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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Florida plant chronicles, December 31, 2005
FLORIDA LANDSCAPE PLANTS lists native and non-native plants growable in the northern, central or southern parts of the state. It's an updated version of the late Professor John V Watkins' book. Professor Watkins taught landscape horticulture at the University of Florida. But he was well known outside the campus, for his gardening- and landscape-related radio series and writings published as books and magazine articles.
Professors Thomas J Sheehan and Robert J Black fill the empty space left with Professor Watkins' death. They've added to and modernized his classic landscape plant manual. Throughout, they've stayed true to Professor Watkins' original mission of writing for an audience of university students, nurserymen, master gardeners, and homeowners of our Gulf states.
Their book is nicely organized for that purpose. There's a listing of over 400 plants. The book closes with a helpful model planting guide, list of invasives, glossary, and an index of common and scientific names.
Their book gives more information and puts in more plants than the original work by Professor Watkins. But their book isn't comprehensive. It's not a case of everything Professor Watkins listed, along with add-ons. In fact, they've left out some "old favorites," partly because some have been called "invasive" by the Florida Exotic Plant Council. In part, too, they wanted the book to fall within the page range known as "popular size."
FLORIDA LANDSCAPE PLANTS is nevertheless very workable, with a lot of clearly illustrated and organized information and with no useless information. Each plant is listed by common name. The scientific name is given below, with the way to say it and the English meaning. There's also a sketch of each plant. I miss the beauty of color drawings and photos. But the black-and-whites are so well done that the plants should be easily known by form and shape, often more telling than color.
The information is conveniently slotted into family; relatives; type of plant; height [in Florida]; zone [in north, central or south Florida]; how to identify; habit of growth; foliage; flowers; fruits; season of maximum color; landscape uses; habitat; light and soil requirement; salt tolerance; availability; culture; propagation; and pests. Sometimes, there's a note slot, such as for sweet acacia "This plant is cultivated in the south of France for its flowers, which are made into a very fine perfume."
FLORIDA LANDSCAPE PLANTS would be an interesting read not only for gardeners and landscapers. I was impressed with how many of the plants are already common household words as household plants: Dieffenbachia, ficus, jade plant, spider plant, and wandering jew. Others are already known as "public places" trees, such as my favorites: American hornbeam, black olive, geiger, gumbo limbo, lignum vitae, red maple, river birch, and southern magnolia. Still others are already known as rock garden plants, such as my favorites: agave, aloe, aluminum plant, bush zinnia, Florida yew, kalanchoe, peperomia, ponytail palm, prickly pear, royal fern, spineless yucca, and variegated pineapple. And still others are already known as water garden plants, such as my favorites: African iris, Asiatic jasmine, black tupelo, firecracker plant, galingale, ginger lily, oleander, peperomia, pittosporum, primrose jasmine, sweet bay, and torch ginger.
It was particularly interesting to see how many of my favorites were listed as natives, such as: Adam's needle, beauty berry, buttonwood, coontie, frangipani, fringe tree, seven year apple, Spanish bayonet, sweet shrub, and tulip tree. In many cases, with natives we reduce the use of hazardous materials such as pesticides. For natives have their own natural controls. They're part of wider plant, bug, bird and animal communities that have built up a balance between over- and under-population in the same space over the same time. Just as important, natives reduce yardwaste. So many have attractive flowers, fruits and parts that can be reused as and recycled into artistic creations, such as dried bouquets and holiday wreaths.
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