MARY MARY QUITE CONTRARY (Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers - Christopher Brickell)

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	Royal Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers - Christopher Brickell
Date:	27/12/05 (198 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb and complete

Disadvantages: That I did not buy it earlier.

A little bit of history.

The reasons for needing a book of this description in my case are clear. For many years, I had the idea that I wanted to create an Arboretum or collection of trees from all the corners of the earth, although having arrived at the age of 53, it was unlikely that, even if I fulfilled this ambition, I would live to see it in full glory. Trees are slow growing and as I have a four acre garden, I decided that I wanted to do something with that garden that I would indeed live to create and enjoy, and one of the most important aspects here was that I chose plants that were not only suitable to the positions I planted them, but to the particular kind of soil, degree of light afforded to them, and the amount of moisture in the soil.

Plants are expensive. If you think on a small scale, then yes, perhaps people can afford to take chances with the plants that they put into their gardens, though in my case, I cannot afford the luxury of replanting as and when plants die, simply because I did not do the research necessary to have given them a suitable placement in my garden in the first place.

I am not an expert gardener. I am a learning gardener, and in my choice of books, have made expensive mistakes in the past. Books that purport to cover all areas of plants and their growth have gathered dust on my bookshelves simply because of their scant information, and whilst expensive, their lack of attention to the very detail that makes those expensive mistakes even more likely.

Deciding to take the subject very seriously, I read up on authors and asked for this book for a present, for several reasons. One of the main reasons was that the writer of the book cares as passionately about plants as I do, though of course has the experience that I lack, having been awarded the CBE for his work and also being president of the International Society for Horticultural Science, and a man that devoted his life to the knowledge of plants.

What he has produced in the past is books that cover the many aspects of gardening that suit differing interests, or speciality fields, and his reputation is worldwide, rather than just British based knowledge, and as I live in France, this particularly interested me from the point of view that not all plants available in the UK are available here.

I wanted a book that gave complete information, not a speciality book that dealt with certain varieties of plants, and have been constantly disappointed by books for their lack of completeness. Yes, there is a minefield of books out there on the subject of gardening, so finding the right one is difficult to achieve. This one is very different. What I particularly like is that it takes you through stages which are essential to good planting. Taking you through the different sections is not as complicated as in other books and one of the things I liked the most was the reference at the back of the book which relates to plants in names that we are all familiar with, rather than the Latin names known only to horticulturists, making the search for plants a lot easier for people like me.

The wealth of illustration in this book is astounding with thousands of photographs of quality, and compared with other gardening books, the colours of the plants are more realistic, and the journey that you take as you read through the book is the one I needed to take, letting me know which plants flower when, which conditions the plants thrive in, and altogether making me discover that which I need to know in order to produce a garden that has interesting foilage at all times of year, as well as flowering plants that do not just die off and leave a dead landscape in the Winter.

This book gives hours of enjoyment, and helps the would be gardener to explore the possibilities, to plan in such a manner as not to make expensive mistakes, and to learn from the wealth of experience that the author obviously has, along with his passion for plants which shines through the pages of the book in descriptions of more than 8000 garden plants. It's not a book of photographs that tells you nothing. Detail and attention to it are astounding, and for once in my life I have all the information at my fingertips without jumping from one book to another trying to locate that illusive information that I need.

Christopher Brickell has lectured all over the world, knows his subject and puts it over in a manner that is easy to follow, even having sections for use of the book, and how to get the best experience from it, and although a couple of months ago I had not heard of Dorling Kindersley, I am impressed with their production of this book, in the quality of production is unquestionable, and the photographs equal in quality to those seen in publications such as National Geographic. This is an edition of quality and although costly compared to books available on the High Street, works out actually much more useful than the collection of gardening books that I bought cheaply. For thirty Pounds, I have gained a book of knowledge and one that will be useful to me as a source of constant information for ongoing plantation and looking after of all the plants in my garden, including being able to deal with pests and deseases that climatic conditions and nature itself may produce, and over which a gardener has little control, other than knowledge gained in books like this.

What I particularly like is the way in which the book describes the art of planting in such a way as to create a natural landscape, simply by planning and knowing the proportions and structures of plants, their sizes and how to place them in order to create something spectacular and illustrating in simple form the different case scenarios that planting in different fashions can produce.

The book is aimed at Professional and Amateur alike, and this is something I rather like because it doesn't talk over your head. The illustrations and symbols are easy to understand, and the book is written in such a way as to make that voyage of discovery enjoyable and rewarding. When you consider the average price of a grown plant, against the price of the book, then I would say that the price is minimal when contrasted against the learning experience, and the safe culture of the plants in your garden, whether it be small or large. In my case, the thousands of plants that I buy are expensive and I cannot afford to make mistakes, thus making this book essential reading.

Dorling Kindersley produce many books of an educational nature, and I shall be going back for more, based on their production of this book, which, if an example of books that they produce, shows me that not only can learning be fun, but that produced by writers that care passionately about their subject matter, on quality paper, with first rate illustration, books such as these are where the future of learning lies.

My plans for the garden advance, on scraps of paper with a wealth of information gained from the pages of a book that I am very proud to own.

Book: Hardback | 229 x 287mm | 744 pages | ISBN 1405300574 | 06 Mar 2003 | Dorling Kindersley

Summary: Superb book with detail fit for a gardening enthusiast who does not want to waste money.