Customer Reviews

The Tropical Look: An Encyclopedia of Dramatic Landscape Plants

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

okay, I know some readers gave this 5 stars but I was rather disappointed with the photo's in this book considering the price. The pics to me were quite small generally. Additionally, there are only photo's for a few of the plants described. Most of the entries had no illustrations at all. In other words, let's say there are an average of 4-6 plants described for each 2 page spread, {left and right}, there might be one, very infrequently two, very small, washed out looking photos for only one out of all the plants listed on that page. Also, I have to say that the pictures in general were not only small but they also seemed like they were very old; ie.. rather like drab pics from someone's 1964 honeymoon in Hawaii. For what are incredibly colorful and dramatic plants, these small pictures seemed almost monochromatic! {and considering the subject matter I would consider this an almost criminal offense !!}. Sorry to be so critical but there it is; this is actually the first book I have ever had to return that I bought from Amazon and the first book put out by Timber Press that I was not utterly thrilled with. Normally Timber Pr. can be counted on for really fantastic stuff. In fact they have a few other titles that cover the same material much better than this. I highly recommend you take a look at those before you fork over the $'s for this one. My apologies to the author.

This book just received the American Horticultural Society's Garden Book of the Year Award. It's filled with over 400 color photos of tropical and tropical-looking plants from both coasts -- Lotusland in Santa Barbara, the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek CA, the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, Fairchild Tropical Garden in FL, David Fairchild's home in Coral Gables (The Kampong), Texas gardens and various other locations around the country and the world.

The plants are easily found in alphabetical order, first by genus and then by species (with nearly 5,000 species, cultivars and hybrids listed) and the pronounciation of each has been mercifully included. The encyclopedia portion of the book also includes the plant's family name, the plant's common name, the growing zone, light and moisture requirements, special considerations of the plants and how to propagate. The author's obvious love of these plants shows through in the lively descriptions, and when you're reading about a new discovery you have Mr. Riffle sharing your passion for the plant and telling you what you need to know to ensure its survival.

Chapters following the encyclopedia read like horticultural cheat sheets for those of us without formal training who want to learn: If you don't know your leaf shapes from a hole in the ground, illustrations and names are in the back of the book along with illustrations of other leaf terms, inflorescences and stems, and flower shapes and parts. A glossary complements the illustrations with definitions of terms such as "ovate" or "petiole" as well as words commonly used such as "perennial." Also in the back of the book is a conversion chart for fahrenheit to celsius, inches to centimeters and feet to meters along with formulas for conversion if you don't want to take the entire table with you.

Plant lists are included for those with a landscapes to fill and special needs to be addressed such as which plants are salt tolerant, erosion controlling, fast growing or drought tolerant. If you know you want tropical-looking plants but don't know where to begin, there are lists such as ferns, fragrant plants, groundcover plants, shrubs, trees, and hedge and screening plants.

I leave The Tropical Look on the desk and am constantly using it as a reference when reading other garden books or magazine articles. Obviously, I love this book!

I received the Encyclopedia and found it to be just that. The pictures are all clustered on a few pages in the center of the book while the first and last parts are dedicated to an encyclopedia britannica style listing of the plants without pictures. The plants are alphabetical so it's great if you want to know more about a plant and know it's latin name. If you're looking to flip through a book and pick out the ones you like, this isn't the book for you. I'd recommend Hardy Palms and Palm-Like Plants. It's cheaper, and the plants are grouped together by typs along with pictures and descriptions of each. It may not be as thorough, but it's more helpful for those of us who don't know what we're doing yet.

"The Tropical Look" is a book that has great value to plant lovers and gardeners no matter what their climatic zone. Mr. Riffle has captured the essence of the plants he describes and has added value to the reader by detailing how these plants, hardy or tender, will fit into a "tropical look" landscape. No matter where you live you will enjoy the vivid descriptions and accurate botanical descriptions and names of the plants in this book. Plants, and their Latin names are always in a state of flux - Mr. Riffle has done a commendable job in selecting the names and descriptions that are accepted by the scientific community. His vivid word portrayals paint a "mind picture" that allows the reader to visualize each of the many plants he describes. As a "palm specialist" I especially enjoyed the accuracy of his descriptions for this specialized group of plants. Accurate information for this group of plants is lacking in the literature, and this book greatly adds to our knowledge of palm horticulture. It is easy to see that Bob Riffle is not just a "backyard gardener" who collects plants - he has a scientific mind that collects information and distills it into the written word that we all can read and understand. No matter what your level of plant expertise you can learn a great deal from this book. It is no wonder that it has already won so many prestigious botanical book awards. If you enjoy plants, particularly those that will provide you with the ability to provide a tropical look, then you should definitely purchase this book. I highly recommend it to all.

