Customer Reviews

Native Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southeast: Landscaping Uses and Identification

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I bought this book because I adore "Gardening with Native Wildflowers" by the same authors. I was a little disappointed because this one is not as reader friendly for beginners such as myself. It does fill an important niche by identifying all native shrubs and woody vines of the southeast, as the title implies, and for this I imagine it would be a must for anyone compiling a serious library and/or study on the subject of native plants. The book is chock full of color photographs, each of which is labeled by the scientific name of the plant. However, I would have liked to see the common name there also (there is a common name index). A beginner who does not need to know about or identify a wide variety of shrubs and vines might be better off starting with a general guide to natural gardening that includes a variety of plant types.

I bought this hoping that I would be able to easily identify the native shrubs and vines on my property, but it is not very helpful. It is very difficult to use for someone not trained in botany. I should know, as my training is in aquatic biology and zoology. Even with my biology background, I have not found it very useful so the identification part of the title is very misleading. Also, there appears to be no rhyme or reason as to how the plants are categorized. I was hoping this would be more like Taylor's guides to trees, shrubs, etc. with pictures that then refer to a description, but it wasn't.

Wow, I just was checking to see if there was a new edition of this book, and found the not so positive reviews. I'm not trained in botany. I've had this book for many years and have used it a great deal. As one reviewer said, it has lots of color photos, and it's really a wish-book for me. It teaches you that there are so many natives out there that are garden worthy. I've acquired a number of wonderful plants for my yard based on the photos, descriptions, and even recommendations in this book. If you're wanting a southern living picture book, buy one. If you want to know more about the plethora of natives out there, and which ones might work in your garden, this is a great book. I love it.