"In one volume this book seems to encompass all the plants native and exotic grown in Florida. No small feat! . . . No other reference work that I know of covers the field as comprehensively as this."--Edward Golden, horticutural consultant and past president, Sarasota Orchid Society From Florida to California and on to Hawaii, gardeners who want a current, thorough, and user-friendly guide to the common indoor foliage and outdoor landscape plants for U.S. Department of Agriculture zones 8, 9, 10, and 11 will welcome this fully illustrated book. With precise line drawings for nearly 500 plant species, the work presents a description of cultivated ferns, cone-bearing plants, and flowering ornamental plants for warmer climates. It offers a description of the families, essential identifying features, and horticultural information for each plant, including origin, cold hardiness zones, propagation techniques, and soil, fertilizer, irrigation, and light requirements. The author also discusses identification features under clearly demarcated headings of growth habit, foliage, stem and bark, flower, and fruit. With a comprehensive glossary of terms commonly used in plant identification and a cross-referenced index of common and scientific names, readers will be able to find information with minimal effort. This book is intended for use by backyard gardeners and will be especially handy for newcomers to warm temperate and subtropical areas who seek a reliable resource for plant selection and care. In addition, it will be indispensable to garden clubs, volunteer Master Gardeners, nursery professionals, extension agents, and landscape architects. It also can serve as a plant identification text for students of environmental horticulture, forestry, and other plant science-related fields. Bijan Dehgan is professor of environmental horticulture at the University of Florida. He is internationally recognized for his taxonomic and horticultural research and major publications on the endangered sago palms (cycads) and the physic nuts (Jatropha).

Plants play a critical role in how we experience our environment. They create calming green spaces, provide oxygen for us to breathe, and nourish our senses. In The Nature of Plants, ecologist and nursery owner Craig Huegel demystifies the complex lives of plants and provides readers with an extensive tour into their workings. Beginning with the importance of light, water, and soil, Huegel describes the process of photosynthesis and how best to position plants to receive optimal sunlight. He explains why plants suffer from overwatering, what essential elements plants need to flourish, and what important soil organisms reside with them. Readers will understand the difference between friendly and hostile bacteria, fungi, and insects. Sections on plant structure and reproduction focus in detail on major plant organs?roots, stems, and leaves?and cover flowering, pollination, fruit development, and seed germination. Huegel even delves into the mysterious world of plant communication, exploring the messages conveyed to animals or other plants through chemical scents and hormones. With color illustrations, photographs, and real-life examples from his own gardening experiences, Huegel equips budding botanists, ecologists, and even the most novice gardeners with knowledge that will help them understand and foster plants of all types.

This garden guide features plant recommendations from two of Georgia's most highly respected gardening experts, with selections that will thrive amid the state's unique growing conditions.

"An engaging mix of the serious and the playful, and Fenton writes with a lightness of touch perfectly suited to the subject." --Alexander Urquhart, T"he Times Literary Supplement"
Forget structure. Forget trees, shrubs, and perennials. As James Fenton writes, "This is not a book about huge projects. It is about thinking your way toward the essential flower garden, by the most traditional of routes: planting some seeds and seeing how they grow."
In this light hearted, instructive, original "game of lists," Fenton selects one hundred plants he would choose to grow from seed. Flowers for color, size, and exotic interest; herbs and meadow flowers; climbing vines, tropical species--Fenton describes readily available varieties, and tells how to acquire and grow them.
Here is a happy, stylish, unpretentious, and thought-provoking gardening book that will beguile and inspire both novice and expert alike.

In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldn't help but notice that thousands of normally sober, hardworking Dutch citizens from every walk of life were caught up in an extraordinary frenzy of buying and selling. The object of this unprecedented speculation was the tulip, a delicate and exotic Eastern import that had bewitched horticulturists, noblemen, and tavern owners alike. For almost a year rare bulbs changed hands for incredible and ever-increasing sums, until single flowers were being sold for more than the cost of a house.

Historians would come to call it tulipomania. It was the first futures market in history, and like so many of the ones that would follow, it crashed spectacularly, plunging speculators and investors into economic ruin and despair.

This is the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most coveted--and beautiful--commodity in Europe. Historian Mike Dash vividly narrates the story of this amazing flower and the colorful cast of characters--Turkish sultans, Yugoslav soldiers, French botanists, and Dutch tavern keepers--who were centuries apart historically and worlds apart culturally, but who all had one thing in common: tulipomania.