Customer Reviews (3)

Awesome pictures
Great shots of some of the rarest endemic plants.Very helpfull with plant id.

Great Book!
Great book!Used a lot when I have traveled to Maui a few times.

Book was lovely.
I was pleased with the book I ordered. It didn't have as many flowers in it as I had hoped, but I did enjoy reading it. ... Read more

Product Description
For gardeners who want to conserve water, the color, fragrance, shade, and lush vegetation of a traditional garden may seem like a mirage in the desert. But such gardens can flourish when native plants grow in them. In this book, Judy Mielke, an expert on Southwestern gardening, offers the most comprehensive guide available to landscaping with native plants. Writing simply enough for beginning gardeners, while also providing ample information for landscape professionals, she presents over three hundred trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, groundcovers, wildflowers, cacti, and other native plants suited to arid landscapes. The heart of the book lies in the complete descriptions and beautiful color photographs of plants native to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan desert regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Mielke characterizes each plant and gives detailed information on its natural habitat, its water, soil, light, temperature, and pruning requirements, and its possible uses in landscape design. In addition, Mielke includes informative discussions of desert ecology, growing instructions for native plants and wildflowers, and "how-to" ideas for revegetation of disturbed desert areas using native plants. She concludes the book with an extensive list of plants by type, including those that have specific features such as shade or fragrance. She also supplies a list of public gardens that showcase native plants. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Very Informative
Great pictures and write-ups on southwestern native plants ... what each prefers and how to use in landscaping.Highly recommend.

false info
The information in this book on many of the plants listed in it is incorrect. If you try to use the names given you will not be able to find them. Cross referece is a must if you intend to use this book in thebuisness.

Great, useful book on southwest native plants
Lots of useful detail about native habitats of hundreds of plants.Many, many photographs.Suggestions for landscape use.

Very helpful!
Living in the higher elevations of the Western Mojave Desert presents unique opportunities (read: problems)in landscaping. The full color photos, the environmental requirements, and, especially, the cold tolerance of eachplant helped us choose plants which would not only survive, but prosper inour area. Many thanks to the author.

Worth it for the photos alone
This book is outstanding for including a color photo of a full-grown specimin of each plant described.Entries include plant culture and details of its natural range.The listing of native plant sources at theback is pretty comprehensive, at least for Arizona. In addition to theplant listing, there are some short chapters on growing natives, and achapter on wildflowers. ... Read more

Product Description
With some 6,000 species of plants, Texas has extraordinary botanical wealth and diversity. Learning to identify plants is the first step in understanding their vital role in nature, and many field guides have been published for that purpose. But to fully appreciate how Texas's native plants have sustained people and animals from prehistoric times to the present, you need Remarkable Plants of Texas. In this intriguing book, Matt Warnock Turner explores the little-known facts--be they archaeological, historical, material, medicinal, culinary, or cultural--behind our familiar botanical landscape. In sixty-five entries that cover over eighty of our most common native plants from trees, shrubs, and wildflowers to grasses, cacti, vines, and aquatics, he traces our vast array of connections with plants. Turner looks at how people have used plants for food, shelter, medicine, and economic subsistence; how plants have figured in the historical record and in Texas folklore; how plants nourish wildlife; and how some plants have unusual ecological or biological characteristics. Illustrated with over one hundred color photos and organized for easy reference, Remarkable Plants of Texas can function as a guide to individual species as well as an enjoyable natural history of our most fascinating native plants. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good reference -- limited use
This is a great reference book for students of Horticulture in Texas.The descriptions will help identify introduced and native plants of Texas.The book is of limited use for most gardeners, unless they are trying to I.D. a specific plant, and do not want much useful information as to it's use in their garden.

Remarkable Plants of Texas
We liked this book so much that we purchased THREE copies!Well written, interesting background and history of various Texas plants.Recommend highly.

An interesting, and fun, change from the usual botanical books
I bought this book recently and already love it. Besides being very well-written and steeped in interesting facts I never knew about Texas plants, the point of the book is both unusual and fun. Instead of focusing heavily on the "plant identification guide" style of writing (though there are excellent four-color pictures that help you do that), Dr. Turner sets out on a more ambitious goal...to tell the story of each plant and what makes it special to the Texan (and general botanical) landscape, whether it is how the Native American tribes used it, how it connects in unusual ways to the natural world, etc. Each story stands alone but you will find ways in which they interconnect, as well, telling the story of the earliest settlers and beyond. Kudos to this rare gem of a plant book. I have already bought a second copy as a gift to my godmother, who loves Texas plants herself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Classic, But Not What I had Expected
This is more of a entertainment read, a starting point, or an introduction. It doesn't include very detailed information on specific topics and lacks anypictures or color which would be great.

its ok
the book had a lot of useful growing tips but without pictures can tend to be a bit useless if you have no prior knowledge on the plants. it is pretty helpful if you also have other books that you can reference to

a waste of paper
totally disapointed in this book. Lacking in anything but VERY basic information.

