Botanica's Gardening Encyclopedia

Rating:
Summary: Listing 2,000 plants and designed for the serious gardener
Review: Filled from cover to cover with beautiful, full-color photographs, Botanica's Gardening Encyclopedia is an invaluable, indispensable, "user friendly", 1,008-page core reference work listing 2,000 plants and designed for the serious gardener or horticulturalist in search of just the right look for the garden or landscaping project. From flowers and shrubs to trees, lawns, cacti, ferns, and more, an immense variety of plants is listed, pictured, and described with a presentation of basic botanical facts and need-to-know information about growing each. A highly recommended reference for gardeners and plant lovers everywhere, Botanica's Gardening Encyclopedia should be found on the gardening reference shelf of every personal and community library collection.

Rating:
Summary: Botanica's Gardening Encyclopedia
Review: Filled from cover to cover with beautiful, full-color photographs, Botanica's Gardening Encyclopedia is an invaluable, indispensable, "user friendly", 1,008-page core reference work listing 2,000 plants and designed for the serious gardener or horticulturalist in search of just the right look for the garden or landscaping project. From flowers and shrubs to trees, lawns, cacti, ferns, and more, an immense variety of plants is listed, pictured, and described with a presentation of basic botanical facts and need-to-know information about growing each. A highly recommended reference for gardeners and plant lovers everywhere, Botanica's Gardening Encyclopedia should be found on the gardening reference shelf of every personal and community library collection.

Rating:
Summary: Botanica's Gardening Encyclopedia
Review: This is a great gardening tool. This book is filled from cover to cover with fantastic colour photos and great details on width and height of growth, seasons of bloom, where to plant (sun or shade...), zones. This books has everything you need.
Chapters include:
Chapter 1 Creating your Garden.
Chapter 2 Annuals and perennials.
Chapter 3 Shrubs
Chapter 4 Trees
Chapter 5 Lawns, groundcovers, ornamental grasses and Bamboos.
Chapter 6 Fruit trees, Nut trees, and other fruit.
Chapter 7 Bulbs, corms and tubers.
Chapter 8 Cacti and Succulents.
Chapter 9 Vegetable and Herbs.
Chapter 10 Climber and creepers.
Chapter 11 Orchids.
Chapter 12 Ferns, Palms and cycads.
As you can see this book covers everything and more...

Rating:
Summary: Really Great for Compact Encyclopedia
Review: This is the most useful gardening reference book on our shelf -- in great part, because you can actually carry it with you and (mostly) find what you are looking for in it -- with useful pictures!

I use this book when attending horticultural plant sales, etc., where a wide variety of species are available, and some culture info (how much sun, how much water, what kind of soil) is a critical success factor. This book has helped me avoid extreme errors on both ends of the spectum -- seduction by a beautiful but impossible (and expensive) plant, and overlooking a humble-on-the-shelf but PERFECT in the garden new addition.

In order to be portable, the book HAS to leave some stuff out, and that can be annoying in today's world of endless varieties and hybrids. There's an intro section on garden planning (and a good zone map), but the meat of this thing is the plant listings. Go for it -- this is a good one.