Modern Roses XI: The World Encyclopedia of Roses

Book Description

This work, published previously by the American Rose Society (ARS), represents a listing of all officially registered rose cultivars globally. It will supersede the previous edition, Modern Roses X, published in 1993. Modern Roses XI contains descriptions for more than 25,000 roses. The book features 28 color plates and includes a CD-ROM of the entire work which makes searching easy.

Key Features
* Updates the only official registry of all rose cultivars around the workd
* Describes over 25,000 roses
* Includes a comprehensive list of roses with historical and botanical importance, including all modern international rose registrations
* Features "Old Garden Roses at Sangerhausen" together with an article on this unique rose repository
* Includes unregistered roses commonly used in commerce
* Incorporates a report on classification of roses and a report on the registration process of roses

Customer Reviews:

Dry as Sawdust & a Paucity of Photos.......2006-09-01

This 638-pages work, published previously by the American Rose Society (ARS), is THE nitty-gritty dig for serious rose growers, plant science researchers; those involved with academic and industrial settings, horticultural nurseries, botanical gardens, and informed amateur enthusiasts. There are descriptions for more than 25,000 roses along with a sparsely populated (28) group of token photographs. The current edition is list priced at $130.00 and includes a CD.

Book needs more pics; CD needs better search capabilities.......2002-07-03

I bought this book and CD in the hopes of being able to identify several rose plants that my husband had rescued from the city's bulldozers. It is not designed for an amateur like me who needs pictures and drawings. I am less interested in the parentage of roses than I am in what the terms "semi-double, reverse, exhibition form, cupped" mean. Some roses did not even have the color of the bloom listed. The CD is great if you know the name of the rose you wish to search for, but cumbersome if you do not. Yes, you can search based on characteristics of a rose, but it's not easy. For example, there are no drop-down menus for options on search criteria. A search for a red rose with a "strong" fragrance yielded no results; "intense" fragrance did. When the results are shown, there is no number count on how many roses fit the criteria, and when you select one rose from the results to view, you must re-perform the search to look at another one. It's extremely frustrating. There are pictures of roses on the CD, but the search result listing does not show you which ones have pictures and which do not. Help is limited to FAQ's (with only two questions listed) and an email address. There is no online method for updating the program so there is no hope of this version becoming any better. ...

The ultimate reference work on roses.......2001-09-05

If you love roses and if you want to know about the full range of rose varieties that you may encounter at your local nursery or in mail order catalogues, this volume is essential. The expense is justified in part by the CD-ROM, which gives you the ability to search the underlying database at will. I enjoyed the pictures (although they don't match other works like Botannica) as well as the articles on famous European rose gardens. In any work of this magnitude there are bound to be errors (e.g., Meilland's Michelangelo is yellow, not pink), but the overall accuracy is very impressive. If you are only dabbling in rose growing, this encyclopedic work is probably more than you need. But if you are crazy about roses, you will be crazy about this book.

Review of Modern Roses XI and CD-Rom.......2000-05-16

This edition of Modern Roses takes a giant step up from the last one! (MR10) By including *all* roses that could be reasonably well-documented, the usefulness of this reference has increased dramatically. In addition, the inclusion of a CD-ROM with great search capabilities is FANTASTIC.

Of course... as with any book of this nature... there are still a few errors in description, etc. However, this is very minor, compared to the volume of information contained.

Book Description

While the heart of this book is its treatment of all the species of azaleas and more than 6000 cultivars, it also offers information on every aspect of growing and using azaleas in the garden, including landscaping, companion plants, culture, pests and diseases, hybridizing, and bonsai. It is the definitive book on the subject.

Customer Reviews:

Azaleas, Revised and Enlarged Edition by Frfed C. Galle.......2000-05-05

..........................I located "Azaleas, Revised and Enlarged Edition by Fred C. Galley" through Amazon.com and purchased it. This book is fascinating, it contains more information than I can ever use. It includes for hundreds of azaleas their names, color desriptions, seasons, origins, and more. There are color plates, sketches of petal shapes and petal markings which I had not seen before. When I open the book, I don't want to put it down.

