Product Description

Bridging the gap between scientific texts and everyday horticultural books, this guide provides an unrivalled insight into the relationships between garden plants and their environments, the history of plant development (as studied through fossils), and the most up-to-date DNA studies, set to revolutionise classification. It will become an indispensable aid to any aspiring gardener. Volume II focuses on herbaceous plants, covering over 550 genera of annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbs, and aquatic plants. New DNA studies proved vitally important in the classification of these plants, which was previously imprecise. Starting with the ancient and intriguing mosses and ferns, the book moves though all the flowering plants so indispensable to our gardens and our tables, closing with a separate section on the distinctive reeds and grasses.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #313935 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 540 pages

Review
The ultimate Christmas gift for garden lovers, this is as valuable an addition to a gardener's library as the RHS Guide to Garden Plants. Published in two volumes, they are divided into trees and shrubs and perennials and annuals, ordered to reflect new developments in DNA identification and classification. "A photographic record of the genera of trees and shrubs/herbaceous plants of interest to the gardener" is an understatement. It is a visual feast of garden plants, gloriously illustrated with the pioneering botanical-drawing style photographs of Roger Phillips. The accompanying text by Martyn Rix is of the standard expected by someone so highly regarded in the horticultural world and holder of a Gold Veitch Memorial medal from the Royal Horticultural Society. He gives descriptions, key recognition features, ecology and geography and a personal comment for each genus making this a comprehensive guide to today's horticultural offerings. The author's partnership of nearly 30 years has resulted in a work totally in tune with and complemented by each other: a work of beauty and botanical fact combined making this an important new definitive work on the subject of garden plants. - Lucy Watson

About the Author
Roger Phillips pioneered the use of colour photography to reliably identify natural history subjects. He has 30 books to his credit and has won numerous awards, including three for the best designed books. He wrote and presented two major television series: BBC's Quest for the Rose and C4's 3000 Mile Garden. Martyn Rix is a botanist, plant collector and gardener. He has produced 17 books and numerous scientific papers and collaborated with Roger Phillips to producing 23 illustrated titles for the Pan/Macmillan gardening series. He was recently awarded the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society for his services to horticulture.

Customer Reviews

Strikingly beautiful, authoritative, and thorough
This is a two-volume set. You can see in the color photos of the covers (above) that there is a "Volume I, Trees and Shrubs" and a "Volume II: Perennials and Annuals." Volume I weighs about five pounds; Volume II, a little more. I mention the weigh to impress upon the reader the impact that these books will have on your library. These are weighty volumes in more ways than one.

They are lavishly illustrated with several full-colors photos artfully arranged on each heavy, glossy page (over a thousand altogether in the two volumes) showing the flowers, leaves, fruit, seeds, catkins, etc. of the plants. The photos are identified by date of the year taken: the leaves 1/3 life size of Lindera megaphylla, for example, on May 5th, the flowers 2x life size on March 8th, and so on for hundreds of different species. The presentation is not exhaustive of course, but plants from all the major genera are represented, taking into account the "classical arrangement" and the new evidence from DNA in the classifications. Note well the overall title of this two-volume set: "The Botanical Garden." These are books for gardeners who have become amateur botanists, for weekend naturalists who have outgrown their field guides. The plants described and pictured include the giant Sequoias and redwoods as well as the ephemeral weeds of the roadside, not just plants that one might want to grow in a garden or even a city park.

The text is sprightly, terse and scientifically informed. The family of the genera is given and the number of species known and where they grow, e.g., "...in western North America and eastern Asia." The plants are described, e.g., "fast growing...to 30m...," the bark and the leaves are described, how pollination is achieved is explained. (It is interesting to note that sometimes the qualification "presumed by insects" is used, pointing to the incompleteness of our knowledge.) "Key recognition features" are given, as are notes on evolution, ecology and geography. Finally there is a "Comment" which may give the historical, cultural or scientific significance of the plants.

There are two minor weaknesses in the books: (1) the common names of the plants, e.g., "strawberry tree" (Arbutus unedo) are sometimes given and sometimes not. Additionally, when--as is often the case--there are several common names, only one or two are given; (2) there are no photos of the entire plant showing its crown and shape. Speaking of the strawberry tree, the authors remark that "The name unedo means, 'I eat one,' because the fruit is so insipid that nobody is tempted to eat a second." However I recently collected a few of the exquisitely beautiful fruits of Arbutus unedo and found out that the fruit itself is not insipid; in fact it is rather tasty, like a kind of peach or apricot jam; but unfortunately is covered, as though spray-painted on, with a thick and bitter, very red outer coating--I cannot call it a skin--that is almost impossible to separate from the fruit within. And so only someone very, very hungry would go to the trouble of eating more than one.

The emphasis is on identification and beauty, and on the accuracy of nomenclature. Yes, beauty. Above all else I would say this set celebrates the timeless beauty of the botanical world. Of all the books I have seen on plants this is at once the most beautiful and the most helpful in terms of identification. These are volumes to turn to when you come home with the field guide in your hand.

There is a nearly identical glossary in both volumes, a short bibliography and individual indices. It is important to note that this is not a reprint of some venerable opus, but a completely new compilation copyright 2002. As such it is authoritative in a way that some older books may not be.