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Rating: 
Summary: fabulous research book
Review: as a l;andscape designer, this book shows not only when plants flower, their silouhette and height, but the width, which no other resource book gives. I use it for all my design classes and my students love how clear and precise everything is. Wonderful garden book.
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Summary: excellent source for plant selection, color categorization
Review: I love this book because it is so comprehensive and very useful for planning a new garden. Plants are grouped by season and color. Very helpful for landscaping. Shapes sizes etc are all very accessible.
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Summary: 8000 plant descriptions! 4000 photos! A bargain at $50.
Review: In one volume, the AHS Encyclopedia manages to cover 8000plant varieties, 4000 of them with color photos. This isby far the best way of getting a comprehensive directory of garden plants at a reasonable price. For each plant, it gives basic information such as size, color, season of bloom, cold tolerance, etc. and often considerably more information about cultural conditions, propagation, and the like. It is not perfect. For instance, its information on shade, water, and pH requirements is sketchy and sometimes conflicts with other sources I've consulted. But it is very good. In all, this is a far better deal than getting multiple volumes of the Taylor's Guides, although for those who want more information the RHS Dictionary ($800) is more complete and those who want more photos of each plant the Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix series (Random House) is richer. Perhaps someday soon the RHS Dictionary and the AHS Encyclopedia (which is based on the RHS Encyclopedia) will be available in CD-ROM. Until then, this paper volume has far broader coverage than any CD-ROM collection I've seen so far.
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