Customer Reviews

The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses: Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-Tails and Selected Bamboos

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Excellent and complete information about ornamental grasses. A great book.

Thirty pages on the botany, anatomy, and classification of grasses. Twenty pages on native habitat, thirty pages on designing with grasses, and twenty pages of growing and propagating grasses. 170 page encyclopedia listing 400+ species / varieties of grasses. Each species is described in a paragraph or two of text along side a clear photograph of the plant. In the back of the book, you find a 2 page glossary, 5 page bibliography, 2 page grass nursery listing, USDA and European hardiness maps, and a complete index of all grasses by common name. Very complete book.

As a bonus, the book is also filled with awesome photography.

If you garden with ornamental grasses, this book is a must buy. Excellent information, well worth the money!

If you have no grasses in your garden now, your yard will be transformed by this book. The cultural information is well researched and thorough, but it is the incredible photographs that will keep you reading. I often look up a particular grass and find myself still reading hour later.

This book is structured, written, photographed and edited with parallel purpose and effect: communication of the author's respect and regard for the book's subject and for its readers. Mr. Darke sets out to inform and does so with enconomy but in full course; when he instructs, he teaches the novice and gives pause to the critic; when he photographs he shows his passion and inspires with the nature and wonder of his subjects. The book is encyclopedic, yet its prose is always to the point with the agreeable dryness of a good, well-bodied wine. Credible, trustworthy, enlightening. This is the best gardening book I have ever read. Negatives? Only one: Mr. Darke's standards are unimpeachable; those of the book's typographer and designer, however, are not.

This is such a wonderful informational book... AND ... a gorgeous coffee table book. It is terrific from beginning to end! If you like or are interested in, or even thinking about Ornamental Grasses ... then THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! I can't imagine anyone who has an interest in Ornamental Grasses NOT LOVING THIS BOOK, and would be delighted they purchased it. My only concern is that it is going to look dog-earred from my reading it over and over and over again ... which frankly takes away from its beauty on our coffee table.

This is a book for very specific types of people. If you propagate grasses or are a professional needing an extensive resource with cultural and descriptive information, then you won't want to miss this book. The descriptions of each grass and how to take care of grasses of all kinds is impeccable.

However, the book's kind of outdated in the sense that nowadays, we expect the photography to be as extensive and exhaustive as the text. And I'll admit it - if a horticultural book doesn't have photos of nearly every plant they describe, and photos too of inspirational ways of using them, then the book ends up being my last resort for answering only those questions which my prettier books can't. (I love Grasses by Ondra - it's not as extensive but every time I open it I want to plant new grasses in my gardens!)

No question Rick's a grass expert. The question is - are you buying the book for the text or for the photos? If it's for the photos, then look elsewhere. The text is outstanding, though, and well worth the cash if you need this sort of reference.

Good Reference. Author has a newer book with more grasses and pictures that may be more up to date.

Rick Darke's book is typical of his work. It is extremely well written, a detailed, very thorough guide to ornamental grasses, full of helpful pictures as well as information on growing and maintaining grasses. This book should be a classic for decades to come.

I think you must buy this excellent book about grasses with a lot of good photos.