The Pre-eminent Reference on Azaleas.......1998-11-24

Fred Galle, is an internationally known azalea expert and past president of the American Horticultural Society (he died 7/26/98 at the age of 79). First published in 1985, "Azaleas" is now in its third printing and is still considered the best reference on the subject and was recently listed by the AHS as one of the 75 Great American Garden Books. This is a reference book that no azalea enthusiast should be without.

Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Gardening Guides)

Average customer rating:

Gardening
Very helpful handbook
A must have
Great idea book with pictures of shade lovers
Not a good resource for Southern gardeners

Taylor's Guide to Shade Gardening: More Than 350 Trees, Shrubs, and Flowers That Thrive Under Difficult Conditions, Illustrated with Color Photographs and Detailed Drawings (Taylor's Gardening Guides)

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Vinyl Bound

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Shade | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Shrubs | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0395651654

Book Description

This comprehensive guide addresses one of the most common problems for gardeners. Shade Gardening has over 250 color photographs of the 350 best trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, bulbs, ground covers, vines, ferns, and grasses for shaded areas. Articles cover the basics of growing plants in the shade as well as such subjects as city gardens, flowers, foliage plants, pests and diseases, and lawns.

Customer Reviews:

Gardening.......2005-08-25

Provides lots of interesting gardening information if you are planting only trees and shrubs. Book does not detail anything for vegetable gardeners. Title should be changed to include the word "Forestry" rather than the broad term 'gardening".

Very helpful handbook.......2005-02-07

This is a great reference for those gardening in shade. It is organized in a logical format and can be easily used. The photos are nice and the information helpful as plants are considered for a shade garden. While it may not be adequate for those gardening in the deep south, it is very well suited to zones 5,6, and 7.

A must have.......2002-06-22

This wonderful little book (thick, but only 4.27" wide) is an absolute necessity for anyone who wishes to do some gardening in a shady area. In fact, this book is really three books rolled into one. The first section looks at shade and shade gardening, it is straightforward and highly informative. The second section is entitled The Color Plates, and gives a long list of shade-loving plants, including a very nice color picture, and a highly informative description. The third section goes hand-in-hand with the second, and gives more in-depth information.

This book is really great, a must have for those of us who wish to do some gardening in a shady area. I highly recommend this book to all gardeners!

Great idea book with pictures of shade lovers.......2001-03-22

The Taylor's Guides are very reliable sources for gardening information and great pictures, and the Shade Gardening Guide is one of the best. Shade gardening is difficult for many reasons. There are not that many very showy flowers for seasons other than Spring, and there are many types of shade. The descriptions are very specific and helpful: light shade, dappled shade, "the more shade, the less moisture is needed," and so on. The soil and shade descriptions for each plant are excellent and detailed.

Although the plants are listed alphabetically for the cultural requirements, the pictures are listed by groups: trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, summer bulbs, ground covers, vines, grasses, and ferns. I would recommend that people using the book for plant selection read the "Encyclopedia of Plants" part as well as the brief but good descriptions with the color pictures.

Keep in mind too that the flowering times are primarily for New England (zone 5). Furthur South you may get earlier and more flowers. For example, Ceratostigma is listed as an Autumn bloomer, while in PA, it blooms from July through October. So you get more than the book suggests. Not bad. Anyone with shade should experiment with the plants in this book. As a gardening professional, I see so many great and underused plants listed and described in this book.

Not a good resource for Southern gardeners.......2000-09-09

Having recently purchased a condo in Houston with a north-facing porch, I eagerly awaited delivery of this book. However, I was quickly disappointed. This book should be titled "Shade Gardening in the North," since virtually all of the plants listed are for Zones 5 and lower...not much help for my Zone 9 garden. It did contain a couple of pages of information for shade gardening in the South (which they consider to be North Carolina!), but I was really looking for specific information on the types of shade plants I could plant here. This would have been a great book if I lived in Ohio, but not so good for us Texans.