The title should have the words "pocket guide" in it.
The book is much smaller than I had expected. It is full of small blurbs about various legal hallucinogens that can be grown in the home (a very short list of supplier is given in the bibliography). Each blurb givesenough information to describe the plant, it's habitat, and how tocultivate it in the home. The book doesn't go into common problems incultivation (diseases, pests, etc), however.

A good starting point forthose interested in the subject of legal home grown hallucinogens, but whenyou find something that interests you, buy a book specific to that plant. ... Read more

Product Description
There has always been interest in how animals live their lives --- it is easy for us to identify with them. But there are many remarkable stories about plants that deserve to be told. The Nature of Plants tells how plants adapt to the challenges of their habitats. Plants may live in places that provide too little rainfall, yet they thrive, either by evading drought, like the animals that live in deserts, or by tolerating the scarcity. There are plants that use other plants, climbing on them, strangling some, living in their leafy canopies, or parasitizing them. And The Nature of Plants explores the love-hate relationships that plants have with animals, some feeding on plants but others drawn into serving plants by pollinating them, scattering their fruits and seeds, or being eaten themselves. The mostly hidden associations that plants have with bacteria and fungi are also revealed. Illustrated throughout with superb color photographs, it is written in a way that is clear to anyone who wishes to understand the life of plants. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A brief comment
As my fellow Top 50 reviewer, Dennis Littrell, has already said it better than I, I just wanted to add a brief comment, mainly because a few years ago I once spent a wonderful three weeks travelling around New Zealand observing its plant and animal life, and many of the examples of plants in the photos are from this country, since one of the authors is from there, and I've seen much of New Zealand's fascinating and diverse fauna and flora myself.

As Dennis mentions, the photographs are superb, along with the well written and interesting text. The book is not just about the local flora however, as the author discusses interesting and important plants from around the world.

One major difference between the ecologies of the northern and southern hemisphere is that conifers forests dominate the north, whereas the large climax trees in the south, especially in South American and New Zealand, are southern hemisphere hardwood beech trees, of which there are a number of species. Although not as tall or as massive as the sequoias and redwoods of the Pacific Coast, they can still grow to over 200 feet in height.

Interestingly, 60 million years ago the giant sequoias and redwoods were circumpolar and once dominated the whole northern hemisphere boreal forests, but today are restricted to just a few strips of land in California and Oregon. No one knows why such huge and seemingly invulnerable trees as sequioas, which can have bark several feet thick, can hardly be killed by fire, are impervious to insects because of their thick and tannic acid rich bark, and which are the largest living things, have been dying off.

Although, as I said, the book isn't just about New Zealand plant life, I have to add a fascinating tidbit about that. New Zealand is a very rainy and wet country mostly, especially in the south (Milford Sound is the rainest place in the world at sea level with 28 feet of rain per year, about the same as the top of Mt. Kilauea in Hawaii, but that's at 14,000 feet). In fact, it's almost unremittingly green, because there are few plants with colored flowers there. There are a few exceptions, such as the well known "New Zealand Christmas Tree," metrosideros excelsea, which has red flowers, but it's the exception. Most have white flowers because they are fertilized by night flying moths. Colored flowers are actually for bees, and New Zealand broke off and separated from the original supercontinent before bees evolved, hence the reliance of many New Zealand plants on moths. I found this quite interesting and only learned it after I'd arrived on the island, although I was partly trained as a botanist in college and grad school.

Overall, a wonderfully illustrated and well written book on the diversity of plant life on this increasingly ecologically fragile planet of ours, and a truly beautiful and diverse one botanically that hopefully some of which will survive the locust plague of our species centuries hence.

A beautiful book
Most of the color photographs are by co-author Rob Lucas.They are just sumptuous--stunning even--and carefully chosen, and illustrative of the great diversity of plant life on earth.There is a slight bias in favor of the unique biota of New Zealand which is understandable since Lucas is from New Zealand.He and his colleague, UC Berkeley botany PhD John Dawson, have written several books on the flora of New Zealand, one of which won the Natural Heritage Prize.This book too ought to win some sort of prize since it is so gorgeously illustrated, so engagingly written, and so carefully edited.

They take the widest possible focus in introducing the reader to plants from around the world and from many different habitats, from deserts to swamps, from the Arctic to the Amazon.They begin in the first chapter, "The Freeloaders: Plants Using Plants," with parasitic plants such as the tree-dwelling epiphytes, of which the familiar mistletoe is an example.This sets the tone for the book, the idea being to show how plants make a living in the world and how they interact with other plants and with animals, and how they meet the challenges of their environments.In other words, as the title has it, the authors explain and illustrate "The Nature of Plants."As such this book is an excellent introduction to the nontechnical aspects of botany, giving the reader the sort of information about plants that would especially appeal to weekend gardeners and others (like myself) who love plants but have had no academic training in botany.