I'm new to the "tropical" look of gardening. This book does indeed have wonderful photos and descriptions of many tropical plants that are suitable to various garden zones. The problem I had was in looking up plants for whom I know only by their "common names". I would have given this book a five star rating if it only had a cross reference section for those of us who are not proficient with a plants latin (botanical) name. What I have had to do in order to learn a tropical plants botanical name is go on the internet (logging on to horticopia plant search), entering what I think is the common name for a tropical plant, and then when it comes up with a list of botanical names, looking it up in Mr. Riffles book. I understand that there can be many, many common names for a plant. How about just putting in the most widely known common names so that at least I would have a chance of finding it in the book ?

As an amateur horticulturist interested in tropical plant propagation, I WOULD give Robert Riffle's book a five star rating for the amount of helpful and user-friendly information and photographs it contains within its pages. As a conservation biologist working on the island of Maui, however, I am compelled to give this book the lowest possible rating (one star) to draw attention to the fact that many of the plants Mr. Riffle advocates are terrible weeds in the native ecosystems of Hawaii and threaten to crowd out and overwhelm many of the already rare and endangered species found in the islands' ever-shrinking native habitats. It's bad enough that he recommends such beautiful, if incredibly aggressive and quick growing species such as Strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum), kahili ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) and banana poka (Passiflora mollissima). These notorious plants have already invaded many of the Hawaiian islands', and therefore the United States', last remaining rainforests, and have contributed to the loss of habitat and biodiversity in a place which makes up less than 0.2 percent of the total land mass of the U.S., but contains 75 percent of the recorded plant and bird extinctions. What is almost unforgivable is his treatment of the genus Miconia, of which he makes the unwitting proclamation "no other tropical genus warrants more attention than this one." For his information, the genus Miconia, and in particular, the velvet tree Miconia calvescens has been the focus of a massive eradication campaign in both the Hawaiian Islands and the Society Islands (Tahiti etc.). This quick growing tree, which was planted in a botanical garden on the island of Tahiti in 1937, has, in the past 50 years, come to dominate over 70 percent of Tahiti's native forests, placing 40-50 of the unique tropical Tahitian plants on the brink of extinction. In the Hawaiian islands, where Miconia was also introduced as an ornamental in 1961, a statewide effort, in which almost $1 million has already been spent, is attempting to prevent a similar situation from occurring. In addition, all 1000 members of the genus Miconia have been listed as noxious weeds by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. That is why I was amazed to read such statements as "it is almost unbelievable that more of these beauties have not been exploited for gardeners in frost-free regions." It is almost unbelievable to me that, despite all of the attention and effort that has gone into protecting the world's rare tropical ecosystems, that nothing is mentioned in the book about the potential for certain plants such as Miconia to become aggressive invaders when grown outside of their native ranges. If Mr. Riffle loves tropical plants as much as is evident from reading the pages of his beautiful but misguided book, he will make an effort in the future to educate both himself and his readers on these types of conservation issues to ensure that all of the rare and unique tropical plants of the world, not just the ones he finds attractive, are still around for future generations to enjoy.

I have been tropical gardening for almost 20 years here in the Midwest. I am always trying new things and combinations. It was great to finally get the book. What a treasure of information. I used it to do a 50 banana display last year in my garden. The pictures were so rich that I wanted to grow all of them. This book is great for the intermediate gardener. You have to have some idea of what your doing to get the most out of this book. I liked that all the plants were together not seperated so if I didn't know it was a shrub or a tree I could find it. The cheat sheet at the start of each genus entry was great it made scanning the book for something easier. All in All a great book

The Tropical Look is a fantastic addition to my husband's gardening library. We dearly love the tropical look, and many people don't realize how many tropical-looking plants will thrive in temperate zones. Everything we grow is in this book, but my reasons for liking this book are many. It includes a zone map for the US and Europe too. It explains the importance of referring to plants by their botanical names, and then helps overcome the verbal stumbling blocks by including a pronunciation key. It also explains that many plants which look tropical are able to withstand freezes and offers some methods for growing these plants in zones 7 or less. The format is also easy to use for quick reference. Each plant has a list indicating briefly the description, zone rating, sun preference, water requirements, soil preference, and method of propagation.

I've recently purchased several books on gardening with tropical plants, and this one stood head and shoulders above the rest. The encylopedic format and alphabetical listing make it extremely easy to find any given plant, it's well illustrated with high-quality color photos, the descriptions are thorough and informative, and best of all for those of us outside the tropics, it gives hardiness zones for most plants, which most other books on tropical plants neglect.

I received this book from a friend who knew I was in the middle of a yard restoration. I picked it up late in the evening the day I received it, then couldn't put it down. I was up until 2:30 A.M., entranced by the beautiful photos that not only made me want to slide inside the scenery, but it makes me think I can grow things like this. I can't wait to get started. I have always loved tropical plants, but as a home gardener I never seem to find the time to do the research. Bob Riffle did the work for me.

I believe this beautiful book will bring out the adventurous gardener in some of us. For those who just love to study plants and admire their beauty, the photography is wonderful. For me, this book came just in time.