RHS Encyclopedia Of Plants and Flowers – Christopher Brickell

Just landed this week – this new edition is full of thousands of plants and flowers with descriptions and explanations, if you are interested in gardening, this is the book for you!

Details: An updated edition of the best-selling highly illustrated garden plant reference, featuring more than 8,000 plants and 4,000 photographs.

Choose the right plants for your garden and find all the inspiration and guidance you need with The RHS Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers. Drawing on expert advice from the RHS, this best-selling book features a photographic catalogue of more than 4,000 plants and flowers, all organised by colour, size, and type, to help you select the right varieties for your outdoor space. Discover perennials, bulbs, shrubs, and trees, succulents, and ornamental shrubs, all showcased in beautiful, full-colour photography. Browse this photographic catalogue to find at-a-glance plant choice inspiration. Or use the extensive plant dictionary to look up more than 8,000 plant varieties and the best growing conditions.

This new edition features the latest and most popular cultivars, with more than 1,400 new plants added, as well as updated photography, comprehensive hardiness ratings, and a brand-new introduction. Fully comprehensive yet easy to use, the RHS Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers is the inspirational, informative guide every gardener needs on their bookshelf.

https://www.dk.com/

Review: This book is absolutely sumptuous, now in its sixth edition, and nearly 20 years since the first edition was published, the sheer scale and size of this book is a testament to the enduring value of this beautiful collection.

The contents include a helpful guide to how to use the book, which is essential to understanding how the book is organised.

Plant Names and their Origins explains the system for classifying and naming plants, while Creating a Garden offers advice on design, planting and basic pruning.

The Plant Selector recommends plants for a variety of sites, soils and purposes The list is divided into 23 useful categories, including plants for ground-cover in sun, or shade, drought-tolerant plants, fragrant plants, and those suitable for hedges and windbreaks. Many are included in the Plant Catalogue and are cross-referenced to a picture and full description.

The core of the book is its two main sections, The Plant Catalogue and The Plant Directory. Here you will find descriptions and cultivation advice for thousands of plants.

The Plant Catalogue combines plant portraits and descriptions in a colourful catalogue of 4000 plants which breaks down into Trees (including conifers), Shrubs, Roses, Climbers and Wall Shrubs, Perennials, (including grasses, bamboos, rushes, sedges, and ferns.) Annuals, Biennials, and Bedding, Rock Plants, Bulbs, Water and Bog Plants, and Tender and Exotic Plants. A short introduction to each group is followed by plants arranged by size, season of interest, and colour and includes feature panels on plants that have particular appeal.

Finally there is a Plant Dictionary which contains entries for every genus in the Encyclopedia and includes an additional 4,000 recommended plants to those featured in the Plant Catalogue. It also function as an index to the Plant Catalogue.

This is an absolutely fascinating, classic reference book, Highly Recommended!

This book was kindly given to us to review by the publishers, all opinions are our own.