Customer Reviews

Betrocks Guide to Landscape Palms

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was extremely helpfull in identifying the different types of palms. Great pictures, lots of information on where to plant, how to plant, how much water, different types of diseases. I would really recommend this to others.

I am a reader who whants to know about Palms, but not every scientific thing about them. So I found out about the book Betrock's Guide to Landscape Palms. Every page is packed with information and clear photographs. The book tells how fast they grows, human hazards, comments,and even tells the zones they grow in; and much, much, more! All this for a price of $30.00!!!!! I recommend this book to every Palm lover!

As a novice palm enthusiast I am always searching for information on palms. The subject is usually too wide ranging or to technical but this book, Betrock's Guide to Landscape palms, has very complete and accurate information about landscape palms. It has good coverage of the palms which can be grown in the tropical and sub-tropical areas of the United States; ie. Southern California and Florida. Very well laid out with good color photos

A beautiful and extremely useful guide to the most common landscape palms of Florida, California, and Hawaii. The book is very well laid out and easy to navigate. Sharp color photos accompany the concise yet thorough text with one palm, or a very closely related group (Genus) of palms, described on each page. Planting and maintenance advice follows, with photographically documented information on diseases and nutritional deficiencies included. Reference lists at the end of the book cover a variety of subjects. Excellent!

This book is well organized. Since I'm just learning about palm trees, I found the palm identification guide especially useful - I used it to easily identify a beautiful Senegal Date Palm in my hometown. The other tables and guides are also helpful. For example, there is a scientific/common name cross reference for all the palms discussed in the book.

The chapter discussing care for your palm trees is good, but I would like to see more specific instructions for a beginner. The main reason I bought the book was that I had just planted a Canary Island Date Palm in my backyard and wanted to care for it properly, since I've killed just about every plant I've ever tried to grow by either over-watering or under-watering. I was hoping for specific information, such as, "Give the tree twenty gallons of water every three days." The instructions given in the book are more general, but if you're already an experienced gardener they're probably sufficient.

This book does provide fairly comprehensive information about the specific palms it covers (about 100), and will help you select palms for your landscape. It also provides enough basic information about palm trees in general that you will have some ability to evaluate palms not specifically covered in the book.

One weakness of the book is that some of the photographs aren't very good, even of some of the most common palm trees. For example, Pygmy Date Palms are very common and very photogenic, but if you judged them by the pictures in this book you'd never realize how spectacular they really are. Also, some of the pictures show trees that are very young, and not developed enough to be distinguishable.

Overall, a great book with lots of useful information.

I use this book constantly. It is full of pictures, which is great if you're trying to see what a particular palm is going to look like once grown and whether it will ultimately fit where you want to place it. It has great info. on culture, care, propagation, habit, etc. A must for every palm nut!

This is a helpful guide if you need assistance identifying palms and their temperature zones. It is a permanent part of our horticulture library. We live in upstate SC, and it has helped us propagate and maintain palms in our area.

Being a Michigander, I was not familiar with palms other than by appearance. When I took a Florida vacation two years ago, I went to a farm near Miami that exhibited all sorts of tropical crops, and found this excellent book.

Anyone desiring to acquire one or more landscape palms should consult this book as a crucial first step. The first of three sections covers nearly all landscape palms in an encyclopedic fashion, complete with one or more fine color photos of each described species. Each palm is also reviewed in terms of its salt and drought tolerance, soil, nutritional, and light requirements, its appearance and size, its uses, and whether it has irritants to people. Also addressed are the pests the plant may be expected to confront, and how the plant propagates itself.

The second and third sections of the book, although a bit redundant at times, cover much of the foregoing material in general, and also offer more photos. Climate maps and nicknames are also included, as are excellent material for diagnosing illnesses or deficiencies in palms.

Although I am not presently a resident of Florida or any other tropical or subtropical area, I think anyone who lives in such a region, whether it be a professional horticulturalist or a do-it-yourself landscape architect, would be well served by having and reviewing this book frequently. I rate it highly.

I was amazed at how bad this book was