The Houseplant Encyclopedia Review

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(More customer reviews)I checked all my local bookstores for the right book to give to a friend who is always asking me for "horticultural advice" on his collection of houseplants. I grew up in a family of wholesale flower growers, and have 30 years of experience with my own houseplants. This book is the best I've seen. It has a very complete (about 125 pages) section on cultivation, light, water, placement in the house, patio, or balcony, containers, re-potting, nutrients, overwintering. It's wonderful for neophyte houseplant enthusiasts, and has much to teach me as well. I especially liked the extensive pests & problems section, which had actually recognizable pictures of plant symptoms, and charts of how to solve the problem. A unique addition are very useful non-chemical alternatives, including herbal concoctions, to getting rid of pests & diseases, (essential for pet lovers like me who love their animals as much as their plants).After all of this, there are the photographs! Not just the usual plants for beginners, but also a separate section of 150 "Specialties & Rarities". Each picture has info on flowering time, placement, care, propagation, pests, & uses. Throughout the book are prominently placed concise "TIPS" for quick & easy reading both in the general info section and amongst all the photos. Now that I've got one for my friend, I need a copy for myself. An incredible book for the price!

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Taylor's Guide to Orchids: More Than 300 Orchids, Photographed and Described, for Beginning to Expert Gardeners (Taylor's Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)Afraid to grow orchids? Fear no more, because this book explains everything we need to know, from how orchids grow in nature (mostly on sides of trees!) and what we have to do to make them happy on the windowsill.
judywhite is well-known in the orchid world for her wonderful way of explaining the mysteries behind how to grow them, and this book, which she also photographed (there are 300 gorgeous color photos depicting every genus in the encyclopedia section) is not only well-written, it is well-organized and covers everything from pest control to potting materials (the best resource on this subject in particular that I've ever come across) to light to getting the darned things to bloom again. The second half of the book is the encyclopedia section, describing not only species, but also man-made intergeneric hybrids, with a lot of information you can't find anywhere else in one place.
I definitely agree with others that if you only get one orchid book - whether you are just a beginner or truly advanced - this is *the* orchid book!

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One of every seven flowering plants on earth is an orchid. Interest in growing orchids has risen dramatically in recent years, and many new varieties that can be grown in the home without a greenhouse have been developed. Research biologist and full-time garden writer Judy White now brings her expertise--and her stunning photographs--to this much needed book for the expanding world of home orchid growers.

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