Average customer rating:

Best of Best
Extremely Informative
Master gardener
Incredible!
An Excellent Book for Hydrangea Lovers

Hydrangeas for American Gardens
Michael A. Dirr
Manufacturer: Timber Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Shrubs | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0881926418

Book Description

The sheer number of choices among Hydrangea species, hybrids, and cultivated varieties can be overwhelming even for the most advanced gardeners. How to choose from among the hundreds of mopheads, climbers, lacecaps, and oakleafs, to name just a few? And how to care for hydrangeas in American gardens, when nearly all the books offering advice about them come from England and Europe? Respected plantsman Michael A. Dirr comes to the rescue in this refreshingly forthright and practical guide to these distinctive shrubs and climbers.

Customer Reviews:

Best of Best.......2007-03-21

I think it's the best book I ever saw on the subject. It will be useful to amateurs and specialists. It is critical, complete, and honest. It is exact, practical, and technical, but with personal notes here and there that I find touching, amusing, and endearing. Did you know that Hydrangea anomala subsp petiolaris'flowers stare at the passerby? Now you know. If you love Hydrangeas do buy this book.

Extremely Informative.......2006-06-27

This guy knows his posies. Everything I've seen that he has written has been well done and most informative. I'm using his hydrangea book as my bible for beginning to raise these gorgeous things and am finding that he knows varieties, tactics, and possible problems (and solutions)I'd never heard of.

Master gardener .......2005-09-30

Beautiful photos but disappointed that the name wasn't on the picture- was cumbersome to go between the list of names and the photos

Incredible!.......2005-08-09

We live in the same zone as the author... his writing and the unbelievable information has really helped us move our collection of hydrangea forward! It is a great read, and written for those of us who don't have a horticultural degree.

An Excellent Book for Hydrangea Lovers.......2004-12-10

Hydrangeas have been a favorite of mine ever since I moved to an old farmhouse in the middle of Baltimore City and saw an old fashioned Mop Head Hydrangea in full, glorious bloom in the back yard. The plant was probably fifty years old and incredibly big and vigorous. This one plant sparked a passion that is still going strong over twenty years later.

Hydrangeas for American Gardens by Michael Dirr is the most comprehensive book available on Hydrangeas. This is not just another pretty coffee table book. If you are interested in Hydrangeas, you will probably frequently refer to the book's in depth information on Hydrangeas.

The book gives extensive information on many of the cultivars available, but neglects to give extensive zone hardiness information. This oversight is particularly unfortunate, since the book is written for gardens here in the USA, where Texas gardens are in an extremely different climate from Maine gardens. However, the book does note some hardiness information in the descriptions of various cultivars and it also has several lists of plants that are hardy and aren't hardy below zone 7.

The book begins with the standard information that any good book on a single plant species covers. It discusses taxonomy and nomenclature. However, don't let this scientific information put you off or make you feel the book will be too difficult to read. You can always move straight to chapter two.

I was pleased to see that chapter two of the book covers the usually neglected climbing hydrangea. I have a special fondness for these quiet, lush vines. Chapters three to ten continue to discuss hydrangea species, with chapter eleven covering some less common varieties. Chapter seven, Hydrangea macrophylla, includes an excellent cultivar chart that allows you to compare cultivars of these popular hydrangeas. A wonderful bonus in this book is the lovely colored pencil drawings scattered throughout these chapters.

Chapter twelve, Garden Care and Culture, discusses the best growing conditions for these plants. The section on flower color is particularly useful for those people longing for blue flowers on their pink bushes.

If you are interested in growing your own hydrangeas, don't neglect the propagation advice in chapter thirteen. The information is simple enough for even a beginner to understand.

Chapter fourteen discusses pests and diseases, while fifteen covers a variety of additional information, such as how to cut blossoms. The final chapter covers the future of the hydrangea.

