Customer Reviews

Begonias: Cultivation, Identification, and Natural History

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I would give this book top rating if I had had a scientific interest in the history of begonias. I bought it thinking it would have a lot of practical cultivation and propogation tips and it disappointed me in that respect. It's a very thoroughly written and documented botanist's book - not really targeting the home gardener.

I found this text to be very useful. The scientific classifications, including leaf shape, texture, stem placment and flower formation were introduced in an approachable and engaging manner. The section on pests and diseases that are problems for begonias was very useful. Learning the origin and natural habitat of various begonias really helps with their successful cultivation. I did not find the more scientific aspects offputting at all. The text is written in a way that I found very appealing, and the large number of color photographs make it visually rich. This is a very thorough and appealing look at the amazingly diverse begonia family.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to become more familiar with this fascinating plant family. For those of us with an acknowledged interest (ie, member of the American Begonia Society here) this book is a real treasure.

Great reference for species begonias. Probably more information than the average begonia grower will every use. I was hoping it would include more information on hybrids. Good information about culture and care.

Anything and everything you wanted to know about Begonias. Very thorough, good pictures and an excellent reference book!

I have received a lot of pleasure from Mark Tebbitt's book on begonias. He emphasizes the 100 most common species in cultivation. These are the begonias species you are likely to see in the Western world; the other 1,300 species would require safaris to remote sites in the tropics. Although he mentions many of the man-made hybrids in passing, he focuses on the original wild begonia species and how they live in nature, which is what you need to know if you want to grow them or their hybrid descendants successfully. Because there are so many commercial hybrids, and because growers are constantly changing their names, Mark Tebbitt gives you a key for tracing the ancestry of hybrids back to the species. A recurrent theme is that some of the wild parents make better plants than the allegedly improved hybrids. Mark Tebbitt's vignettes of the history of the Western world's discovery and domestication of this distinctive plant are unequaled in the literature. Do not buy a begonia without looking it up first in Mark Tebbitt's book.

A dense and very good entry to this rich botanical family. Descritpions of species could be more numerous but at least each section is cleraly described and the mains species are listed.

I bought this book because I wanted a good view of the different divisions within the genus begonia. My other Begonia book was written as an introduction to the genus and served its purpose very well, but was not written with a view of the scientific nomenclature. The genus begonia is huge and can be divided up into over forty sections. I wanted some sort of description of these sections, since they show up often in the begonian (official magazine of the American Begonia Society). Also, since my old book was written during the early sixties, it does not mention many of the exciting species introduced over the last forty years.
This book fills in many spaces in my knowledge of the genus and, since the author is a botanist, the book gives an excellent overview of the species and divisions within the group as well as showing the influence of the different species in many of the most popular hybrids.
In addition, the book is well written and is easy to read. Many books with this much technical information can be dry and laborous reading. I found this book to be very easy to read and understand. If you have an interest in Begonias I really think that this book is for you.