Orchids can bloom year after year. In this essential guide, Bruce Rogers, "The Orchid Whisperer," shares his expert tips from more than three decades of breeding and growing orchids. The book demystifies the growing process and features more than 100 lush color photographs of breathtaking plants. Best of all, it reveals professional secrets not found anywhere else for blooming, repotting, spotting hazards and pests, grooming, decorating, and much more. Perfect for beginners as well as orchid experts looking for new tricks, The Orchid Whisperer provides everything readers need to know to keep healthy orchids that will flower again and again

Despite their dry climates, Egypt's deserts sustain a rich variety of plant life, from towering doum palm trees to the tamarisk shrub and flowering acacias. With this practical guide, noted ecologist Irina Springuel explains the best techniques for cultivating gardens using species indigenous to Egypt. The Desert Garden outlines Egypt's natural vegetation and describes the habitats where its most popular plants can be found in the wild. She provides guidance on where to obtain the plant material for propagation and cultivation, drawing on her decades of experience in growing local desert plants, and offers advice on the most effective methods of watering plants, from subsurface irrigation to buried clay pots filled with water-an efficient technique that has been used since pharaonic times. Springuel focuses on thirty-eight of the most popular species of desert flora, illustrating each with color photographs and black and white drawings. For each, she provides useful information on its ecology and uses, with historical details about its uses in ancient Egyptian medicine and culture, where available, as well as archaeological plant material. Included here is material for beginners who want a small and simple private garden as well as for anyone planning extensive landscaping around a hotel or historic monument. Presented in straightforward language for the lay reader, while offering accurate scientific detail for professionals and scientists, The Desert Garden is an ideal companion for anyone interested in growing desert plants, both in Egypt and in similar desert environments elsewhere in the world.

Get muddy, get green fingers and get growing!

The how-to book for kids who love gardening. It’s easy to understand and tells them exactly what they need to know step-by-step.

• Easy-peasy tips on how to grow all kinds of fruit, vegetables and herbs outside and indoors
• Space to scribble – make notes, keep track of what they have planted and make the book their own
• Packed with fun gardening activities guaranteed to get their hands dirty!

Kids can try lots of brilliant stuff with the fun You Can series from Collins – write awesome stories, draw brilliant pictures, grow your own food, take amazing photos, have an outdoor adventure, save the planet – there’s something for everyone!

Plan Your Landscape or Garden to Help Beloved Backyard Visitors The presence of birds, bees, and butterflies suggests a healthy, earth-friendly place. These most welcome guests also bring joy to those who appreciate watching them. Now, you can turn your yard into a perfect habitat that attracts them and, more importantly, helps them thrive. Acclaimed author and expert entomologist Jaret C. Daniels provides all the information you need in this must-have guide for Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and east Texas. Learn how to landscape and create pollinator gardens with native plants. The book begins with an in-depth introduction to native pollinators and to birds. It's followed by a "field guide" section to more than 100 native plants that are widely available to utilize, are easy to care for, and provide great benefit to birds, bees, and butterflies. The species are organized by level of sunlight needed and then by plant types. Each species includes full-color photographs and information about hardiness zones, what they are most likely to attract, soil requirements, light levels, and Jaret's notes. As an added bonus, you'll make use of blooming charts, tips on attracting specific species, and more! Plus, the invaluable garden plans and projects show you just what to do and can be customized to suit your own specific interests. Plan, plant, and grow your beautiful garden, with native plants that benefit your favorite creatures to watch and enjoy.

Climbing plants constitute a huge, and largely untapped, resource for today's gardeners. Because their habit of growth is primarily vertical, they can be used for utilitarian as well as ornamental purposes: providing privacy, screening eyesores and clothing garden structures, but also furnishing aesthetically pleasing masses of flowers or greenery and drawing the eye upward. In this comprehensive reference, renowned horticulturist Allan Armitage selects and profiles more than 115 of the most useful and attractive climbing plants for a wide range of sites and conditions. Try these climbing plants and add an extra dimension to your garden-literally.

