Customer Reviews

American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Garden Plants

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as a l;andscape designer, this book shows not only when plants flower, their silouhette and height, but the width, which no other resource book gives. I use it for all my design classes and my students love how clear and precise everything is. Wonderful garden book.

In one volume, the AHS Encyclopedia manages to cover 8000 plant varieties, 4000 of them with color photos. This is by far the best way of getting a comprehensive directory of garden plants at a reasonable price. For each plant, it gives basic information such as size, color, season of bloom, cold tolerance, etc. and often considerably more information about cultural conditions, propagation, and the like.

It is not perfect. For instance, its information on shade, water, and pH requirements is sketchy and sometimes conflicts with other sources I've consulted. But it is very good.

In all, this is a far better deal than getting multiple volumes of the Taylor's Guides, although for those who want more information the RHS Dictionary ($800) is more complete and those who want more photos of each plant the Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix series (Random House) is richer.

Perhaps someday soon the RHS Dictionary and the AHS Encyclopedia (which is based on the RHS Encyclopedia) will be available in CD-ROM. Until then, this paper volume has far broader coverage than any CD-ROM collection I've seen so far.

What makes the first edition the best book of its kind is that it organizes plants by how they are used in landscaping (e.g., hedges and shrubs), then by color. So you determine what you want to do with the plants and how you want them to look, and it lists all of your choices with great color photos as well as height and width info.

You'll have to buy a used copy to get the original organization model. Later editions list plants alphabetically, which is pretty much useless.

This book has it all. Every tree, shrub and bush broken down by size and color of flower if it has one. Annuals and perennials are broken down the same way. Season of flowering is also given i.e. early Spring, Summer etc. Basic cultivation information is listed as well. The pictures are wonderful. I reference this book all the time and have used it to help select landscaping plants and in my garden design. I look at this book just for fun too!

I love this book because it is so comprehensive and very useful for planning a new garden. Plants are grouped by season and color. Very helpful for landscaping. Shapes sizes etc are all very accessible.