Product Description

This is a book for adventurous gardeners with an appreciation for temperate orchid species and native wildflowers. A surprising number of terrestrial orchids are hardy, some able to withstand temperatures down to minus 50°F or minus 45.5°C. Though they have a reputation for being challenging to cultivate, in truth, most hardy orchids are no more so than a rose. This is great news for gardeners, who will enjoy filling their gardens with their enchanting fragrances, vibrant color displays, and long-lived blooms. At the center of the book is a catalog of 103 hardy and half-hardy orchids. In addition to detailing the techniques of cultivation and propagation, the book covers conservation and includes lists of suppliers and organizations offering nursery-propagated plants—an especially critical issue for species in danger of extinction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #550446 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-01
• Released on: 2005-09-15
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 244 pages

Review
A delightful horticultural book that should give lovers of native plants the encouragement to grow some of the most charming of native plants: temperate orchids. -- Root Gorelick "Plant Science Bulletin" (06/01/2006)

From the Publisher
Grown for their fragrance, brilliant color, and longevity, hardy orchids have a reputation for being difficult to cultivate. The author dismantles this myth and teaches readers how anyone can grow these plants with just a few simple techniques. 103 hardy and half-hardy orchids are featured along with cultivation, propagation, and conservation information.

About the Author
John Tullock is a writer, photographer, orchid fanatic, ichthyologist, and long-time conservationist who has been growing orchids and wildflowers for thirty years. John is an active member of the Nature Conservancy, American Orchid Society, North American Plant Protection Council, and Tennessee Native Plant Society, and until recently operated a mail-order orchid business from his home near Knoxville, Tennessee.

Customer Reviews

Great Orchid Book
While I am just a neophyte as far as Orchids are concerned I found "Growing Hardy Orchids" to be a well thought out and well planned book. I live in Northern Maine and have always been interested in my local Orchids. Thank You Mr. Tullock for your insight. Bob

fish and orchids
Mr John Tullock, the author of this tome, was interviewed today On the Jane Nugent Gardening Show on WPTT-AM 1360 Pittsburgh, PA, 12 November 2005. He gave an excellent overview of the subject of orchiculture which he delightfully integrated with his studies of pisciculture, ichthyology and ecology. The book is an excellent and accessible resource, well illustrated, for the individual who enjoys orchids for their beauty and the amateur or professional grower who enjoys the cultivation of orchids of diverse habitats. Another great offering from Timber Press.

very informative but...
This book is fairly inspiring and very informative but there are some respects in which it does not meet/suit my learning style. I wish that the 'catalog of hardy and half-hardy orchids', fully half of the the text of the book before the very interesting epilogue, were arranged taxonomically rather than alphabetically by genus. I would find it more useful if related genera (that may not be alphabetically nearby) were listed together. That would help me learn to classify the taxa into functional groups rather than by the spelling of their genus (recognizing microhabitat differences such as pH that some widespread genera like Cypripedium and Platanthera spread across). The relationships of the genera are listed elsewhere but a lot of back and forth flipping could have been avoided wiith a different arrangement of the list of species.

I would love to see range maps. Obviously there are too many species (never mind hybrids) to give a range map for each one, but what about a range map for each genus or set of genera, w/ gradations indicating the number of species (or genera, as appropriate) in each part of the map? I'm picturing a cloud plot which is densest where the most species occur, and diffuse where few occur (and obviously blank where none occur).

Finally, I wish the USDA hardiness zone map had zoomed in on the lower 48 so that I could actually read it. Maybe I am just unfortunate enough to be in an area that may or may not be in a striking outlier zone (if the map were bigger I could tell, and I am off to google to find a better map when I'm done writing this). Not to be too US-centric, if the map showed everything below a straight line between the northern tip of Vancouver Island and the Gaspe peninsula you would probably have sufficient info for the vast majority of your Canadian readers too. Actually the map probably wouldn't need to show much below the lower extent of the Appalachians in the east and I'm not sure what in the west to cover the areas of interest to people likely to attempt cultivating these specific orchids.

Anyway, I wish the information in the book were more targeted so I didn't feel like I have to read it cover to cover (potentially multiple times) before feeling like I had a sufficient grasp of the material. As is, digesting it in time for this spring's planting doesn't seem likely. But I'll keep looking for supplementary web pages. And maybe this is the author's/publisher's subtle way of suggesting that I shouldn't dash off to the store, buy a bunch of soil amendments and tubers and fill up the yard w/o taking more time to mull it over and plan.