Customer Reviews

Huntleyas and Related Orchids

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

 

 

Overall, this is a fairly good book to own if you're into the pseudobulbless Zygopetalinae such as Kefersteinia, Pescatorea, and Bollea.

There is a section with color photos of these orchids growing in cultivation. Most of the photos focuses on the flower itself rather than the plant and their growth habits.

There is a short 2 1/2 page section about how to cultivate them. The author unfortunately doesn't go much into detail about how to cultivate the plants.

Most of the book is dedicated to their taxonomic identification, with a brief overview of each genus at the beginning of each section. Following the species description, there is a brief mentioning of the locality in which the orchid can be found (country, sometimes province, and elevation are included).

While the above mentioned is very helpful and somewhat entertaining, I felt that it offers exactly what the item description says and not much more.

If you're looking for a book on how to cultivate these plants, it can help, but you'd still have to do a lot of research on your own. At least with this book, you have a good starting point and guide.

There are no photos of this group of orchids growing in the wild. To me this was disappointing, but I still value this book. It is definitely better than nothing and much better than wandering aimlessly on the web for info on this group of plants.

Books on such specialist subjects as orchid families are all to few and maintaining quality is often not easy, due to budget restrictions. This book, however, beautifully fills the gap and sets the groundwork for the family to which Huntleya belongs.

I would have liked to see more cultural and habitat information, as well as a chapter on hybridizing work currently being done.

Patricia Harding has served the orchid world particularly well in creating this lucid and prectical monograph on some of the most beautiful orchids of all. I will admit to being partisan, I have always thought that Huntleyas were the most exquisite orchids imaginable.

This volume offers comprehensive descriptions of all the species in the group, including such choice genera as Chaubardiella, Pescatorea and Warscewiczella, and has many beautiful photographs. It also offers a comprehensive explanation of recent taxonomic and cladistical research, which helps give a better understanding of the relationships within this group.

It is not a book for the novice orchid grower, although they might find it useful, rather, it is for the grower who is wanting to develop their collection, or learn more about this oft neglected group. I found this book both informative and intellectually satisfying, and was impressed with the lucidity of Patricia Harding's arguments. I would like to be able to write a book as useful as this.