The Tropical Look: An Encyclopedia of Dramatic Landscape Plants

Rating:
Summary: lov'n Tropicals
Review: I have been tropical gardening for almost 20 years here in the Midwest. I am always trying new things and combinations. It was great to finally get the book. What a treasure of information. I used it to do a 50 banana display last year in my garden. The pictures were so rich that I wanted to grow all of them. This book is great for the intermediate gardener. You have to have some idea of what your doing to get the most out of this book. I liked that all the plants were together not seperated so if I didn't know it was a shrub or a tree I could find it. The cheat sheet at the start of each genus entry was great it made scanning the book for something easier. All in All a great book

Rating:
Summary: Better Suited to scholars than Casual Gardeners
Review: I received the Encyclopedia and found it to be just that. The pictures are all clustered on a few pages in the center of the book while the first and last parts are dedicated to an encyclopedia britannica style listing of the plants without pictures. The plants are alphabetical so it's great if you want to know more about a plant and know it's latin name. If you're looking to flip through a book and pick out the ones you like, this isn't the book for you. I'd recommend Hardy Palms and Palm-Like Plants. It's cheaper, and the plants are grouped together by typs along with pictures and descriptions of each. It may not be as thorough, but it's more helpful for those of us who don't know what we're doing yet.

Rating:
Summary: Better Suited to scholars than Casual Gardeners
Review: I received the Encyclopedia and found it to be just that. The pictures are all clustered on a few pages in the center of the book while the first and last parts are dedicated to an encyclopedia britannica style listing of the plants without pictures. The plants are alphabetical so it's great if you want to know more about a plant and know it's latin name. If you're looking to flip through a book and pick out the ones you like, this isn't the book for you. I'd recommend Hardy Palms and Palm-Like Plants. It's cheaper, and the plants are grouped together by typs along with pictures and descriptions of each. It may not be as thorough, but it's more helpful for those of us who don't know what we're doing yet.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful guide to tropical gardening
Review: I received this book from a friend who knew I was in the middle of a yard restoration. I picked it up late in the evening the day I received it, then couldn't put it down. I was up until 2:30 A.M., entranced by the beautiful photos that not only made me want to slide inside the scenery, but it makes me think I can grow things like this. I can't wait to get started. I have always loved tropical plants, but as a home gardener I never seem to find the time to do the research. Bob Riffle did the work for me.

I believe this beautiful book will bring out the adventurous gardener in some of us. For those who just love to study plants and admire their beauty, the photography is wonderful. For me, this book came just in time.

Rating:
Summary: Just shy of perfect...
Review: I'm new to the "tropical" look of gardening. This book does indeed have wonderful photos and descriptions of many tropical plants that are suitable to various garden zones. The problem I had was in looking up plants for whom I know only by their "common names". I would have given this book a five star rating if it only had a cross reference section for those of us who are not proficient with a plants latin (botanical) name. What I have had to do in order to learn a tropical plants botanical name is go on the internet (logging on to horticopia plant search), entering what I think is the common name for a tropical plant, and then when it comes up with a list of botanical names, looking it up in Mr. Riffles book. I understand that there can be many, many common names for a plant. How about just putting in the most widely known common names so that at least I would have a chance of finding it in the book ?

Rating:
Summary: They'll call you professor...
Review: I'm new to the "tropical" look of gardening. This book does indeed have wonderful photos and descriptions of many tropical plants that are suitable to various garden zones. The problem I had was in looking up plants for whom I know only by their "common names". I would have given this book a five star rating if it only had a cross reference section for those of us who are not proficient with a plants latin (botanical) name. What I have had to do in order to learn a tropical plants botanical name is go on the internet (logging on to horticopia plant search), entering what I think is the common name for a tropical plant, and then when it comes up with a list of botanical names, looking it up in Mr. Riffles book. I understand that there can be many, many common names for a plant. How about just putting in the most widely known common names so that at least I would have a chance of finding it in the book ?

Rating:
Summary: Just shy of perfect...
Review: I'm new to the "tropical" look of gardening. This book does indeed have wonderful photos and descriptions of many tropical plants that are suitable to various garden zones. The problem I had was in looking up plants for whom I know only by their "common names". I would have given this book a five star rating if it only had a cross reference section for those of us who are not proficient with a plants latin (botanical) name. What I have had to do in order to learn a tropical plants botanical name is go on the internet (logging on to horticopia plant search), entering what I think is the common name for a tropical plant, and then when it comes up with a list of botanical names, looking it up in Mr. Riffles book. I understand that there can be many, many common names for a plant. How about just putting in the most widely known common names so that at least I would have a chance of finding it in the book ?

Rating:
Summary: The Tropical Look
Review: I've recently purchased several books on gardening with tropical plants, and this one stood head and shoulders above the rest. The encylopedic format and alphabetical listing make it extremely easy to find any given plant, it's well illustrated with high-quality color photos, the descriptions are thorough and informative, and best of all for those of us outside the tropics, it gives hardiness zones for most plants, which most other books on tropical plants neglect.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I've recently purchased several books on gardening with tropical plants, and this one stood head and shoulders above the rest. The encylopedic format and alphabetical listing make it extremely easy to find any given plant, it's well illustrated with high-quality color photos, the descriptions are thorough and informative, and best of all for those of us outside the tropics, it gives hardiness zones for most plants, which most other books on tropical plants neglect.

Rating:
Summary: an inspiration for those with "zonal denial" syndrome.
Review: Living in the Pacific Northwest, and loving tropical plants, makes this colorful and photo-filled book not only fascinating but an inspiration for those of us who want to push the more northern zones into the tropical in our own gardens. I find the book well written, exciting and informative; the photographs of plants and places are beautiful, many of them being personal photos by plant lovers from all over the country who have travelled to far places for the images: another inspiration from this book-- to travel ourselves and to educate our sense of what gardening can be.