Product Description

The 15000 plants featured in this encyclopedia have been selected by consultants from the UK, North America and Europe. They include not only tried and tested garden favourites, but also a selection of unusual species and cultivars. The plants are arranged alphabetically by botanical name. Common names are cross-referenced throughout, enabling plants to be found easily, even if the botanical name is unfamiliar. Synonyms are similaly cross-referenced. The introduction describes and explains the A-Z section, including detailed features on the plant kingdom, plant nomenclature, types and shapes. Basic concepts of hardiness, cultivation and propogation are set out in straightforward language. The A-Z section consists of individual descriptions of 15000 plants. Plants are arranged alphabetically by botanical name, with an introduction for each genus, as well as background data on the botanical family, geographical origin, native habitat, the range of plants within the genus and any unusual qualities. Symbols show the basic shape of all treees featured, while more detailed illustrations help to explain the range of flower shapes, leaf types and habitats within a particular group.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #300194 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1080 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Collecting contributions from 100 distinguished horticulturists, the handsome and lavishly illustrated Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants is a truly definitive gardening reference. With its 1,092 tiny-print pages, this may not be the book to tuck into your pocket as you weed and mulch, but what this encyclopedia lacks in portability, it certainly makes up for in scope. Hardy and tender plants, heirloom varieties and the latest hybrids--they're all accounted for here, with growing tips and background information about native habitats and ornamental features. You'll also find a fascinating section about botany, as well as information about basic gardening techniques such as mulching, staking, pruning, propagating and protecting plants for winter. But the encyclopedia's main attraction is the individual plant entries--more than 15,000 of them, embellished with 6,000 full-colour photographs and illustrations. From the visual glossary of leaves to the map of growing regions, the Royal Horticultural Society A-Z of Garden Plants provides an unsurpassed wealth of botanical information, making it the yardstick by which all other gardening references must be measured.

Customer Reviews

Best book I ever bought at a good price!
I am not much of a writer but I am honest and I bought this book to use as a reference to identify plants that appeared in Latin on a wholesale plant list,as my knowledge is limited to a few I can identify myself.
The book turned out to be two excellent volumes housed in their own folder/binder and were very heavy and well made with the original high price label still showing.When the post arrived delivering these I thought I had made an error and ordered too many they are so big.The illustrations are in full colour photo format with easy to understand information to suit novice and professional alike and I was so impressed I have bought my Dad one for his Birthday and one for my neighbour as she was so impressed with it.

RHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants
I have an older edition of this book (1996 version), which is in one volume and is very bulky/heavy so I was delighted to see that the newer edition has been split into 2 volumes. Working in the Landscape design industry, I have found this book to be a valuable reference source since leaving college and the book has stood up to daily use in the office from myself and my colleagues for the past six years! The alphabetical listing (I'm presuming the new edition is the same) is very useful because you don't have to go to an index first. It gives a huge amount of information about each species and even a description of many variants and cultivars. It is the perfect compliment to other books that divide the species into plant use e.g. plants best for shade etc. and I would highly recommend it.

An excellent handbook on ornamental plants
The Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants is a heavy packet of information about 15.000 garden plant taxa - species, subspecies, varieties and cultivars. Ca. 6000 colour photographs are included, so there is a photo of more than one third of the taxa, which makes this book stand out from the majority of other garden handbooks. The appearance and layout of the book attract to leaf through it, and the lucidity of the text makes reading a pleasure.

The first 47 pages (pp. 8-54) contain a botanical and horticultural introduction, short and compact, with ample illustration. The first section of this introduction explains the terms, abbreviations and symbols used in the book. The main part of the text is used to give information and practical hints for cultivation. Items such as hardiness of the plants, garden environment, cultivation outdoors, care under glass, pruning, propagation, pests, and diseases and other disorders are shortly covered. Ornamental plant groups are handled in 23 pages, clearly and informatively.

The actual contents of the book are the descriptions of the taxa. They are arranged alphabetically according to their Latin names. This is a practical choice, which makes it easy to find a plant with a known name. Of course, systematic order would have made it possible to identify unknown plants more easily by leafing the book and comparing them to their possible relatives. This is a matter of taste, and probably most non-botanists are satisfied with the solution. The most common synonyms are given (in small print), with a reference to the accepted name. Under each genus, there is a short account of the amount of the species, their distribution, description of the main characters, information about their flowering and use in the garden. Practical advise on cultivation are included either here or under the species and cultivar descriptions. Hardiness of the plants and advice on propagation, and pruning of trees and bushes are given. Possible pests and diseases are shortly listed. The species and cultivars are again listed in alphabetical order under the genera. The assortment is mainly exhaustive, though one must remember that there are many popular garden plant genera with thousands of cultivars, and it is impossible to fully cover this kind of abundance. The length of the descriptions varies, but usually it covers the most important features a gardener is interested in. They include also the hardiness of the individual taxa, and the minimum temperatures for frost tender plants. Photographs are mainly technically excellent and though they are rather small, the reader is given a good idea of how each plant looks like. Some trees and bushes are hard to identify from the pictures - they would have demanded illustration of both habit and details.

Almost the only thing that bothers me with this book is that it includes an overwhelming assortment of exotic taxa - at least exotic from my point of view, but lacks several species that are rather commonly cultivated in my own home area. Many of the genera are tropical or subtropical, and though the greenhouse effect would warm up our climate sometimes in the future, we have no possibility here in the northern corner of the EU to cultivate them (though, many of them are actually known as indoor plants). On the other hand, this makes the book very useful as a reference book to a very wide range of cultivated plants, both domestic and foreign. In all, I can warmly recommend the Royal Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants to everybody with an interest in ornamental plants!