However, this is no "plants for dummies" sort of book.Scientific nomenclature is used throughout, and precise numbers about plant sizes and other aspects of their lives, including rainfall and temperatures, are given in both metric terms and US equivalents.References are made to more comprehensive academic tomes, and there is a glossary of specialized terms.

Here is a short notice of facts that I found especially interesting:

It is well known that fire can be the catalyst for the germination of some kinds of seeds, and indeed, there are seeds that germinate only after a fire.On page 136 the authors explain that "In some pines, the tips of the woody scales of the cones are glued together with resin.Fire melts the resin, and the scales are able to separate."

They also report that "it has been discovered that smoke alone can break the dormancy of seeds of many heathland species in South Africa and Australia."Even more surprising is that in the chaparral in California (where I have hiked many times) "It is believed that some of the shrubs manufacture toxins that leach into the soil with rain and inhibit the germination of seeds.Fire destroys these toxins, and the seeds then germinate abundantly.In following years, the herbs steadily diminish as shading increases and toxins from the shrubs build up in the soil." ( p. 135)

We have all heard of a swarm (or "plague") of locusts, but the one the authors describe here is truly incredible: "One such swarm," they write, "in eastern Africa was described as being more than 30 m (100) feet deep on a front 1.6 km (1 mile) wide that took 9 hours to pass by."Imagine that you are a poor farmer with a crop just ready for harvest, and then the locusts descend.What could you do?(p. 207)

By the way, there is an amazingly beautiful photo on the opposite page (206) of a cabbage tree moth on a dead cabbage tree leaf illustrating not only the moth's camouflage but some of the incredible beauty that nature is capable of.The colors are fantastic.As lovers of flowers know, no chemist can match the ability of nature to produce color in such vivid and arresting hues.

As I was reading this and admiring the beautiful photos I couldn't help but think about plants as our benefactors, and to marvel at how they have come to an accommodation (in some cases a clear symbiosis) with the pesky animals that want to eat them, and how they have in many cases learned to use the animals to their advantage as pollinators and seed dispersers.It gives me hope for humankind to think that if plants can make such clever give-and-take arrangements (without a hint of rancor) with those who would be their enemies, surely we can do the same with our fellow humans. ... Read more

Product Description
Although animals have attained a high level of sophistication in structure, function, and behavior, it is plants that are at the origin of most food chains. In this volume, Francis Hallé examines the human --- and even scientific --- bias toward animals at the expense of our understanding of plants. Readers will find their ideas about plants fundamentally altered and their appreciation immeasurably enhanced thanks to this intriguing look at the qualities that make plants unique. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Technical but wondrously informative
It's always a good sign to see that someone has bothered to translate a science book from another language into English.Publishers can usually get some English-language scientist to write a tome on the latest discoveries in a more commercially agreeable manner than putting together a translation.So when the translation appears you know the book is good and/or original in a distinctive way.

In Praise of Plants by botany Professor Emeritus Francis Hallé of the University of Montpellier, France is such a book.However it is by no means a popular treatise; indeed, if you want to get the look and feel of a botany article in a professional journal, this book provides an entire book's worth!The material is technical, detailed, and uncompromisingly professional.

So why has the Timber Press chosen this volume to bring to the English speaking world?Partly because of the international prestige of Hallé, who is an expert on tropical plants; partly because they were able to get a translation by David Lee who is Professor of Biological Sciences at Florida International University; and partly because of the striking nature of Hallé's presentation.

Hallé emphasizes the form of plants and how that form has developed evolutionarily from their need to secure the services of both sun and earth while remaining nearly immobile.There are dozens of line drawings in the book, most by Hallé himself, illustrating the differences between plants and animals with the text explaining why these differences occur.For example, because plants are sessile (attached to the ground) they are symmetrical on the horizontal plane, a tree looking pretty much the same from whatever spot on the ground you view it.However in a vertical sense a plant is very different since its crown is in the air looking at the sun while its roots are in the ground looking for water and minerals.In contrast, animals (I'll just quote Hallé so you'll get a feel for the technical language): "have dorsiventral polarity and anteroposterior and bilateral symmetry." (p. 70)

Fortunately the attractive and sometimes funny drawings help to penetrate the language for this amateur!

Here are some examples of the sort of things you can learn from this book:

At the microscopic level, where gravity is relatively "negligible compared to other forces" like "surface tension, viscosity, friction and Brownian motion," (p. 64) life forms tend toward the round and take on the symmetries we associate with astronomical objects like the sun and Saturn.Hallé gives examples of bacteria, amoebas, diatoms, etc. where "vertical polarity simply does not exist." (p. 64)Science fiction writers take note: creatures living in interstellar dust clouds will be more or less round.

