Plants That Merit Attention: Trees

Rating:
Summary: Unique book of rarely seen trees with unique information
Review: I am very impressed with this unique book of rarely seen trees that will add interest to any garden. The book starts with a glossary of botanical terms with b/w illustrations of the anatomy of leaves, flowers, fruits & conifers.

Information includes botanical name, common name, zone, native habitat & date introduced. There is a general description of size, spread, & shape as well as descriptions of leaves, flowers, & fruit.

Culture, including soil quality, ideal sunlight, & disease tolerance, as well as transplanting & propagation advice are included also. Three clear photos include the full-size tree & two others show close-ups of leaves, flowers or trunk.

It also gives information on winter appearance & landscaping value. Even gardens where the trees can be seen are listed. I really appreciated this type of information. It is so rarely seen in most reference book.

The appendices are extremely helpful they list botanical gardens & nurseries. A source for each species can easily be found. Trees are also listed by characteristics. Some include zone, light requirements, soil conditions, resistance, color of bloom & fragrance.

Rating:
Summary: Ok, but would merit further attention
Review: The first thing to strike the eye when taking this book to hand is the full color and the beautiful glossy paper (no expense spared at the printer's!). The second thing to be noticed is the lay-out which is only just short of crummy (looks as if this was farmed out to India or the like). It looks pretty silly to have beautiful color pictures printed on expensive glossy paper and then having to look hard to make out the details. Without extra expense or effort the pictures could have been printed 25 to 50% bigger and this would have made the book twice as valuable. The quality of these pictures varies. There are some really great pictures here while others are ... mediocre.

The text was written by a committee and it looks it. This makes for easy comparison and reference, but for an uninspiring read. This fact distinctly decreases its value as a coffee-table book or as an object for delicious browsing. I am hoping the contents of the text are allright (I only browsed through it, but did spot some errors)

The botanical names appear mostly in order (I noticed only a few slips), which is not always so in horticultural books. Still these look a little silly because of the lay-out. Pity. Also the age of the book means that recent name changes have not been incorporated (I assume the reader will compensate for this).

I guess this is an OK book, that will look decent on the bookshelf, but that falls well short of what it could be.