Product Details
Big Leaves for Exotic Effect

Big Leaves for Exotic Effect
By Stephen Griffith

Price: CDN$ 29.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $39. Details

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca

14 new or used available from CDN$ 25.86

Product Description

Even in a cool climate, the beautiful big-leaved plants showcased in this gardener’s guide can transform a backyard into a tropical paradise. Through exquisite and detailed color photos and in-depth information, you’ll see how to choose these plants and successfully care for and cultivate them. An extensive A-to-Z directory provides a unique photographic record of large-leaved varieties and a quick reference to their optimum growing conditions—a valuable aid to formulating planting schemes and designing a garden. Each entry includes images, the family and common name, country of origin, growth requirements, and climate zone. Bananas, bulbs, and tubers, climbers, ferns and tree ferns, grasses, bamboos, palms, perennials, ground cover, trees, shrubs, water plants, and marginals are among the lush and lovely plants covered.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #809525 in Books
  • Published on: 2004-05-28
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 192 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
Tropical plantings with their associated lushness and vibrancy are all the vogue at the moment. From public parks to the smallest courtyard you'll find yuccas, agaves, cordylines and bananas bringing a touch of the exotic to our often far from tropical clime. But many people think these plantings can only be achieved with tender plants, needing annual replacement or fussy care through our cold, wet winters. How wrong they are. Stephen Griffith, curator of that South coast Eden, Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, includes many hardy, tropical-looking plants for year round impact in this attractively presented, well-illustrated guide to the subject. Hardy perennials such as fiery, spiky-leaved kniphofias, large, downy-leaved shrubs such as Brachyglottis, the enormous leaves of the Indian Bean Tree, Catalpa, palms and ferns, annuals such as the stunning Ricinus and bulbous plants like the exotic Hedychiums and Cannas - all carefully chosen to bring a touch of the jungle to your garden. Although many are reputedly not hardy, a modicum of care such as a mulch or cloche will ensure repeat performances year after year and well worth the time and effort in terms of star quality in the garden. Whether you have a garden, a balcony or just a few containers outside the front door, you'll be able to create an exotic effect with many of Stephen's selections. Reflecting his years of horticultural experience and containing many tips learnt at Abbotsbury, this is a must for gardeners looking for something a little more daring and different. - Lucy Watson