Learn to transform your outdoor space into a flourishing, vibrant garden with this fail-safe guide. Gardening expert Ellen Mary takes you through every step of gardening, from the basics of understanding your space and decoding plant labels, to common pests and how to keep your plants alive once they're in the ground. Packed full of practical information, this book is relevant for any beginner gardener, no matter what type of outdoor space you have - whether you're looking for ideas for green-filled balconies, or larger low-maintenance plots. You'll also find tailored advice for different levels of time investment, whether you have just 10 minutes or 4 hours per week to spend in your garden. Once you've got the basics covered, you'll learn key gardening skills including: - Planting flower beds - How and when to prune - Composting correctly - How to grow a lawn, trees and roses So, flex those green fingers, get your hands dirty and enjoy the process of creating a beautiful, blooming garden.

". . . you can't do without it. As a reference book it is unsurpassed." - The Guardian "Absolutely essential" - BBC Good Homes Find the perfect plants for your garden with this inspiring encyclopedia for all gardening enthusiasts! Achieve that beautiful garden oasis you've always dreamt of, and find endless inspiration and guidance for your garden to thrive with this gardening guide! This fully comprehensive yet easy-to-use informative planting guide is what every gardener needs on their bookshelf. Here's what you'll find inside: - A photographic catalogue of 4000 plants and flowers grouped by type, size, then colour, allowing readers to browse and find the best plants for their garden - A detailed "Plant Dictionary" describes more than 8000 species and varieties and their ideal growing conditions - In the Introduction, a "Plant Selector" section lists ideal plants for particular growing conditions, such as coastal areas, shady spots, and different soil types - Fully updated text from garden plant specialists, with more than 1380 new plants added, including the latest and most popular cultivars Discover perennials, bulbs, shrubs, and trees, succulents, and ornamental shrubs, all showcased in beautiful, full-colour photography to help elevate your garden to the next level. Use the extensive plant dictionary to look up more than 8000 plant varieties and the best growing conditions. Written by a team of more than 15 top horticultural specialists under the guidance of internationally renowned plantsman and botanist Christopher Brickell, this gardening encyclopedia appeals to all levels of gardeners and continually inspires with achievable garden ideas. This informative yet inspirational book about gardening will appeal to beginners or more experienced gardeners interested in the latest cultivars and horticultural advice.

Plan your landscape or garden with more than 100 native plants that benefit birds, bees, and butterflies in Northern California. The presence of birds, bees, and butterflies suggests a healthy, earth-friendly place. These most welcome guests also bring joy to those who appreciate watching them. Now, you can turn your yard into a perfect habitat that attracts them and, more importantly, helps them thrive. Professional nature photographer and botanist George Oxford Miller provides all the information you need in this must-have guide for Northern California. Learn how to landscape and create pollinator gardens with native plants. The book begins with an in-depth introduction to native pollinators and to birds. It's followed by a "field guide" section to more than 100 native plants that are widely available to utilize, are easy to care for, and provide great benefit to birds, bees, and butterflies. The species are organized by level of sunlight needed and then by plant types. Each species includes full-color photographs and information about hardiness zones, what they are most likely to attract, soil requirements, light levels, and George's notes. As an added bonus, you'll make use of blooming charts, tips on attracting specific species, and more! Plus, the invaluable garden plans and projects show you just what to do and can be customized to suit your own specific interests. Plan, plant, and grow your beautiful garden, with native plants that benefit your favorite creatures to watch and enjoy.

Determining which family a plant belongs to is a crucial horticultural skill. Organizing plants by family provides a framework for thinking about plant characteristics and for arranging thousands of plant names in a coherent and predictive pattern. This is especially important now, as advances in DNA analysis have recently altered much of the world of botanical taxonomy. In Temperate Garden Plant Families, Peter Goldblatt and John C. Manning teach readers how to identify the most horticulturally important temperate plant families. Introductory information includes an overview of family classification, plant nomenclature, and plant morphology. The comprehensive A-Z of plants includes profiles that include information on the number of species and genera, plant form, flowers, fruit, and a short description. Each profile is illustrated with colour photographs and botanical illustrations. This comprehensive identification guide is for botany and horticultural professionals, nurserymen, advanced gardeners, and students of botany and horticulture.