One of the clear homologies (same form) assumed by plants and animals is in "the external (assimilating) surface of a plant and the internal (digestive) surface of an animal." (p. 51)The plant maximizes its surface area to expose as much of it as possible to the sun and the air, while the animal creates folds and such within its alimentary canal so as to provide a large surface area for effective digestion.Hallé notes that plants resemble fractals externally. (p. 52)

The waste products of animals bring forth (to our sensitivities) malodorous compounds as do their decomposing bodies.Hallé explains why this is so on pages 148-151, and why the waste products of plants and their decomposing bodies do not usually offend us; indeed the smell of new mown hay and forest humus or even a compost pile, can be very agreeable.On page 149 he favors us with a drawing of a tree which grows in part upon the waste products of its metabolism stored in its trunk.Next to the tree Hallé has a dog on top of a pile of its excrement, noting that "An animal that stored its excrement would also be capable of becoming very tall."

Hallé's love of plants and his deep respect for them, and his life-long experience in studying them comes through most wonderfully in this fine book.Although technical, it is accessible to amateur botanists and just plain old gardeners and lovers of plants with just a little effort.

In Praise of Hallé
[copy of my review for Amazon.co.uk]

Reviewer: Mr P J Stewart from Oxford United Kingdom
The best book on plants I've ever read (and I've been reading about them for more than 40 years). Here at last is a biologist who sees plants for the amazing things they are and not just as something like stationary green animals.
Of the living things that we can see, plants make up the overwhelmingly greater part. They create the grasslands and forests and wetlands and the surface ocean conditions in which most animals live, they stabilize the atmosphere of the whole planet, and they are the ultimate source of almost everything that animals feed on. Yet biology, until its recent lurch into molecular studies, has mostly derived from animal models. Hallé cites many examples, such as the fruitless search for plant hormones and the extension to plants of the doctrine that the lineage of reproductive cells is strictly separate from that of the cells that make up the body of the organism.

Hallé writes with clarity and gives plenty of concrete examples. He is someone who can decidedly 'see the wood for the trees' - not surprising perhaps in the man who pioneered the exploration of the rainforest canopy using 'rafts' suspended from balloons. He is also often very funny, and the translator has served him well. Hallé has illustrated the book with a large number of his own wonderful drawings. The work is beautifully produced - a gem from every point of view! ... Read more

Product Description
Covering Texas and beyond, Plants of the Metroplex is the only Texas book available giving practical landscape advice from a landscape architect's point of view. Howard Garrett uses his years of experience as a gardener, landscape contractor, maintenance contractor, and landscape architect to give you clear-cut, money-saving advice on the proper selection, installation, and maintenance of landscape plant material for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and beyond. Garrett also explains his organic approach, "The Natural Way," which gives gardeners greater success with lower costs and without the risks of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. All of this information has been revised and updated from Garrett's popular Plants of the Metroplex III. J. Howard Garrett has converted several commercial projects to organic programs. They include Frito-Lay National Headquarters in Plano, Johnson and Johnson Medical in Arlington, and Collin County Community College in Plano. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Great Metroplex resource for plants
This was a replacement book for my personal plant/gardening library.This version has many more photos and updated information.I would recommend this Howard Garrett's Plants for the Metroplex to anyone, especially a "transplanted" resident to this part of Texas.

Excellent!
This is a wonderful gardening guide for the DFW area. I highly recommend it. The ideas are aplenty and next to none should fail you. I love it.

Good and concise
A great book in an easy to read format, good for quick reference and deeper study. Great pictures and info on locating local specimens to see how the plants look in a real setting.

Best Guide for Plants in the DFW area and similar climates!
Impressive! This is the most comprehensive and informative plant guides for this part of Texas and anywhere else with a similar climate.The categories include: "Trees", "Shrubs", "Flowers", and "Groundcovers, Vines and Grasses". Many photos! The category "Trees" alone has over 150 photos! Soils vary quite a bit here, so this includes a lot of plants! It even names the plants and trees you DO NOT want to plant and gives the reasons why. The book illustrates theproper way to plant and has fantastic recommendations on how to manage various problems with pests, "weeds", etc. Highly recommended!

