Customer Reviews

Variegated Trees and Shrubs: The Illustrated Encyclopedia

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The legion of plant enthusiasts that prizes showy foliage -- especially that which is striped, splattered, spotted or stippled -- has swelled greatly in recent years. Collectors of such mutants are frequently frustrated, however, by the lack of consistency concerning nomenclature and the sparse literature that addresses these special plants. For this reason it is clear this book would be embraced by hobbyists and professionals even if it was rife with errors and omissions. Thankfully, the situation is not so dire. High quality pictures supplement the alphabetical cultivar descriptions. The author should be applauded for the research time invested in determining the origin and true identity of many of the plants he covers. The supplemental essays on topics such as the origin of variegation are also useful. Despite these positive attributes, the book nonetheless suffers from a sharp focus on European (and especially Dutch) cultivars to the exclusion of many American introductions. Even when U.S. plants are discussed, the information is sometimes incomplete. While such bias is perhaps understandable given the author's nationality and position, these gaps detract from the book's quality. The content is so unique, however, that these faults should not prevent potential buyers from adding this tome to their library.

Ronald Houtman is secretary of the Trials Committee of the Royal Boskoop Horticultural Society in the Netherlands. This encyclopedic work has more than 760 sharp color photos enabling the reader to distinguish the numerous kinds of variegated trees and shrubs, many of which have gained popularity with modern gardeners. More than 800 varieties are catalogued with special attention given to their correct names, which are often confused by greenhouses and other places selling types of them. Short sections on the hundreds of trees and shrubs also describe them to go along with the photographs and note favorable areas of growth and problems arising from planting in an improper place. An introductory chapter by W. M. van Nicrop, another member of Houtman's Dutch horticultural group, discusses "Using Variegated Plants in a Garden." Variegated Trees And Shrubs: The Illustrated Encyclopedia is not only definitive, but attractive with its large size, glossy pages, and hundreds of fine, useful color photographs. For many gardeners, landscape architects, botanists, and the like, this will be the only text they want or need in this area of plants.

This book is full of the most beautiful plants; half of them "must haves"!
I have had it for years, but it has not left my top shelf!

If you are looking for special plants, not the ones *all* of your neighbours have, this is the book for you.

Some of the trees ( for example a variegated Hawthorn) are impossible to find here, but it is good to know such a tree is out there :-)

It keeps me dreaming about these plants, in a garden of the future, when I have enough room for several more trees!

Whole heartedly recommend!

I bought this book recently and have now read it cover to cover. It certainly isn't a book for the casual gardener, but for someone like me, who likes to own well-written and well-researched horticultural books on specific topics...it is an excellent choice.
The book is large and is full of fine photos, but it is missing a good number of possible variegated trees and shrubs...for example, one of my own favorites, Duranta variegata, is not included. However, as a garden writer myself (I am the author of Allergy-Free Gardening), I know it is virtually impossible for a book like this to include everything. As it is, a great deal of good work and research went into the writing of this book, and it does cover a great many highly interesting plants.
Perhaps my own biggest disappointment in the book is that Houtman, the author, almost never bothered to mention the sex of the cultivars of so many of the most interesting dioecious (separate-sexed) plants. I write about allergy-free gardens and consult and help design them, so I am always on the lookout for interesting new cultivars that might be female, as they will be pollen-free. However, with the exception of Ilex, the hollies, the author almost always does not bother to include this information, and this certainly makes the book considerably less useful to me, or to anyone else who is interested in creating their own allergy free garden.
That said, I certainly don't want to be too negative about Variegated Trees and Shrubs. It is a fine book, the writing is clear and concise and perfectly readable; the author would appear to me to be an excellent horticulturist with a good eye for detail, and as a fellow writer and collector of rare and interesting plants, I applaud him for this fine book. I bought a used copy on Amazon and it was reasonably priced, cheap if you ask me, and it was in excellent condition. Found in this big book will be a multitude of fabulous cultivars that will make many a hard core gardener drool....there are a great many selections here that will strongly appeal to many plant enthusiasts like myself.
Not perfect, but darn good nonetheless, it is a welcome addition to my own personal horticultural and botanical library.