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Better Suited to scholars than Casual Gardeners I received the Encyclopedia and found it to be just that. The pictures are all clustered on a few pages in the center of the book while the first and last parts are dedicated to an encyclopedia britannica style listing of the plants without pictures. The plants are alphabetical so it's great if you want to know more about a plant and know it's latin name. If you're looking to flip through a book and pick out the ones you like, this isn't the book for you. I'd recommend Hardy Palms and Palm-Like Plants. It's cheaper, and the plants are grouped together by typs along with pictures and descriptions of each. It may not be as thorough, but it's more helpful for those of us who don't know what we're doing yet. sorry I can't agree okay, I know some readers gave this 5 stars but I was rather disappointed with the photo's in this book considering the price. The pics to me were quite small generally. Additionally, there are only photo's for a few of the plants described. Most of the entries had no illustrations at all. In other words, let's say there are an average of 4-6 plants described for each 2 page spread, {left and right}, there might be one, very infrequently two, very small, washed out looking photos for only one out of all the plants listed on that page. Also, I have to say that the pictures in general were not only small but they also seemed like they were very old; ie.. rather like drab pics from someone's 1964 honeymoon in Hawaii. For what are incredibly colorful and dramatic plants, these small pictures seemed almost monochromatic! {and considering the subject matter I would consider this an almost criminal offense !!}. Sorry to be so critical but there it is; this is actually the first book I have ever had to return that I bought from Amazon and the first book put out by Timber Press that I was not utterly thrilled with. Normally Timber Pr. can be counted on for really fantastic stuff. In fact they have a few other titles that cover the same material much better than this. I highly recommend you take a look at those before you fork over the $'s for this one. My apologies to the author. lov'n Tropicals I have been tropical gardening for almost 20 years here in the Midwest. I am always trying new things and combinations. It was great to finally get the book. What a treasure of information. I used it to do a 50 banana display last year in my garden. The pictures were so rich that I wanted to grow all of them. This book is great for the intermediate gardener. You have to have some idea of what your doing to get the most out of this book. I liked that all the plants were together not seperated so if I didn't know it was a shrub or a tree I could find it. The cheat sheet at the start of each genus entry was great it made scanning the book for something easier. All in All a great book The Tropical Look An excellent book for the hobbist thru to the commercial landscaper / wholesaler & retailer.The pronunciations are very helpful for the learners & great for correcting the experts who sometimes get it wrong.In our plant shop we use this book a lot for reference work as well as assisting customers as part of the selling / marketing of our plants.It helps the customer to make a more informed buying decision.We are looking forward to future works by Robert Riffle.He as done an excellent job.My only comment to improve the book would be to have plant narratives with the associated picture-maybe the current layout was a cost saving matter with printing. S.A. Lawes. Proprietor:Touch of the Tropics Nursery. One of the best tropical plant books out there! I have a passion for tropical plants, and this book is my tropical bible. I find the plant descriptions highly informative and the pictures are an added bonus. Bob Riffle's selection of the plants in this book is one of the most inclusive I have ever found. A must have for the tropical gardener!!! See also:
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