From My Library: Tropical Garden Plants

I've had this book for years, I remember buying it in the old free-standing, kiosk-like Bibliarch store outside Power Plant in Rockwell, way before it was Fully Booked. It's a reliable reference to help identify plants and has surprisingly accurate and handy growing tips how to care and propagate. So far, this book has been the most helpful aid to make me understand tropical plants better.

The articles can be quite generic and the photographs tend to illustrate more common ones, but what's impressive is it reads like a well-researched reference guide without sounding scientifically-difficult and still laid-out looking like a simple and casual coffee-table book.

It is also gardener- and landscaper-friendly; the plants are grouped according to its function and blocking in a garden. All flowering trees are on the first section, followed by shrubs and hedges. A chapter is devoted to foliage plants, then ground covers are grouped together later, just as vines.

There is a big section on palms that show the immense variety not just in Southeast Asia but in tropical countries elsewhere, from Egypt to the Caribbean.

This may be out of print already by now; I searched on amazon.com but couldn't find even a used copy. But the author, William Warren came up with a new title in 2006 called Tropical Plants for Home & Garden, still with photographs by Luca Tettoni. It may be just as good.