Kiftsgate Court, perched on the northern edge of the Cotswolds Hills in Gloucestershire, is a garden composed of many different scenes. Some elements - the bluebell wood, the clipped hedging and the rose border, with its famously huge Kiftsgate rose - are traditionally English, but there are also areas of Italianate planting and terracing, and others where a mixture of perennials, roses and rare and exotic shrubs thrive side by side. Equally remarkable is the fine balance between continuity and gentle evolution that the visitor finds at Kiftsgate. This is largely because the garden has belonged to the same family since its creation 100 years ago. Three women have tended Kiftsgate, each one its driving force for a third of a century, and each building on the legacy of the previous generation. In 1919 Heather Muir and her husband, Jack, bought the house, which stands on a relatively narrow plateau from which a bank plunges 100 feet. Heather gave Kiftsgate its structure, laying out the semi-formal gardens by the house, planting the tapestry hedge and rose garden, and terracing the banks. In 1954 Heather was succeeded by her daughter, Diany Binny, who extended and developed her mother's planting, made more borders and paths, and refashioned the White Sunk Garden. Since the late 1980s Diany's daughter, Anne Chambers, has been at the helm, further modernizing the garden and its planting, creating new areas of interest, and opening more often to the public. As Robin Lane Fox, who has written the foreword, comments: `There is nowhere else in Britain that has such a family tradition of planting and dedication ... It is intimate but many-sided, evolving but with roots in a remarkable past.' This beautiful new book - the first dedicated to Kiftsgate - is structured in two main parts. For the first, `The History', Vanessa Berridge has had exclusive access to the Kiftsgate archive, which contains not only family photographs but also letters from their gardening friends, helping us to understand why and how Heather, Diany and Anne have gardened. Among the circle of friends and acquaintances who feature are Lawrence Johnston of Hidcote Manor (Kiftsgate's neighbour); Vita Sackville-West, the creator of Sissinghurst Castle Garden; and the horticulturalist Graham Stuart Thomas, gardens adviser to the National Trust. The second part of the book takes the reader on an extended tour of the garden, illustrated by the glorious photography of Sabina Ruber. The tour concludes with notes on Kiftsgate's signature plants and Anne Chambers's personal reflections on this, one of the great gardens of England.

The Lindley Library of the RHS has a collection of some 18,000 drawings and paintings by eminent botanical artists of all periods up to the present day. This book contains a selection of the rarest and most beautiful: flowers, fruit, fungi and other plants from all over the world, by artists such as G.D. Ehret, John and William Curtis, Ferdinand Bauer, William Hooker, W.H. Fitch, Augusta Withers, Margaret Stones and Mary Grierson. All the illustrations are reproduced from the artists' originals.;The book includes a history of the collection and each plate is accompanied by a description of its origin and artistic accomplishment, and a botanical and horticultural account of the plant itself.

First published in 1931 by renowned horticulturalist Arthur Johnson, Plant Names Simplified has become an established classic. Presented in a glossary format, this pocket-sized reference book gives the name, pronunciation and classification of common plants and the meaning behind the Latin origins of the name. This enables the reader to learn how the terms should be spelled and pronounced correctly and provides an explanation of why plants like Helianthus hirsutus is so called - because it is hairy! Plant Names Simplified 3rd Edition is a reliable resource for gardeners of all abilities, park managers, botanists, ecologists, garden designers and horticultural practitioners and students.

