Product Description

The most comprehensive, detailed, and lavishly illustrated guide to garden plants ever published, first published in 1997, has now been completely revised to include nearly 250 new plants and photos. The AHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants is an essential reference for all gardeners, from novices to experts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32024 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1104 pages

Amazon.com
Collecting contributions from 100 distinguished horticulturists, the handsome and lavishly illustrated American 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-color photographs and illustrations. From the visual glossary of leaves to the map of growing regions, The American 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.

From Library Journal
If they can afford it, libraries should have both editions of this invaluable one-volume reference. For gardeners seeking the right plant for the right place but with no knowledge of the specific name, the 1989 title arranges its catalog of 8000 plants not alphabetically by name but by season and color. It starts with color photos and descriptions of large trees, separating them by seasonal interest and by color within each season. It does the same for smaller trees, then for shrubs, climbers, perennials, annuals, rock plants, bulbs, and succulents. Expanding its coverage to over 15,000 plants, the 1997 encyclopedia is organized alphabetically, making it an ideal reference for patrons who want to know what a particular plant looks like, how it grows, and its hardiness zones. Its descriptions of popular plant species, like Narcissus, Primula, and Rhododendron, are a real strength.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kane County Chronicle
"... a valuable reference. It's the one I always turn to whenever I have a question ..."

Customer Reviews

A-Z
Wow and A-Z it is. If you need to know something this has it. Great reference guide

A-Zplant guide Horticultural Encyclopedia
I have been through my book, cover to cover twice so far and the second time through I found plants I thought were missing the first time and both were in photographings of said plants. It(the book) has helped me tremendously as a Master Gardener in selecting plants to propagate wisely for the community butterfly gardens I am now planting from the plants that I have grown from seeds or cuttings at least 90%. The other few were from wise purchases. We(mastergardeners) keep this bible in the shelves to assist the Master Gardener answering the "hotline" with questions about any kind of plants or problems people in Polk County, Fl have to ask our help in solving. I will probably be getting one on propagation to complete my needs and if one for Florida exists, it will be one that I review! I bought the encyclopedia so I could have it at home for personal refrence.
Master Gardener for Polk Co., Fl

Carol H
An illustrated, complete book of garden plants. Offers great information for the advanced as well as the novice gardener. One negative aspect is it's size and weight. Very cumbersome to handle which is not conducive to longevity of the spine of the book. Would have been better published in two volumes.