Landscape Plants for Subtropical Climates [Hardcover]

Bijan Dehgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

"In one volume this book seems to encompass all the plants native and exotic grown in Florida. No small feat! . . . No other reference work that I know of covers the field as comprehensively as this."--Edward Golden, horticutural consultant and past president, Sarasota Orchid Society

From Florida to California and on to Hawaii, gardeners who want a current, thorough, and user-friendly guide to the common indoor foliage and outdoor landscape plants for U.S. Department of Agriculture zones 8, 9, 10, and 11 will welcome this fully illustrated book.
 With precise line drawings for nearly 500 plant species, the work presents a description of cultivated ferns, cone-bearing plants, and flowering ornamental plants for warmer climates. It offers a description of the families, essential identifying features, and horticultural information for each plant, including origin, cold hardiness zones, propagation techniques, and soil, fertilizer, irrigation, and light requirements. The author also discusses identification features under clearly demarcated headings of growth habit, foliage, stem and bark, flower, and fruit. With a comprehensive glossary of terms commonly used in plant identification and a cross-referenced index of common and scientific names, readers will be able to find information with minimal effort.
 This book is intended for use by backyard gardeners and will be especially handy for newcomers to warm temperate and subtropical areas who seek a reliable resource for plant selection and care. In addition, it will be indispensable to garden clubs, volunteer Master Gardeners, nursery professionals, extension agents, and landscape architects. It also can serve as a plant identification text for students of environmental horticulture, forestry, and other plant science-related fields.

Bijan Dehgan is professor of environmental horticulture at the University of Florida. He is internationally recognized for his taxonomic and horticultural research and major publications on the endangered sago palms (cycads) and the physic nuts (Jatropha).

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 638 pages
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Florida (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813016274
• ISBN-13: 978-0813016276
• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,898,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic resource for the subtropical Gulf Coast gardener!, October 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Landscape Plants for Subtropical Climates (Paperback)

This is the first book I have found which provides useful information about gardening on the Gulf of Mexico. I live on the Texas coast, Galveston Island to be exact, and the weather and climate here is truly special! Forget the "zone 9" stuff. This text provides information about plants which will survive--and thrive--here on a barrier island where many "normal" plants perish. "Salt tolerance" is listed for each plant as well, which is so helpful as I live two blocks from the Gulf. Thank you, thank you Mr. Dehgan for this book which has made such a difference for me. I don't buy plants anymore without checking here first! I believe this book is a "must" for coastal residents all along the Gulf.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Reference, April 5, 2005

By 

J. Whealton (Central Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Landscape Plants for Subtropical Climates (Paperback)

I bought this book as a requirement for a plant identification course (Dr Dehgan as an instructor). It contains information about every plant you could want for landscaping a tropical yard. As a reviewer stated earlier though, it contains only line art so it isn't really very visually impressive. For a gardener (or hobbyist) who already has an idea what plants he wants for a landscape and isn't trying to decide by looking at pictures I suspect this would be a great reference because it typically contains a full page of specs for each plant it lists. If all this information was converted to a database and made searchable by plant feature, what a wonder it would be. For the average layperson though (i.e. me), I think it has limited usefulness as a stand alone reference and is best combined with a nice pictorial guide. If this book had color plates it would hands down be a 5 star rating. Even at a lower rating than what I scored it, it would still be a great value and a worthwhile addition to your library for the modest price.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Books That Deliver What the Title States/Implies, March 12, 2006

By 

J. Shannon "Reader Dude" (South Florida) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Landscape Plants for Subtropical Climates (Paperback)

Dr Dehgan's book is about as complete a guide as one can find for the state of Florida. It is extremely well organized combining the most useful information concerning a hugh variety of plants with a very intuitive format.