I
have been one of 67 co-authors researching and compiling entries
for what is probably the most substantial horticultural book ever
published, Flora. This 1600-page book continues the format
established by Trees and Shrubs from the same publisher,
but adds all other plant groups to make it as complete an encyclopedia
of plants as one could hope for.
As
well as authoring the rhododendron entries, I contributed listings
for plants as diverse as palms, cycads, maples, tomatoes, wheat
and other grains, bamboos and ferns and in the process I learned
a lot I never expected to know about the many cacti inhabiting
arid zones of North America.
As
publishing goes these days, economies of scale and the demand
for colour pictures throughout dictate that gardening reference
books must be designed for a global market. Flora has been published
with local variants for North America and Europe, and the Australian
edition, co-published with the ABC’s Gardening Australia
program, includes some useful chapters specific to Australian
conditions. These include notes on growing and landscaping with
Australian plants, the history of gardening in Australia and local
climate zones. Other introductory chapters provide useful, well-written
explanations of plant nomenclature and classification, heirloom
plants and a chapter on organic gardening by Peter Cundall.
The
guts of the book is the vast dictionary of around 20,000 plants,
including many that are rare in cultivation or grown as food crops.
Each listing starts with a genus overview followed by detailed
notes on each species, with many of the plants illustrated. In
many cases there are more plants listed in Flora than
can be found in books specific to a genus. Some were very hard
to track down, the internet proving to be a powerful research
tool.
Accompanying
the book is a CD-ROM which includes all of the plants described
in the book, enabling the user select plants by specifying desired
basic characteristics such as height, colour, hardiness and flowering
time.
 Despite
the book’s awesome size, there still have to be omissions.
In selecting the rhododendrons to be included, I tried to ensure
that as many as possible of the species and cultivars I could
find currently in circulation both here and overseas were included,
and that the species should also include those plants which were
significant parents in breeding programs, or illustrated the diversity
of the genus. I think, with the splendid photographs that the
publishers have
used, the section does the genus justice.
Modified
from an article I wrote for The Rhododedron, Annual Journal of
The Australian Rhododendron Society, 2003. |