This book contains essential facts about the habitats, feeding preferences and behaviour of each type of garden wildlife, including their life cycles and how you can supplement their natural diet. It explains how to select the best plants for the creatures that live in your area, with practical advice on cultivation, propagation, the types of wildlife they attract, and how they are used as food and shelter. It includes ideas for closely related plant species, including alternative common types that help wildlife and those that are not beneficial, allowing you to decide which plants to choose. This book, written by award-winning authors Christine and Michael Lavelle, is aimed at gardeners who want to encourage wildlife to take up residence in their backyards. The first part focuses on the more common types of wildlife found in a variety of habitats and the plants and supplementary food that will attract them. The next stage is how to choose the right plants to attract backyard wildlife. A directory of over 200 species makes the process clear and simple and every plant is accompanied by a full-colour identification photograph. Each entry explains how to grow the plant and which types of wildlife will benefit. This book's wealth of information and beautiful photographs will appeal to gardeners and wildlife enthusiasts alike.

Revised and updated, this pocket-sized planting guide shows you how to plant a garden that stays in bloom throughout the year. RHS What Plant When will help you to be the envy of your neighbours by teaching you how to keep your garden looking good during every season. With colour photographs and at-a-glance information on over 1,000 plants, the experts at the RHS give you the best options for each month, from radiant spring bulbs to shrubs with bright winter berries - all in a compact format. Choose from over 1,000 fully illustrated plants, divided into six seasonal sections and grouped according to colour for at-a-glance accessibility. With colour photographs and in-depth information, as well as advice on the latest trends, you'll know exactly when to plant your favourite flowers for best results with this handy planting guide.

Celebrated plantsman Roy Lancaster's birth on 5th December 1937 was the start of something big for plants and horticulture. His chance find of a Mexican tobacco plant in a local allotment brought him fame as a Bolton schoolboy and sowed the seeds of his future career. This book is the story of his adventures as he sees tropical plants for the first time in the jungles of Malaya, meets Roberto Burle Marx at his garden near Rio de Janeiro, and hunts for pitcher plants in North America. Well-known for his encylopedic botanical knowledge and for introducing many popular garden plants, Roy is also a consummate story-teller and wise philosopher. His acute sense of life's comic moments, spirited sense of adventure and respect for the natural world make this a remarkable read.

The perfect book on how to make your garden the best it can be. 'Essential reading' Country Life 'Funny, encouraging, informative' Sunday Times Would your garden, small or large, in town or country, win a prize? Is there room for improvement? Everybody has favourite plants, but the ability to put them all together to ensure a splendid show throughout the year is a skill that must be acquired. THE WELL-CHOSEN GARDEN will guide you to making the most of your available space, help you avoid untimely gaps, colour clashes and many other pitfalls of garden planning. The perfect book for new and experienced gardeners alike.

Using native plants in a garden has many benefits. They attract beneficial wildlife and insects, they allow a gardener to create a garden that reflects the native beauty of the region, and they make a garden more sustainable. Because of all this, they are an increasingly popular plant choice for home and public gardens. Native Plants of the Southeast shows you how to choose the best native plants and how to use them in the garden. This complete guide is an invaluable resource, with plant profiles for over 460 species of trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers. Each plant description includes information about cultivation and propagation, ranges, and hardiness. Comprehensive lists recommend particular plants for difficult situations, as well as plants for attracting butterflies, hummingbirds, and other wildlife. Native Plants of the Southeast will be the definitive reference on the region's native flora for years to come.

In this indispensable guide, you'll find landscape designs for every type of terrain found in Texas-from the Gulf Coast to the Panhandle, and from East Texas to West of the Pecos. This book also includes 21 landscaping design plans that are sure to inspire even the most traditional homeowner to go native.

Are You Petrified of Pruning?

Pruning is one of the best things you can do for your plants, if it's done the right way. Now renowned nurseryman and author Lewis Hill shows you how to shear without fear in Pruning Made Easy. More than 300 step-by-step illustrations demonstrate the proper techniques for pruning many varieties of plants including trees, shrubs, bushes, hedges, vines, and flowers.