The book ends with a useful appendix of resources for anyone interested in tracking down some of the rarer cultivars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exceptional book. It is a definitive guide for anyone interested in hydrangeas. I give Hydrangeas for American Gardens five out of five sunflowers.

Easy Care Native Plants: A Guide to Selecting and Using Beautiful American Flowers, Shrubs, and Trees in Gardens and Landscapes

Average customer rating:

Great for "regular people" despite a couple of goofs!
Mostly good for garden formation ideas, but needs help.
It genuinely does make a few mistakes
A Real Keeper and Invaluable Source
Engaging, well written reference... with a few gaps

Easy Care Native Plants: A Guide to Selecting and Using Beautiful American Flowers, Shrubs, and Trees in Gardens and Landscapes
Patricia A. Taylor
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Landscape | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0805038612

Book Description

North America's magnificent plant life has a peculiar history in that it is generally regarded as weedy material in its native meadows and woodlands and viewed as a horticultural treasure trove abroad. In Easy Care Native Plants, Patricia A. Taylor seeks to change this situation by emphasizing the elegant beauty, rather than the common naturalness, of American flora and by urging gardeners to capture the exquisite essence of its blossoms and foliage in artistic compositions.The book is divided into three sections, each filled with color photographs and containing special lists of plant recommendations from horticultural experits in the United States, Canada, and Europe. These suggestions include natives for city patios and decks, shrubs for winter interest, colorful flowers for drought situations, and prairie plants for a formal front yard display.The first section reviews the history and current use of native American plants and includes a brief primer on garden design. The second presents profiles of eighteen public and private gardens in Canada and the United States and highlights the crucial role of horticultural organizations and garden clubs in spreading the good news about native flora.The last section is devoted to detailed descriptions of over 500 plants, chosen not only for their handsone appearance but also for their ability to flourish without the use of pesticides or fertilizers. With them, gardeners everywhere will have yearlong beauty requiring minimal maintenance.While many of the plants cited in the book are little known, all are commercially propagated and available. The Appendix lists sources for each plant category and describes a select number of mail-order firms, including ordering information.Easy Care Native Plants has been written and designed to be a usable, definitive resource for the full specturm of those who love and appreciate beautiful plants, from weekend gardeners to landscape designers and architects.

Customer Reviews:

Great for "regular people" despite a couple of goofs! .......2006-08-24

The outstanding characteristic of this book is that it is USABLE by regular, non-professional busy people who love gardening and nature and especially want to respect native plant communities and plant with sensitivity to their own region.
The Bittersweet confusion is terrible, but it is offset by good organization, good photos, and short descriptions on the outside of pages.
Another outstanding feature is that the author includes trees, shrubs, and vines, as well as flowers. This increases the value of this book significantly.
Flowers are wonderful, but people need to get a bit beyond flowers--flowers--flowers. For example, many butterfly species depend upon TREES as host plants and then use flowers for nectar. The distinctive Red Admiral uses trees at all stages of life and leaves the flowers for others.
Thanks to the author for a good down-to-earth reference that answers practical "ordinary" questions. I have recommended this book to a number of people in "wildlife/habitat gardening" classes and have given several as gifts . . . inserting a note about the Bittersweet :-)!

P.S. Yeah, I really should change that ridiculous name. I was under the influence of busy visiting grandchildren when I first reviewed a book here. . . and we do have a great goofy time!

Mostly good for garden formation ideas, but needs help........2005-04-03

I bought this older used book (1996) and find it remains quite relevant. One of the reasons we gardeners end up planting invasive species is because they are easy to grow. In EASY CARE NATIVE PLANTS Patricia Taylor addresses one of the biggest issues for gardeners... "I would grow native species, but I don't have time."

