Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation

Rating:
Summary: Great "How To" book
Review: Simply the best book written on plant propagation.

Book contains 22 pages on botany, 10 pages on how to hybridize, 14 pages on seed collecting, 14 pages on seed conditioning, 24 pages on sowing, 14 pages on vegetative reproduction, 44 pages on cuttings, 12 pages on layering, 12 pages on grafting, 16 pages on division, 24 pages on bulbs and roots, 3 pages on tissue culture, 16 pages of plant specific notes, 4 page cross-name reference, 4 pages of plant suppliers, 4 page glossary, and 5 page index.

Each section contains dozens of photographs displaying the "how to" approach described in the text. Excellent information and easy to follow instructions. Every page contains a tip or trick about plant propagation.

My favorite section is the 16 pages of plant specific propagation notes and comments. Hundreds of plants are listed. It's like reading Mother Nature's secret diary! Everything you every wanted to know about how to make more plants (but growers never would tell you) is contained in this section. All alone, these propagation notes are worth the price of the book.

If you want to get your hands dirty, this is a great "how to" guide for plant propagation. You'll recover the cost of this book over your next garden season.

Excellent information!

Rating:
Summary: Best Gardening Book for the amateur Gardner, Ever.
Review: This book explains everything I want to know about preparing, sowing, and grafting plants. Mr. Druse has answered every question I've had. very well written. Easy to understand. Great detail.

Rating:
Summary: The Heart and Soul of Gardening
Review: This book is a beautiful, clear guide to the art of gardening and plantsmanship. Making More Plants brings back into focus the truth that gardening is not about hollow, "twenty minute per week" instant gratification, but rather an enriching, year-round, life-long process.

In his first books, The Natural Garden, The Natural Shade Garden and The Collector's Garden, Ken Druse seduced us into using those plants that belong and fit easily into our particular environment, to use native species and their hybrids or only those foreign introductions that will not invade our eco system. Now, in Making More Plants, Mr. Druse invites us to travel deeper into the heart and soul of gardening.

He explains in his introduction that his goal is to help "gardeners to know how it feels to sow a seed or root a cutting and watch the results grow to maturity, to experience the freedom and convenience of being able to produce plants in numbers." With his beautiful photographs and friendly writing style he illuminates the exquisite, sometimes hidden world of plant reproduction. He provides just enough science to satisfy curiosity and empower the passionate gardener to grow new plants from seed, stem cuttings, root cuttings and grafts. We learn how to have more of our favorite dahlias and lilies, how to bring rare trees and shrubs that aren't even on the market into our home gardens.

With an appendix of over 700 genera and thousands of species, Making More Plants is an enjoyable read and empowering tool for the gardener who wants to understand more about the life of plants, and experience the thrill of "growing his or her own"."

Rating:
Summary: Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation
Review: This is an O.K. book, the pictures are great, but the information is lacking. It covers the basics, yet it is too artsy, great coffe table book for the Martha Stewart-set. The writting is to flowery for me, I want information, not Ken drooling over some guy in Colorado..Oh Kelly this and Kelly that, he can make wood grow in my pants. Or Ken bragging about the property he bought...Blah, blah, blah, to much editorial and not enough substance, especially for the price! I was hoping for a lot more for thirty five bucks and to think it was selling for fifty, Holy Cats!!!, Highway robbery! No wonder he can afford the property he bragged about. I plan to wrap this one up and give to one of my gay friends for Christmas and buy something else with more meat and less stuffing!

Rating:
Summary: The Most Beautiful Book
Review: This is not only the most beautiful garden book I have ever seen, it is the most beautiful book I've ever seen. The fact that this book demonstrates the satisfaction of gardening and nurturing plants, the spirituality of connecting with the natural world and every aspect of propagation in step-by-step photographs is beyond belief. This is certainly the greatest gardening book of this century, so far. It is THE gift for my friends this Christmas. Next year, I'll give them plants.