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Rating: 
Summary: Eyewitness does it again!
Review: Eyewitness Handbooks are simply the best. I have several, including one on horses, aquarium fish and the annuals/biennials garden book. (I'm planning to purchase the other Eyewitness Garden Handbooks shortly.) There is just no substitute for seeing a full color picture of the adult plant. Although quite comprehensive (over 1000 photos and plants), it was organized by the size of the plant (large, medium, small) and then the season of bloom. I'm probably spoiled with computer CD ROMs that are searchable by any criteria: I wanted to find plants based on recommended sun exposure. But this wasn't really a big problem for me. Besides the beautiful clear photograhy, one of its best features was the index. It was basically organized by the scientific names, but the common names were also listed, with a "see ...." reference. This is not always the case in plant/animal books, and I appreciated it very much. I recommend that you buy this book. There's nothing better, unless Eyewitness comes out with a searchable CD ROM.
Rating:
Summary: Eyewitness does it again!
Review: Eyewitness Handbooks are simply the best. I have several, including one on horses, aquarium fish and the annuals/biennials garden book. (I'm planning to purchase the other Eyewitness Garden Handbooks shortly.) There is just no substitute for seeing a full color picture of the adult plant. Although quite comprehensive (over 1000 photos and plants), it was organized by the size of the plant (large, medium, small) and then the season of bloom. I'm probably spoiled with computer CD ROMs that are searchable by any criteria: I wanted to find plants based on recommended sun exposure. But this wasn't really a big problem for me. Besides the beautiful clear photograhy, one of its best features was the index. It was basically organized by the scientific names, but the common names were also listed, with a "see ...." reference. This is not always the case in plant/animal books, and I appreciated it very much. I recommend that you buy this book. There's nothing better, unless Eyewitness comes out with a searchable CD ROM.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting organization but specific plants hard to locate.
Review: The photos are beautiful, and I love the organization by size, color, and season of interest, but good luck finding most of these at the nursery -- common names are provided for maybe one-fourth of the plants, and when a common name is given, it may not be the name you're familiar with. I would like to have lots of these plants in my garden, but I don't know what to look for at the nursery. And I don't think the workers at my local nurseries are going to know what, say, "phlomis russeliana" is, even if I tell them it's in the family "Lamiacae/Labiatae" (assuming I could pronounce half this stuff!)Or let's say you want to look at a certain plant, maybe one you've spotted at the nursery, to see whether it's right for you. Let's use "yarrow" as an example. "Yarrow" is not in the table of contents or the index, but if you happen to know that yarrow is "achillea", you will find several different yarrows in this book. None of them list "yarrow" as a common name, but that's what all the nurseries around here call them. And even though there's a 7-page section on peonies, "peony" is not in the index (you have to know it's really "paeonia"). The sections on landscaping, propogation, planting, etc., are minimal -- the catalog of plants is the focus of the book. In short, I think the presentation of plants in this book is a great idea that has not been implemented fully enough to be useful.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful, with a landscape based look at perennials.
Review: This is a workhouse reference, filled from cover to cover with solid information. Entries start with family name, common name where applicable, and botanical name of the plant under discussion. Each variety has a picture, a description of form, flowers, and leaves, plus notes on the plant's origins, growing requirements, and propagation. The pictures themselves are relatively small but well shot, a good percentage of them include leaves and/or clumps of plants as well the flowers themselves. This book covers all of the basics normally found in a plant reference, including propagation, maintenance care, and basic planting principals. The layout, however, betrays its real focus, which is landscaping. Landscaping and cultivation are so closely tied that many gardeners forget the difference. However, one focuses on growing a single plant to its maximum potential while the other concerns itself with presenting plants in a setting. Whereas a book on cultivation will present species either alphabetically or by color, this book presents flowers in terms of their 'social' attributes: Size, season, and color. Bottom line: Excellent perusing material for people who like to plan ahead. It includes all the basics of cultivation, and pulls it together in a format designed to help you think in terms of beds rather than just flowers.
Rating:
Summary: Very useful, with a landscape based look at perennials.
Review: This is a workhouse reference, filled from cover to cover with solid information. Entries start with family name, common name where applicable, and botanical name of the plant under discussion. Each variety has a picture, a description of form, flowers, and leaves, plus notes on the plant's origins, growing requirements, and propagation. The pictures themselves are relatively small but well shot, a good percentage of them include leaves and/or clumps of plants as well the flowers themselves. This book covers all of the basics normally found in a plant reference, including propagation, maintenance care, and basic planting principals. The layout, however, betrays its real focus, which is landscaping. Landscaping and cultivation are so closely tied that many gardeners forget the difference. However, one focuses on growing a single plant to its maximum potential while the other concerns itself with presenting plants in a setting. Whereas a book on cultivation will present species either alphabetically or by color, this book presents flowers in terms of their 'social' attributes: Size, season, and color. Bottom line: Excellent perusing material for people who like to plan ahead. It includes all the basics of cultivation, and pulls it together in a format designed to help you think in terms of beds rather than just flowers.
Rating:
Summary: OK, depending on your needs
Review: What makes this book so terrific is the way it's laid out. Plants are grouped by size, season of bloom, and color. For example, you want to find a tall yellow plant that blooms in summer. Just turn to the part of the book that says, "Tall, summer interest," and look for the yellow flowers grouped together. Then choose from among those possibilities something that will grow in your garden. Every plant is further described for hardiness, care, use, and propagation. Further, it is not limited to a few selected plants, but is quite complete. The only perennial that I could think of not mentioned was lavender.
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