In answer to Glenn Breayley, Tony and Moira
Ryan, Charles Dills and all our other Medit-Plant friends, here are my
'opinions' about FLORA: The Gardener's Bible.
BOTANICA was produced 7 years ago. The
team that did it was the same team that went on to produce FLORA. They
learned a lot in that 7 year gap and had correspondence from gardeners all
over the world that was very helpful to them when they went to work on
FLORA.
This Gardener's Bible differs in many ways so
if you already have BOTANICA, it will compliment your books, rather than be
a repeat. FLORA includes 4 seasons shots that I find very helpful,
also award plants, plants in the wild, a spell checker, a screen saver, and
there are all new photos (12,000 - none that were used in 'Botanica') and
the text too is fresh and all-new. The plant portraits are very clear
and thus will be very helpful both for selection as well as
identification.
The important key in FLORA, as far as I am
concerned, is the hardiness zones text and indication for each of the over
20,000 plants listed.
We are living in a period of history with
increasingly fast changing climatic situations, and this unique book FLORA
will be even more and more useful, to gardeners all over the world, as the
years pass.
Keen gardeners will be glad to have both
BOTANICA and FLORA on their shelves. I like the 2 volume edition as
heavy huge books are not easy to consult...especially for me as I have only
one 'good' hand and arm as the other was made 'purely decorative' after a
gardening accident years ago. I can easily handle FLORA.
One of the 2 volumes will be released for sale
in New Zealand in a few weeks.
It is published by GLOBAL in Australia and by
TIMBER PRESS in the USA,
and the ISBN IS -
0-88192-538-1.
For sure this double volume book is on the top
of my Christmas Gift List, and I personally would highly recomend it to all
Mediterranean gardeners around the world.
WHEW!!!!!!!! How is that for a sales
pitch???? I think I should get a cut on profits!
But, joking apart, it is certainly worth a
peek.
Happy gardening from a crazy Rome. After
3 months of record-breaking heat and no rain, we now have flooding downpours
- at least the weeds are easier to jerk out.
All the best to you all,
Helene Pizzi
Garden writer and
lecturer
