Book Review: Botanica

Full Title: Botanica: The Illustrated A-Z of Over 10,000 Garden Plants

This is a massive, encyclopedic volume, containing brief descriptions of almost any plant you could ever want to look up. It also has photographs of most of them. It is highly useful as a reference, and sometimes fun to browse through. When I hear of a species that I think I might like to try out, I usually look it up in this book first.

Being short, the plant descriptions give you just enough information to determine whether or not a plant might be worth growing in your garden. However, if you want detailed information on any particular plant, you will need additional resources. Other downsides include the fact that not every plant is illustrated, and there are some Texas Natives that are not listed in this volume. The information is also very general, so it is worthwhile to cross-check with other resources, especially if you live in a climate as unique as the one we have here along the Texas Coast.