Customer Reviews

Betrock's Reference Guide to Florida Landscape Plants

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

 

 

This book was ordered as a house gift for my hosts in CoralGables. The magnificent trees that line their street are notidentifiable among the many ficuses listed. Tree photographs were either a detail of foliage or in total without any quality of detail but not both ways, making it difficult to identify anything already not familiar. The 48 different palms were photographed incompletely and it was difficult even to spot the royal palm by its light, magnificent trunk. For the most part artist illustrations would be preferrable to these photographic limitations.

I give it 2 stars only because of the succinct information on the plant descriptions. It would also have been better if the illustrations had not been isolated in the middle of the book ...

This book is wonderful for anyone landscaping in Florida. Plants are listed by scientific name, but there's a cross reference to common names in the back. It will help you choose appropriate plants based on light requirements, drought tolerance, climactic zones, etc. My favorite part is that it lists human hazards for every plant (most have no hazard, but it will tell you if the plant has thorns, toxic flowers, is a mild irritant etc.). This is invaluable when you have young children helping in the yard. Betrocks other guides are nice and have lots of pictures, but this one is much more extensive.

This garden book fails in many ways. As an illustrated guide, it fails miserably. The pictures are small, blurry, sometimes over-exposed and most are not representative of the subject. Worse is the fact that most plants are not even illustrated! You are left wondering what a plant really looks like. I have had to research most of the plants mentioned via internet or leafing through other books.

Another fault is the hardiness zones of some plants are incorrect. The authors need to redo this information. My particular pet peeve is the mention of plant pathogens-- they give a list of plant ailments, but do not tell you how to prevent, or treat it.

I gave it only two stars because of all these faults. It is an expensive book, but definitely not worth the price. Look elsewhere.

definitely recommend this book for environmentally responible gardeners who want a reliable guide with lots of useful details on soil requirements invasiveness and more.