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Rating: 
Summary: A pure pleasure to simply browse through
Review: Botanica is a beautifully and profusely illustrated 1020-page compendium of more than ten thousand plants, with complete, "user friendly" instructions on how to cultivate them. Laid out alphabetically, this A to Z anthology is a virtual showcase of color photography and is a pure pleasure to simply browse through, in addition to being an indispensable planning guide (there is an exhaustive index) for the family gardener or commercial horticulturalist. In addition to being very highly recommended for individual and academic gardening reference collections, Botanica would also make an impressive Memorial Fund selection for community libraries.
Rating: 
Summary: Good descriptions, Bad Zones
Review: I got this book a couple of days ago and the first thing I noticed were the gret pictures and descriptions of thousands of plants. On second inspection I noticed the Zone that many of the plants I grow (in zone 3) are listed as zone 6? who chose the zones? did they just guess. I buy plants from all over and many of the plants listed in this book are great, but I can't tell if they will grow for me when most of the zones listed are wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: Attractive to the eye, somewhat limited utility.
Review: I purchased this book as "The Plant Book" on sale for $19.99 at Borders books & music in 2004. It is interesting to note that the introduction _How This Book Works_ still uses the title "Botanica". This book has tons of pictures that are veritable eye candy, but their usefulness varies. Some of the pictures are not close-up enough to identify small details of the plants and others are so close-up that you can't tell the overall growth form of the plant. Ideally, it would be nice to have several pictures at different scales (e.g. close up views of flowers and leaves at several angles and pictures of the whole plant). However, inclusion of more pictures probably would have made the book too big to transport. When trying to identify unknown plants it is nice to have the plants organized by generic name, when you know the genus. However, it can make identifying the plant frustrating when you run into a plant that you know which family, but not which genus it belongs to. In such cases, a book with keys and organization by family is more useful (e.g. Liberty Hyde Bailey's Manual of Cultivated Plants). However, this book's color pictures and quantity of plants nicely compliments books such as Bailey's Manual of Cultivated Plants as well as local flora manuals such as The Jepson Manual. I haven't used the book enough yet to judge the accuracy of its information.
Rating:
Summary: Attractive to the eye, somewhat limited utility.
Review: I purchased this book as "The Plant Book" on sale for $19.99 at Borders books & music in 2004. It is interesting to note that the introduction _How This Book Works_ still uses the title "Botanica". This book has tons of pictures that are veritable eye candy, but their usefulness varies. Some of the pictures are not close-up enough to identify small details of the plants and others are so close-up that you can't tell the overall growth form of the plant. Ideally, it would be nice to have several pictures at different scales (e.g. close up views of flowers and leaves at several angles and pictures of the whole plant). However, inclusion of more pictures probably would have made the book too big to transport. When trying to identify unknown plants it is nice to have the plants organized by generic name, when you know the genus. However, it can make identifying the plant frustrating when you run into a plant that you know which family, but not which genus it belongs to. In such cases, a book with keys and organization by family is more useful (e.g. Liberty Hyde Bailey's Manual of Cultivated Plants). However, this book's color pictures and quantity of plants nicely compliments books such as Bailey's Manual of Cultivated Plants as well as local flora manuals such as The Jepson Manual. I haven't used the book enough yet to judge the accuracy of its information.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Value
Review: I wish I had found Botanica before buying dozens of other plant ID references - it would have saved me 100s of $ and hours of research to find everything in one volume. Every horticultural plant of worthy is covered with complete profile and excellent color photos. I don't know how they can supply so much book for so little money. Such a bargain!
Rating:
Summary: the professionals choice
Review: I'm a garden designer and couldn't do without it. Every garden centre I know also has a copy. The Zone guides have always been exactly right based on my experience. Highly recommended.
(I also own and use our local edition of the AHS Encyclopedia which Amazon sell but it is slightly older so doesn't have as many new varieties - still a great book)
Rating:
Summary: Plant Nursery's Best Friend
Review: This book is excellent! It covers almost very plant you can think of - and many more! It covers everything you need to know before you consider buying, planting... My friends always want to borrow this, so I have 2 copies. That way I am sure that I will never be without it. This is a great single source book! If you can only buy one- THIS IS IT!
Rating:
Summary: Plant Nursery's Best Friend
Review: Working in a small plant nursery, we depend on this book for everything it seems. Many of our customers are new to the area and know only common names for what they're looking for. We've used this book extensively to find these plants. In fact, we've used it so much that this is the second copy we're ordering, having worn out the first! No garden center or gardener should be without this incredible book.
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