Well, Taylor suggests low maintenance creatures that will be no more work than the invasive plants you intended to install. With Taylor, we visit public and private gardens where individuals are making a difference one plant at a time. From these gardeners, we learn how to construct various gardens including a woodlands garden, a drought tolerant native garden, and a front yard native garden. Taylor provides lists of plants for each of these gardens. For a complementary book, you might consider buying both Taylor's book and 100 EASY-TO-GROW NATIVE PLANTS by Lorraine Johnson which is a kind of annotated plant directory (although it focuses mainly on non-woody plants, whereas Taylor includes trees, shrubs and plants). Alternatively, you can contact the US Fish and Wildlife Service for a free monograph on plant invaders and substitutes at www.nfwf.org. Do that and you are sure to find 'Celastrus orbiculatus' or Oriental Bittersweet on the "No-no" list. Also the latter monograph suggests several native alternatives to bittersweet, such as 'Campsis radicans' (trumpet vine) and 'Passiflora incarnata' or Passion Vine.

It genuinely does make a few mistakes.......2001-06-26

Not to belabor a nitpicker's criticism, but this book does include a few gaffes that compromise its use as a reference. I do very much enjoy the book, and my review below reflects that. But it just gets some things wrong.

For example, the species of Bittersweet southern gardeners have trouble with is Celastrus Orbiculatus -- oriental bittersweet. Yep, it's highly invasive, and yes, it can "consume entire forests" as this author says "bittersweet" does. The native American Species is Celastrus Scandens. The two differ in the position of the berries on the vine, partly... and they also differ in that the native one isn't swallowing entire forests. They're hard for an intelligent amateur to tell apart when looking at an individual plant... which is exactly the problem that this book has, too.

There's a HUGE difference between American chestnuts -- enormous trees now nearly gone from their native range due to blight -- and the shrubby asiatic Chestnuts that were brought in by nurseries and that carried the blight into this country in the first place. That's exactly the sort of distinction a gardener interested in native plants wants to know about, and it's basically the one this book misses with the two Bittersweets. In a lot of cases it's that sort of thing that got us into native gardening in the first place. So, see, it's bad to make this kind of error in a book on native plants.

Again, this is a decent book that just slips up in a few spots.

A Real Keeper and Invaluable Source.......2001-03-05

This is a top-notch gardening book, one that all gardeners can use to enrich their properties. While some may find recommendations by plant experts to be a disadvantage, I like knowing that top horticulturists have carefully selected the plants in this book (southern gardeners tell me that Taylor is right on the mark in describing the American bittersweet). The garden profiles, particularly, for me, the California one, are not only good reads but also packed with useful information. The book is designed to be useful - very easy to look for a yellow flower that blooms all summer or a small shrub with white spring flowers. I turn to it again and again to learn about and find beautiful, interesting and low maintenance plants. I have bought and given 14 of these books as gifts to friends and have received unanimous 5 star reviews from the recipients!

Engaging, well written reference... with a few gaps.......2000-02-26

This is a good choice for the beginning native gardener who needs a sense of the range of native plants available. It's a pleasant browse, and provides a representative sample of the choices you might make with natives. I appreciated the straightforward tone of the writer, who studiously avoided the pretensions of some of the more unctious coffeetable books. Let's just say she's gardening in urban New Jersey, not in northern California, and leave it at that.

On the other hand, there are some gaps in Ms. Taylor's knowledge that make this a less than definitive reference. The short version is that she's often recommending a plant based on the sendup of an arboretum or public garden with which she's corresponded, and that sometimes she hasn't done the research to back that recommendation up. For an egregious example, she describes the American form of Bittersweet (Celastrus Scandens) in a way that clearly demonstrates that she doesn't know the difference between it and the invasive asian form. That sort of slip is a real problem, both philosophically and practically, for someone who's into native plants. Oops.

All in all, I'd say this is a useful book that gets you interested in the plants, but that you should do a healthy amount of leg work elsewhere before you plant. The research is half the fun anyway...

