Rating: 
Summary: The Best Reference Book For Serious Gardeners
Review: Reading over the other reviews, most were very satisfied with this book and only a few found fault with it. Casual gardeners won't need anything this extensive, but for the experienced gardener and even the novice gardener who wants to learn more, this is the book to have. It's laid out in a very easy to follow style, making one able to identify plants seen in neighbourhood gardens and parks, and then to find out what their cultural requirements are. If a desired plant is seen in a gardening magazine, or a plant and seed catalogue, this book enable you to check whether it would be suitable for your home garden. Saves the trouble of buying plants, only to find that they were suitable for your garden. Also, if the home gardener would like to find a plant to fill a certain spot, blooming at a certain time of the year, and in specific colours, the format of the book makes it simple to pick out your ideal plant! Each category under the Ornamental Plant Groups (Trees, Shrubs, Climbers, Perennials, etc), are broken down into four seasons when the plant shows its best colours, and the flower colours are separated into groups. It's extremely easy to use. I've been gardening for almost 30 years & have an extensive gardening and plant library. I agree with the reviewer, Tom Krischan, and this would be the first plant book I would save in a fire too.
Rating:
Summary: The Most Complete Source Around
Review: Simply put, this is the most thorough, most complete, book on garden plants that is available. It includes some 15,000 garden plants. Usually each plant is completely discussed, pictured, given hints on cultivation, some history, territorial range, propagation, pests and diseases, common names, and varieties.
The plants are listed by their botanical names, which is probably the only way they could have done it. For instance, under Clematis, the common names Old Man's Beard, Traveler's Joy, and Virgin's Bower are given. Since Clematis has some 250 separate varieties with wildly differing flowers and sizes, the description runs about five and two thirds pages with 54 illustrations of various blooms. Dozens of varieties are discussed.
There is no question that this book belongs on the desk of any serious gardener. The one complaint about it is the common name section at the back of the book is a bit week. For instance if you look up Old Man's Beard, it properly refers you to Clematis. But Carnaby, one of the varieties of Clematis it isn't listed. I can't think of any other problems. And when I put Carnaby Flower into the Google search engine, it immediately came up with Clematis-Carnaby so I rank this a minor problem.
Rating:
Summary: The only resource you'll ever need.
Review: The A-Z is a serious horticulturalist's tool. It's comprehensive, has great color photos, and is the only gardening encyclopedia you'll ever need. It doesn't follow fads or trends (like Flora) but rather stays more academic in its scope. Also it gives a basic lesson in botany and growing and disesaes, so it's very thorough and useful. Love it love it love it.
Rating:
Summary: When you need to know now, look here!
Review: The absolute best reference book for the average gardener. Loads of pictures and concise information laid out in a consistent format makes looking things up quickly very easy! The common name index in the back is very helpful to those of us still working on our Latin (ha!) this book would make a wonderful gift for the gardener on your list. Keep in mind, if you are purchasing this book for someone, it is very large and quite heavy.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe not what you are looking for.
Review: The book sounded exciting with the large number of plants described by other customers. I do like DK's large amount of pictures. The book did contain a large section on roses. BUT this might not be what you are looking for. If you want a book to help you choose say a type of apple tree to grow in your backyard, this book will not help. Sunset Western Gardern Book offers detailed descriptions of each specific varities of popular fruits: taste, tree growth, disease resistance,etc. Peaches,apples,grapes,blueberries,cherries,etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful, but...
Review: The variety of plants contained in this volume is comparatively remarkable and I have successfully found information on quite a few things. That said, the descriptions and other details on the varieties within the genera are uneven and illustrations used are often too small for identification, particularly if the foliage is not shown in the cases of flowers which appear nearly-identical. Some varieties of plants such as calabrichoa (million bells) which are very popular, at least in my own area, are not there; some which are included, such as bacopa, only mention two colors when there are several in circulation. These sticking points are relatively minor compared to my principal and ongoing complaint about nearly every plant book I have read or purchased: there is no pronunciation guide. This is a huge handicap when one is attempting to ask for, or for information about, plants such as Heuchera, Weigela, Clematis, Corydalis and a multitude of others with multiple possibilities. It makes no sense that such an obviously huge undertaking as the compilation of this book could not include how the name should be said in the heading (not some section in the back which would require constant turning).
Rating:
Summary: Best Plant Book Known to Man!
Review: This book as never let me down. A friend recently gave me a leaf of a plant from her yard. I was able to identify it within 4 minutes!
Rating:
Summary: A valuable reference.
Review: This book contains a wealth of information not easily obtained elsewhere. If not for the poor index, I would probably rate it the best plant book I own. The Common Name index is somewhat limited and there is no index for synonyms of the genus names nor one for family names, making it difficult at many times to find that one plant you are searching for. Other than these few caveats, I would not hesitate to recommend the book to any serious gardener as long as they have other sources in which to go at those times when it is difficult to discover the 'proper' Genus name that the book uses.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Pictorial!
Review: This book has been a wonderful addition to my library. As you are investigating new plant selections, you can see what these plants look like in this book. Those latin names take on real form! It is a perfect companion to my Western Sunset Guide. This book has a few limitations which the Sunset Guide remedies. The "A-Z" usually doesn't mention the negative aspects a plant may have "agressive roots, etc." and the hardiness zone map on the back is small and it may be difficult to place exactly where you live. In all other areas it seems to be a great book - lots of ideas for special areas, pruning methods, etc. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Good reference but a little overwhelming
Review: This book has just about every plant you can imagine but it has its drawbacks because of it. It is extremely heavy and you must know the scientific name of a plant or look in the index for the common name to find it in the book. I guess I was hoping for a little more "user friendly" book. It has lots of pics and might be great for the more experienced gardener.
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