Customer Reviews

A Tropical Garden Flora: Plants Cultivated In The Hawaiian Islands And Other Tropical Places

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I have just finished writing a review of this book for the West Hawaii Today newspaper. I've looked it over quite thoroughly. It's flawless! And I'm a very picky reviewer. It will be the authoritative classic for many years to come, and I predict it will garner some horticultural book awards during the coming year. The binding is real cloth, a rariety these days. Bishop Museum has produced a deluxe book. I know tropical horticulture books well and review them on my website.

We have many plant books, but none is as comprehensive as this. It's a big chunk of money, but honestly, after buying FLOWERS AND PLANTS OF HAWAII (Wood), HAWAIIAN HERITAGE PLANTS (Kepler), GARDENING IN HAWAII (Hodge), HAWAIIAN ORGANIC GROWING GUIDE (Nirab - and that's if you can get this out-of-print book, which is good but limited in scope) - every time we bring plants home, we are frustrated in that we are only able to find a small percentage of them in these books.

THIS book, though technical and voluminous, does have most all the plants we are working with in landscaping and food production (fruit trees and the like). It gives information none of the others do about disease prone species and some historical data that is critical to one's decision in planting (where to plant and how it will fare at a given altitude and location. Also wind and exposure suggestions, insect vulnerability, etc.). True, there are no color photographs. But the in-depth information and sheer number of plants catalogued is found nowhere else that we know of.

FYI, we also purchased PLANTS FOR TROPICAL LANDSCAPES - A GARDENER'S GUIDE (Rauch & Weissich) - and this is a great one for photos both of the overall plant as well as a "close-up" of the flower or fruit or leaf it produces. Recommended to us by a grower here on the Big Island. But it does have its limits in the number of plants described.


Bela Johnson
http://www.belajohnson.com

This book has become indispensable for my work. Unlike most floras, it attempts to include propagation and cultivation information. George Staples is not only a terrific taxonomist, but, I suspect, a fine horticulturist, too. This work must be included in the canon of botanical reference works.

Not full of flashy photos, so this won't be appealing to casual gardeners. If you have some education in botany and understand the taxonomy, this will be a reference book you will come back to time and again. Very comprehensive.