Botanical Garden: Volume II: Perennials and Annuals

Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix are pioneers in the use of photography in plant illustration. The Botanical Garden I and II, are exciting and thoroughly modern renditions of illustrated botany books. Ten years in the making, this set combines the finest in photography with up-to-date, expert commentary to bridge the gap between gardener-friendly books and scientific texts. In the tradition of the great botanical illustrations, each featured plant has been carefully photographed -- as a whole and in its parts -- against a white background to reveal the plant's physical characteristics in exacting detail.

Plants from more than 1,200 distinct groups are described -- from oaks to violets and water lilies to grasses -- and are presented in evolutionary order, from the most primitive to the most advanced. Each plant listing includes:

• Name: genus, species and common names, date of discovery, and range.
• Description: detailed and concise in the scientific style.
• Key Recognition Features.
• Ecology and Geography.
• Comment: cultivation needs plus notes about unusual hybrids or developments in the genus.
  

As a pair, the two volumes are an all-inclusive source of information and photographs of more than 2,000 genera of temperate plants. Thorough introductory text encompasses numerous themes in botany, from the history of plant development to current DNA studies that are revolutionizing plant classification. Each volume includes a detailed index and bibliography.

The Botanical Garden I and II are exciting additions to a gardening bookshelf. They are visually rich and highly accurate references that will remain interesting,useful and current for many years. Offering a discerning insight into the relationship between garden plants and their natural environments and accuracy that is unequalled outside scientific circles, this duo are truly the modern heirs to a long history of botanical references. There are simply no other works of this kind available today.

About Volume II, Perennials and Annuals

The second in the two volumes of The Botanical Garden, this illustrated reference covers 515 genera of herbaceous temperate plants, including annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbs and aquatic plants. All are described in complete detail, including how plants are related and their origins and uses. Previously imprecise classifications are corrected. Listings are organized in evolutionary order, from the ancient plants -- sphagnum moss and ferns -- to the modern irises, hostas and sedges.

515 genera of non-woody garden plants with full details of how they are related, their origins and their uses.

Halifax Hearld - Jodi Delong

Unique in the gardening library.

Roger Phillips was trained as a painter at Chelsea School of Art. He has 30 books to his credit, which have sold well over 31/2 million copies worldwide. Phillips has won numerous awards, including three for book design, and has written and presented the major television series, The Quest for the Rose.

Martyn Rix is a botanist, plant collector and gardener. He studied botany at Trinity College, Dublin, and at Cambridge, where he wrote his doctoral thesis. After working as botanist at the Royal Horticultural Society's Garden at Wisley, he became an independent botanical advisor and writer and has since produced 17 books and numerous scientific papers, as well as 23 illustrated books with Roger Phillips. Rix is on the Picture Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society and has been awarded the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society for his services to horticulture.