Book Description

Gardeners seeking to adorn landscapes in more northerly climates with delicate camellia blossoms will learn how to in this comprehensive guide. Following a brief history of the genus Camellia and the breeding process which has enabled strains to survive in colder climates, this guide outlines the steps to success—from siting, planting, and fertilizing to pruning, propagating, and controlling pests and diseases. Besides offering a wealth of time-tested advice—from one who for more than 40 years has mounted extensive research in the cultivation of camellias suitable for areas outside of their natural habitat and has had a type of camellia named after him—this handbook provides a list of camellia varieties that will thrive in zones five and six, as well as appendices identifying camellia societies, nursery sources, collections, and suggested readings.

Secrets of Plant Propagation: Starting Your Own Flowers, Vegetables, Fruits, Berries, Shrubs, Trees, and Houseplants

Average customer rating:

Somewhat incoherent and proposes to use a lot of chemicals
Packed With Useful Information! =]
Home Gardener

Secrets of Plant Propagation: Starting Your Own Flowers, Vegetables, Fruits, Berries, Shrubs, Trees, and Houseplants
Lewis Hill
Manufacturer: Storey Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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General & Reference | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

Agronomy | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Accessories:

Garden Weasel Gold Garden Claw Cultivator #91306

ASIN: 0882663704

Book Description

Techniques for those who want to discover the satisfaction of propagating. 103,000 copies in print.

Customer Reviews:

Somewhat incoherent and proposes to use a lot of chemicals.......2007-08-16

I was pretty disappointed with this book. There`s a lot of methods described to make more plants, but I don`t feel any of them is described in a lot of depth. Furthermore, the author uses a LOT of chemicals when growing and propagating plants, which is something I feel opposed to as a organic grower. I really can`t see why this book was elected one of the 75 best books by The American Horticultural Society?

Packed With Useful Information! =].......2006-07-13

My mum turned me on to plants when I was quite young, and I had tried to read some of the horticulture books that she had in her library (boring!). I bought this book for myself, because I wanted to learn more about propagation, so at first, I did not think this book would be much help since I prefer hard covers to paperback (personal choice), but even before I finished reading it, I was putting some of what I had read to use, and have on numerous occasions been asked questions that I could answer thanks to this books information. This book is full of useful information on how-to that you can put to use almost immediately, and it is not a dull read.

I have recently had a co-worker and a close friend of mine ask me about grafting, and I have referred them to this book. My friend liked the material on grafting that I spoke with him about so much that he wants to borrow my book for more information on the subject, and I have since put another copy of this book on my wish list to give it to him as a gift for his library.

Home Gardener.......2000-07-31

I really like this book. I love to grow plants from seeds and this book helps me understand how that works and how I can grow even more things from seeds. As well as grafting and other techniques I've never tried. It is a bit technical, but I am only a home gardener so it's pretty easy to work out.

Average customer rating:

This book is great rarity

Lilacs: The Genus Syringa
John L. Fiala
Manufacturer: Timber Press, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Shrubs | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0881925306

Book Description

Father John L. Fiala devoted 10 years to this book, a unique treatise that is both a scholarly monograph and a personal tribute to the beauty of lilacs. Since going out of print, it has become almost impossible to obtain at a reasonable price. Sometime in the future a revision and expansion of his work will appear, but in the meantime we have released this facsimile paperback reprint in response to extraordinary demand. It includes the 398 color photographs from the first edition and makes Fr. Fiala's work again accessible.

Customer Reviews:

This book is great rarity.......2001-08-05

Review on the book:"Lilacs:The Genus Siringa" John L.Fiala I cultivate and collect lilacs (siringa) a long ago. Lilacs-it is a beautiful culture, but is has not a simple technical agronomy. Unfortunately, there is a very little literature on this subject (lilacs). That is why this book is great rarity. In this book very easily and simply describe all the methods of technical agronomy of lilac. Thanks to it me can get good result. Besides in this book there is a big part about the description different sort of lilacs. Everybody who will read this book will like this culture (lilacs) and will cultivate it with great success. This book is one of the of best about lilacs. All my friends are eager to get it.

Book Description

This book describes more than 600 species of the most common Texas wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and cacti in a well illustrated, easy to use format.

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