Customer Reviews

Masdevallias: Gems of the Orchid World

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This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in Masdevallias or those who love orchids in general. I feel this book fills a long standing void of books dedicated to the genus Masdevallia. The book contains detailed information on the history, natural distribution, cultivation, taxonomy of the subgenera, as well as information on propagation and showing masdevallias. There are 100's of beautiful photographs of the many species with information for each species photographed. There is also a section on hybridisation accompanied with many more colour photographs. I believe this book will be a longstanding 'Bible' to the genus for years to come. Highly recommended.

A great book for anyone interested in growing Masdevallias, regardless of skill / experience. There's plenty of useful tips in the cultural descriptions that go with each species photo, and I learned that they're a much more diverse genera than I had imagined. Many can also tolerate surprisingly cool temperatures (useful for me in the Netherlands), although those that can tolerate warmer temperatures are also covered, as are some common hybrids. The photos are excellent and the layout is pretty good too (species are grouped alphabetically, I would prefer by subgenera). The section describing the geography of each country where they occur is interesting, but too general to be of any real use (how many Masdevallias occur in the Peruvian desert?). Orchids don't recognize country boundaries, it would IMHO have been better to focus this section on the different microclimates in the geographical areas where they do occur (e.g. the Andes between 800m and 3500m). These minor details aside, this is a great book and good value.

I can't say enough positive things about this book. The wisdom of some of the top masdevallia growers was sought out and compiled in one place. Excellent photos, solid text, and a useful list of the top growers and contact information for them. I was able to reach two of the top growers who live in my area and find out what orchid shows they would be attending. That allowed me to expand my collection with some awesome new plants. Buy this book, you won't regret it.

Bought this book right before the 2008 Pacific Orchid Exposition in San Francisco. The photos and text were great, but the tables at the end were even more useful for shopping at the Expo. The tables list the species and hybrids with their growing temperatures. If I can grow these plants in Nevada with 13% humidity, so can you!

This is an excellent resource on this species. The pictures are great and the information on care and history is very valuable. I've been growing Masdevallias for a few years and I still learned more about them from this book.

A very good reference book about Masdevallias.
Thank you Mary and Ron for your hard working in writing all researches and good pictures to this book.

This is a great refence book for growers of Masdevallias, it is easy to read and it has up to date information. Thanks Mary Gerritsen and Ron Parsons for all of the work that you put into this book.

C. Wyatt
San Francisco