With Pruning Made Easy you will learn:

*Exactly when, how, and why various plants should be pruned

* Artistic pruning techniques used to make topiary, espalier, and cordons

* Methods of using and caring for pruning tools and equipment

* How to prune safely

Stocking a garden with plants can be an expensive business, so there are few things more frustrating than when the prized specimen for which you have paid a king's ransom either online or at a garden centre shrivels up and dies within a year or so of purchase. If you can prove that the plant was half-dead when it arrived, you may able to obtain a refund from some online retailers, but for the most part you have to put it down to experience and make a firm mental note not to buy fussy plants in future. The problem is that many websites and catalogues claim that everything they stock is easy to grow. Herbaceous perennials are a particular minefield. Too often you are told that a certain plant 'will come back year after year' without fail when in reality it is either so tender that the only chance of it surviving an average British winter is in a greenhouse or it is a short-lived perennial that is unlikely to flourish beyond two years anyway - and even then only if the local slugs and snails are on a diet. This book cuts through the horticultural sales pitches by listing 100 plants which, for little care beyond the essential watering at planting time, can reliably be expected to thrive in just about any garden. These plants are all but indestructible - pests give them a wide berth, they will prosper in any reasonable garden soil and will withstand anything that the UK climate throws at them. Divided into sections for shrubs, conifers, climbers, perennials, grasses, annuals, alpines and bulbs and with each entry having a Value For Money (VFM) rating out of 10, this easy-to-use guide will prove invaluable not only for the new gardener but also for old hands who are fed up with wasting time and money on plants that all too rapidly lose the will to live. With these suggestions, you can be assured of year-round colour and interest in your garden for the minimum of effort.

For gardeners and beginners alike, this is the perfect guide and reference for adding appeal and dazzle to any garden. Planting or improving beds and borders is a simple, low-cost way to enhance a home's landscape. A collection of the most popular design ideas, planting solutions and quick front and backyard fixes that the editors of "Fine Gardening" have to offer. "Fine Gardening Beds and Borders" offers easy planting solutions for creating gardens that add colour and texture, help zone a property and offer maximum impact for minimum investment of time and money. Whether the goal is as ambitious as a front yard makeover or as simple as a little spruce-up in one area, "Beds and Borders" is packed with eye-catching garden designs, advice on choosing the best plants and strategies for keeping plants healthy and lush all season long.

"Homegrown Tea "explains how to grow a large variety of plants in your own garden, on a balcony or even on a window sill could become your tea cupboard. It shows you how to grow your tea from seeds, cuttings, or small plants, as well as which parts of the plant are used to make tea. Liversidge lays out when and how to harvest your plants, as well as information on how to prepare the plant, including how to dry it to make tea you can store to last you throughout the year. As a guide to using tea to make you feel better, there are nutritional and medicinal benefits. Finally, there is an illustrated guide to show how to make up fresh and dried teabags and how to serve a delicious homegrown tea. It is sustainable way to look at a beverage, which is steeped in history and tradition.
Sample drinks include well-known plants such as rose hips, mint, sage, hibiscus, and lavender, as well as more obscure ones like chicory, angelica, apple geranium, and lemon verbena.

From spring green to winter gold, the drama of grasses is nonstop. There are the striking yellow-and-green ostrich plumes of Zebra Grass. The fine-textured leaves of Blue Oat Grass. Flame Grass's dazzling red-orange leaves, Fountain Grass's coppery brushes, the rich brown nuggets of Northern Sea Oats, the feathery purple haze of Switch Grass.

Whether on their own or as backdrops for colorful garden flowers, ornamental grasses are admired for their color, form, movement, and texture. They also aid in erosion control, soil stabilization, and water retention, making them great conservation tools for gardeners in all hardiness zones. Although grasses are widely available at garden centers all over North America, few books advise the gardener on how to use them in the garden - and especially how to combine them with perennials and other plants. GRASSES features plans and practical advice for more than 24 unique gardens. It's complete with an identification and growing guide to the plants, and it features more than 150 full-color photographs, illustrations, and landscape plans.