials, few photos and some line drawings for illustration. Book presented in sections relating to seasons: winter into spring, spring, summer and latecomers. Useful if you are familiar with a number if plants, much more difficult if you are more visually orientated.

Large A-Z of perennial plants - more integrated than some of the older RHS which would separate illsutrations from text details.

In this encyclopedia each entry gives latin name and family, brief descrption, details on cultivation, propagation and problems as well as varities and cultivars. Illustrated with a limited number of photos.