Nice Pictures
I bought this along with Neil Sperry's Texas Gardenining.This is a simple book with excellent pictures for planting in the DFW area.I wouldn't recommend this book as guide/reference, but it is a very nice accessory for deciding what to plant. ... Read more

Product Description
This book presents the most extensive general review of the pitcher plants of the Americas yet undertaken - it is a substantive overview of the systematics, biology, ecology, biogeography, and conservation of the five genera of American pitcher plants (s.l.), including three genera of true pitcher plants (Darlingtonia, Heliamphora, and Sarracenia) and two genera of carnivorous tank bromeliads (Brocchinia, Catopsis). Here is information about some 45 species, hybrids, and cultivars, consolidated and presented in detail, along with more than 200 spectacular color photographs. This beautiful and informative study of these alluring plants will be appreciated by a wide audience of naturalists, botanists, ecologists, biogeographers, resource managers, and horticulturalists - among others! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The prize of my library
Stewart McPherson has managed to produce a work which is authoritative, brilliant and informative and has done so in style. Moreover, he didn't stop there. This book is one of several written by him. He has written several others, including Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands, Glistening Carnivores and Pitcher Plants of the Old World - Nepenthes and Cephalotus.

All of these books are first class and any serious Carnivorous Plant grower or hobbyist should definitely have them!

Great Natural History and Photos
Great book for both photography and natural history reports of the North American pitcher plants.Wonderful photos of these plants in their natural habitats.Detailed reports of the natural history of all species, especially Heliamphora.This book's focus is on these plants in their evnironments and includes detailed range maps for all species.

Stunning photos, well researched, my favorite ever!
Finally - a book that introduces the genus Heliamphora in all its glory.This is really the first book to do them justice.It includes dozens of stunning photos, morphology and habitat descriptions, fascinating analysis of trapping mechanisms, speculation about the environmental conditions that lead to the forms and the distribution of present day species, as well as some tentative discussion of the relationship between the three genera.Two minor disappointments - no mention of the new fossil discovery of an ancient member of the Sarracenia family from China (Archaeamphora), and no photos of Heliamphora sarracenioides, which it seems might be one of the more important species discovered in the last decade.I suspect both discoveries occurred too late to be incorporated because the book is otherwise quite thorough (and these new discoveries leave me hoping for a revised edition in the future)."Pitcher Plants of North America" is now by far my favorite carnivorous plant book ever.

Pitcher Plants of the Americas
Pitcher Plants of the Americas by Stewart McPherson is a very nice addition to any carnivorous plant enthusiast's library. It is very well written and easy to understand. The photography is spectacular. This book will give one a better understanding of the pitcher plants native to North and South America.

A first-rate field guide
British geographer, researcher, and conservationist Stewart McPherson presents Pitcher Plants of the Americas, a lavish overview of the five genera of carnivorous pitcher plants in North, Central, and South America. Featuring stunning color photography of virtually every species, enhanced by the high-quality paper of the text, Pitcher Plants of the Americas describes species, their ranges, and their unique features in clear language that is not excessively technical. A first-rate field guide and welcome contribution to natural history reference shelves, sure to fascinate both general readers and horticulture specialists. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Plants in Bible, with references, plus how to grow them yourself. 240 fruits, herbs, trees, flowers, more, and their symbolic association. 16 illustrations.
... Read more

Product Description
This landmark publication features the first 74 plants promoted by Plant Select, a unique collaborative venture aimed at identifying and distributing the best plants for the Rocky Mountain region. This bold new plant palette will revolutionize the way we garden. For the first time, all of the plants promoted by Plant Select during the plant introduction program s inaugural 11 years are presented in a single resource. Durable Plants for the Garden shares the story behind the selection of each plant as well as detailed plant descriptions, growing tips, and anecdotal comments. Photographs and exquisite botanical illustrations make this both an informative and a beautiful resource. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Rocky MountainGarden Plants
"Plant Select" is a category for hardy ornamentals devised by the Denver Botanic Garden and Colorado State University to give gardeners in the High Plains and Rocky Moutains suggestions for durable and delightful plants which will grow in tough climate conditions.Full color photographs, reasons for each plant's selection, as well as bloom times, disadvantages, andspecial characteristics are given.It is helpful to know what is best and worst about each plant.

Durable Plants for the Garden [Paperback]
I have found better books on this subject with more information than this book. I would not buy this book again

Sensible gardening in Colorado
This guide is exactly what I needed.I recently moved to Colorado from Wisconsin where my garden was very different from what I should be doing here.This guide is helping me select plants and plan a Colorado garden that will be easy to care for and look great. Research backed and illustrated, this is a definiitive guide and a best choice for growing plants in Colorado gardens.Durable Plants for the Garden

Durable Plants for the Garden
A handy reference guide recommended in the Colorado Country Life magazine for well adapted plants to Colorado climates---we live at 7400 feet and I enjoy native plants that will survive year to year.

Great guide to Colorado gardening
Great book with a lot of information for planting and caring for plants that with do well in Colorado, without a lot of extra water. ... Read more

Product Description

This comprehensive reference describes plants native to the Pacific Northwest—the ferns and conifers; annuals, perennials, and grasses; and flowering trees and shrubs that populate and define this distinctive region. Featured are some 530 subject species that occur naturally from southwestern Alaska to Oregon's border with California, and from the coast east to Idaho, plants that are not only beautiful ornamentals but important components of habitat diversity.

