Perfect Plant, Perfect Place

Rating:
Summary: Covers a diversity of subjects
Review: Perfect Plant Perfect Place by horticultural expert Roy Lancaster is a simply magnificent, detailed, and user friendly "how to" guide to gardening that positively overflows with more than 1800 vibrant color photographs. Packed from cover to cover with descriptions of and basic care instructions for recommended plants for indoor or outdoor gardening, Perfect Plant Perfect Place is the ideal book for beginning to intermediate gardeners seeking to select just the right species of beauty to best decorate a home, lawn, or greenhouse. A most thorough, practical and enjoyable presentation, Perfect Plant Perfect Place covers a diversity of subjects from acidic soil, raised beds, plants for paved areas, and herbs in the kitchen, to rock garden bulbs, aquatic plants, containers in the sun, and urban back yards. If you can have access to only one gardening guide, make it Roy Lancaster's Perfect Plant Perfect Place.

Rating:
Summary: This is a terrific book!!
Review: This is a terrific book!! I bought this for my husband a year ago, when he first decided to embark on raising exotic house plants. We both love the book & still refer to it often. When we are redesigning a room, it also is a great reference for plant planning. This one is a must have for indoor & outdoor gardeners!!

Rating:
Summary: Perfect Book
Review: This is the most useful gardening book ever. Cross-referenced by soil, color and type, this is the one gardening book to select plants and trees. A minor caveat; I wish he had included more American common plant names. I wish Lancaster would write a similiar book on trees alone.

Rating:
Summary: A plant for EVERY place!
Review: What's useful about this book is that it addresses many common siting problems for outdoor and indoor gardeners, alike: light (or lack of it) and moisture (or dryness), and various combinations of these; pollution issues; plants suitable for particular garden "jobs" such as screening, ground cover, or containers; perennials with a long flowering season or low allergens. There are also sections that address specific "shopping lists": shrubs with fragrant leaves or ornamental fruit; climbers with fragrant flowers; various kinds of bamboos -- and so much more. Although about three-fourths of the book addresses outdoor plants, a hundred pages or more are devoted to houseplants in categories such as: houseplants for beginners; plants tolerant of neglect; herbs for growing indoors; unusual foliage; orchids; and much, much more.

The photographs are numerous, colorful, and large enough to display useful detail. Annotations about each plant (and cross references for other suitable plants, which may be listed in other categories) provide enough information to get started: zone, size, light requirements.

Although one might quibble a little about whether information might have a bit more depth in places, this book is an indispensable guide simply because no other reference approaches its scope. In addition, as a DK book, it is put together in a way that can accept the inevitable flipping through (you will not be able to avoid simply browsing, believe me) as well as the harder work to which reference books are always put. It's a book to use and enjoy.