By Scott Suleski

Author  Bio This book is the best book I have come across for people like me who have little or no knowledge of plants and flowers.

My wife, a while back, surprised me with a book titled "THE COMPLETE GARDEN FLOWER BOOK" for Easter. It is available at many place including Amazon.com I know like most of you, you hope for a boxcar or a hopper or another train related item. I had left enough hints around, the same types that worked in past years. I got up early with my boys to see what the Easter Bunny had brought.

At first I was surprised to see the box was not shaped quite big enough for a piece of rolling stock. When I picked it up it was very heavy, but had no rattle. It is a hardcover with 800 pages of colorful photos of flowers and gardens. I spent a long time going through it while my sons and I swapped chocolates and traded jellybean flavors.

This book is the best book I have come across for people like me who have little or no knowledge of plants and flowers. The book has sections on Perennials, Roses, Annuals, Bulbs, Clematis, Shrubs, Herbs, Cacti, Succulents, Bromeliads, Hedges, Groundcover, Palms, and Climbers. Each section has a basic introduction to the general category and then has photos and information of each plant. There is also a chart on each plant that tells you when to plant or sow, and when to divide or transplant. It tells you when to prune and when it will flower. There are over 600 plants covered in this book. It is a gardening book and not dedicated to outdoor railroad landscaping, but I haven't found a plant book that is yet.

The book goes on to talk about different types of gardens and which flowers are best used for each. Cottage, Fragrant, Patio, Balcony, Cut Flower, Window Boxes and Hanging Baskets are the different garden categories. It also goes on to discuss pot pourris, drying flowers, and bath bags.

There is an index in the back of the book that lets you look up plants by their common name. On the page with the photo are the Latin name and the common name of the plant.

There is a full color climate zone map of North America (USA and Canada) on the last page.

The thing I like most is that it gives you a lot of information in an easy to find manner. If you were looking for a reference book on plants I would highly recommend this one.

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