Illustrated throughout with nearly 600 eye-popping color photographs and original pen-and-ink drawings, the book is smartly separated by plant type into five encyclopedic sections. Detailed descriptions include reommendations for cultivation and siting, from streambanks to parking strips, and lists suggesting natives for particular garden situations or themes—arid or sodden; hedgerows and meadows; hummingbird and rock gardens—concludes the book.

Gardeners and conservationists alike will find much of value and interest in this impeccably presented and illustrated regional resource, which is sure to become a classic on the subject.

Customer Reviews (6)

Encyclopedia of Northwest Native Plants for Gardens and Landscapes
An outstanding publication.Filled with more Northwest botanical than most.The author is so thoroughly informed, it would be an experience to meet her in person.

The purchase experience rivals the book.Both are marvelous.Will look for this provider again.

Great Gardening Resource
What we've been waiting for to make our reforestation projects, hiking trips, etc. more fun and informative.Thanks.

Encyclopedia of Northwest Native Plants
This is a must have for the Northwest gardener whether you are a long time NW gardener or a new one.Large photos with excellent descriptions.

Excellent reference!
I've been growing NW natives for 25 years with successes and failures (and a lot of fun). With this book, I would have had many fewer failures! I've pulled it out a dozen times already this season and it's never failed me. Excellent photos, descriptions, and propagation instructions. It looks like a tea-table treasure, but it performs like a combination field guide and cultivation handbook. Highly recommended.

This is THE one book to have
This is the best book on NW natives I've found.Great pictures, descriptions and very complete.If I could only have one native plant book this'd be the one. Worth the pirce ... Read more

Product Description
This volume covers plant growth and development around the year, and includes exercises for seeing and understanding plant transformation. A wide variety of ordinary plants are drawn at every stage of their development, from bud to seed, from fruit and flower. Instructions help the reader try out the observation and drawing exercises. Features of the book include: a companion guide to plant development round the seasons; numerous illustrations to accompany the text; exercises for observing and for drawing plants; how science can be practised as an art; an introduction to the holistic approach of Johannes Wolfgang Goethe; and further resources and contacts for workshops are listed. ... Read more

Product Description
First issued in 1957 by Swallow Press, this classic guide to the art of plant identification is now familiar to an entire generation of students. Harrington who was Professor of Botany and Curator of the Herbarium at Colorado State University, gives step-by-step instructions and definitions to help readers recognize and classify plants. The new printing has been reset and reformatted, and L.W. Durrell's drawings and glossary—more than 500 images—have been digitally enhanced for clarity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Plant Identification Guide
The guide is a bit old but goes over basic plant morphology with simple sketches. The book is very systematic and comprehensive. The book should still be of great value to beginning botanists.

Not exactly what I expected
This book has very detailed descriptions and definitions of the parts of plants used to make an identification, but does not provide an easy way to identify an unknown plant.

How to Identify Plants
Very helpful for reviewing terms that are used in taxonomic literature devoted to plant identification.

a great book for amateurs and experts alike
I really liked this book and found it very reader-friendly and helpful. So it is not the newest book on the shelves, but that doesn't mean it is not a realiable and very useful resource. I had to buy this book for a class and never sold it back. Since that class I have used countless other guides on the same subject and when friends ask me what is a good starter guide book, with no hesitation I reply with How to Identify Plants by H.D. Harrington. Even today I still go back and reference it when using other field guides. This book sould be in every botanist's collection and makes a great starter for beginners.

Does the job -- but there are better books available
From the copyright date, this book was written in the fifties.The quality of the black and white photos is consistent with this guess, as isthe rather pedantic style. There are also chapters on the structure of thenomenclature system, which is probably already well-known by most of thelikely readers, and on how to collect plants, which may not be a good ideathese days, at least for the rarer species.

For $6 more, I'd go for thesimilar book by James/Melinda Harris.More focussed; better illustrations;less pedantic style. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Best plat guide
Not only is this a great guide to edible plants, but it has some of the most tasty and unique recipes I have ever seen.

Great book!
This is a grand book for nature-lovers, gourmet cooks, and wild plant enthusiasts. It's written with clarity and a touch of humor. Where else could you find recipes for Oaxaca Iceplant Salsa, Stir-fried Saltbush, andCanaigre Sauce? With excellent illustrations and photographs of each plant,this book is a joy to read. ... Read more

Product Description

As we see exotic plants becoming "invasive exotics," gardeners are seeking native plants for their gardens. Plants that withstand regional conditions and weather patterns deliver a hardier garden and require less maintenance.

