You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
This book has been extremely useful in learning palm species and finding out what each plant's requirements are. The photos are good quality. There are also extra notes and sketches in the back of the book to help the common person gain expertise. I am ready for a new and revised edition as new palms are continually coming into the market.
This is THE BOOK on palms now and is by far and away the most useful out there available. It has a very comprehensive discussion of MOST of the cultivated palms in the world (certainly not all, unfortunately- hundreds of cultivated species are not discussed... but it's the best book in this regard so far). Each discussed species is described, located and has some useful cultivational discussion about it... though as both authors are from Florida, the cultivational information is bent towards that sort of climate. Many of the cultivational comments do not pertain for those growing palms in southern California, which is too bad... but then there are no good books for southern Californians (yet).
The first 1/5 of the book is all the photos- most excellent with only a few major errors in identification (all palm books have errors in identification of palm photos unfortunately... but this book probably has the least of the major palm books). I certainly would have prefered the photos to be on the same page as the discussions, but I understand it's a lot cheaper to do it this way.
In the back of the book are several very useful indeces- one on proper pronunciation (so you can sound intelligent at palm meetings, if you go to those), one on landscaping ideas, and an excellent one on synonyms, as there are hundreds of those out there with all the reclaissification that is constantly going on (probably the case in all plant groups).
Over all I would rate this the best palm book there is- excellent for beginners as well as serious enthusiasts. It is a definite must buy for anyone interested in palms, and can easily serve as your ONLY book if you only wanted one book on palms.