A pioneering book when first published in 1999, this revised edition is a classic reference that meets the requirements of a changing, tougher landscape. Lorraine Johnson provides a fail-safe guide to beautiful low-maintenance plants native to many regions of the United States. The features include:

Especially useful are the quick-reference charts that show plants grouped by region, habitat and conditions, for example plants that tolerate dry soil in shade and plants that attract butterflies. A color photograph of each plant makes it easy to compare options and choose the right plant.

Customer Reviews (3)

Non-woody plants, not srubs or trees......
When I was a little girl, my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Bryant took our class on a walking field trip.We hiked from the school to a nearby creek that actually ran through a woods behind my home. There on a bank (or several banks for that matter), we found the plants we had been studying, NC flora-trilliums, mandrakes, jack-in-the-pulpit and others.I haven't seen these plants in the wild in a long time. The reason of course is that my old haunts have become unrecognizable as developers plowed under miles and miles land between High Point and Thomasville, and Winston Salem and Salisbury--farms when I was a kid. With the destruction of these farms, went creeks, bogs, hedgerows and other wonderful places native plants thrived. `Like the dew on the mountain, like the bubble on the fountain...lost and gone forever....'

100 EASY TO GROW NATIVE PLANTS by Lorraine Johnson is about these native American plants systematically destroyed by the forces of change, including the invasion of foreign plants such as English Ivy (Hedera helix) and Asian and European privet. There are alternatives. Instead of English Ivy you can plant Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). At the headquarters of Museum of Garden History at Lambeth Place in London, Virginia Creeper grows on the old church that serves as the museum and tumbles across the small cemetery that houses the Tradescants and Captain Bligh of Bounty fame (also a great plantsman). Unlike the evergreen English ivy, Virginia creeper loses its leaves in winter and thus moisture does not collect under the leaves and destroy masonry. (I ripped it off my house because I thought it would lift the shingles).In addition, the creeper leaves turn a bright red in the fall...so, when you see those lovely fall photos of old houses in England and notice the red leaves on the facades,remind yourself "That is a Native American plant."

Johnson does not really cover the list of invasive plants you might wish to displace with native substitutes but you need to know their names.You can obtain more information about invasive plants and native substitutes on the US Fish and Wildlife Service site www.nfwf.org (202-857-0166). At the NFWF site look for a publication entitled `Plant Invaders of the Mid-Atlantic Natural Areas' (the NFWF has similar documents for other areas, but this monograph will work for most of the Eastern Seaboard). Another source is the Plant Conservation Alliance www.nps.gov /plants (202-452-0392).

We will deal with invasive plants one person at a time.Next week I am having Euonymous, Buddleia, Privet, and Bayberry removed from my yard. I will substitute Fothergilla, Clethra, andAronia arbutifolia (Chokeberry), considered as of this writing as okay for my neck of the woods.

Good introduction to native gardening
This isn't by any means exhaustive, either in coverage or growing information, but as an intro to native plants it is a fine addition to your library. Generally excellent photographs and an accessible page layout, with a description, requirements (soil type, sun), propagation tips, and good companions for each plant. Very pleasant to read.

There is one goofy thing about this book that is worth mentioning:The plants are presented in alphabetical order by common name. This leads to confusion when you find nothing under Trillium, only to find it under "Western Trillium," or you find Coneflower under "Purple Coneflower."The index lists only Latin names.To get around the problem of multiple common names, the book should be sorted by Latin name, and the common names should be available along with the latin names in the index.

A reader from Michigan
Great pictures and a worthy book.This book describes the benefits of growing native plants and has beautiful photos. I am always in a quest to find and identify native plants to Michigan and this book is a terrificasset.It differs from wildflower books as it strictly focuses on thenative plant and not the non-native yet wild. I would like to see theauthor write a larger more comprehensive guide. I have shared this bookswith friends and they have all found it very beneficial in appreciating thenative flowering plants. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Required as College Text
I bought it for my Landscaping Plants I class at MSU. It's very thick, but so far very informational. I was assured by my instructors that if I finish my program and stay within this career path, it will become my consant companion. I plan to get every penny I paid for it back out of it in the future.

STILL THE PERENNIAL BIBLE
Steven Still was kind enough to do a fabulous job in writing this wonderful compendium of perennial knowledge.If it isn't in this book, you don't need to know it.It was my textbook for perennials at Ag college, and now is used for reference often!Still the BIBLE, for herbaceous perennials.

Book was as described and arrived quickly!
The book was as good of condition as described and was shipped quicker than i expected.Would do business with this seller again!

Excellent Information
You do need to have some background in horticulture to use this book, but it has a lot of information.

great book full of imformation
this book is great for future landscapers or someone that wants to know more about plants. Its a great buy. ... Read more

Product Description
This book describes every type of regional flora--from seaside foliage and wildflowers to grassy meadows, shrubs, vines and aquatic gardens. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Sometimes less is not more
This book provides a good overview on the benefits of using native plants. When it comes to the plants included, however, the authors have an acknowledged bias toward South Florida, so it may not be the best choice if you are not in that part of the state. A more serious drawback is the photography. There are no photographs of residential landscapes using native plants, from which one might draw inspiration, and most of the plant profiles contain only one photo, generally a close-up, so one has no idea of the plant's shape or growth habit. A number of additional plants have been included in this updated edition, but rather than placing them under the appropriate category, they are appended at the end.

A Great Garden that Needs Little Care
This book was a great help in the planning and planting of native plants into our existing garden.

Great Book on Using Florida Native Plants
Florida, with its four zones, has lost plenty of vegetation because of the population growth.In turn this has affected many plants and wildlife.Add to this the aggressive and invasive plants that have been introduced and our water issues and you have a problem.NATIVE FLORIDA PLANTS introduces you to these concerns and gives you numerous natives and their descriptions.The concise colorful pictures are a plus.

What grows near the coast may not do well forty miles inland.Plants that you may find in the Ocala National Forest or the Everglades may not prosper in Orlando or Tallahassee.Creating a native garden is the goal of this wonderful book.You'll find chapters on wildflower gardens and grassy meadows.Perhaps you are interested in welcoming wildlife and butterflies.With the extensive information found here you can choose what the pros and cons are to each plant.

Still worth five stars I would have liked to see more detailed information on our native oaks.I have a number of them in our yard and wanted to identify them using this book.Bark, acorns and leaves are different but because there wasn't enough of these pictures I am at a loss to discover what I have.Still, it is a great book and I am sure you will find something to benefit your piece of property and give you enjoyment.



An addiction to gardening is not all bad when you consider all the other choices in life- Cora Lea Bell

JustWhat We Wanted


Great for a new comer to the flower state, aids in selecting plants that can grow in your area.

Native Florida Plants
An outstanding resource for the Floridian looking to grow a native habitat. Tips and ideas abound in this must have book. Growing natives is the only way to go in protecting todays water reserves. Great pictures, plant descriptions and plant tolerances as well as a great index to help you find plants you may have an interest in planting. We regularly recommend this publication to both newcomers and seasoned gardeners as an aid in discovering diversified foliage to plant improving their surroundings. ... Read more

Product Description
This heavily illustrated volume will prove a blessing to every aquarium hobbyist who has had to settle for superficial plant descriptions in general fish-keeping books. It presents a detailed A-to-Z directory covering hundreds of aquarium plants with high quality color photos and succinct profiles of each plant. Information includes the plant’s common name, botanical designation, growth cycle, and general description. The book’s additional sections offer details on how to grow and propagate aquatic plants, and how to protect them from parasites and other problems. This handsome volume features approximately 450 color photos and illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (28)

Title is Misleading
If you're just starting a planted tank this book is for you. There is a lot of general information but not as much advanced info as I would have liked. It would have been nice to see a better breakdown of specific tank types ( Dutch, Amano, etc ), and the equipment and fertilization schedules used. All in all it does contain quite a bit of useful information for the beginner to novice aquarist. To call it an encyclopedia of any sort is a huge stretch.

Great book
I would say it has all the information you need about planted aquariums. It is very understandable and easy to read, not to mention that it continues also basic information on how to setup a tank. Maybe you can ask for more detail pictures but is not that necessary.

Excellent 1st Book on Aquarium Plants
I would definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for general information about aquarium plants. It covers the basic in a clear, consise way, using images whenever possible to illustrate what is being explained. The book' structure is logical and simple to follow, and pretty much anything you need to know to get started is covered.

The only minor complaint I might have is on the aquascaping chapter. The author uses drawings to explain various projects, where high-quality pictures would have been preferable, or, even better, both. Not a big deal at all, but its just that the real impact of aquascaping cannot be conveyed adequately through drawings in my opinion. And so it's hard to foresee how the author's suggested scapes would look in reality.

Highly recommended for beginners.

Excellent resource
This book has wonderful photos, diagrams, drawings and pictures of various kinds of aquariums.Lots of information about water chemistry and plant functions and about specific plants.Plenty of fish recommendations
as well.Very, very good resource for aquarium hobbyists.

Outstanding!
I purchased this book to learn some up to date info on freshwater aquarium plants in hopes of creating some biotope style aquariums. I have been an aquarist for 45 years and have owned my own aquarium store back in the 70s. Once receiving the book and just glancing through it I was completely amazed at not only its excellent treatment of the main subject but also the abundance of fantastic info on practically all aspects of setting up & maintaining a successful aquarium. If anyone is just starting out with aquariums & wanted to buy just one book about the subject I would suggest they buy this book. You will not be disappointed! ... Read more