Customer Reviews

Botany for Gardeners

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After all of these years the editors of this book have neglected to correct the glaring errors of the original. The theories of botany have advanced since the orginal book was written but you'll find no evidence here. From the glaring errors in taxonomy and basic plants scinece you just don't want to buy this book unless you find it used at a garage sale.

I love gardening, reading, and science, so I was very hopeful when I saw the title of this book. The title sounds very interesting. This book left me disappointed. It felt like work to read. There were interesting tidbits about plants, but they were buried in mind-numbing details.
Opening the book at random I find this quote:
"The chemical name for natural auxin, produced by plants, is indole-3-acetic acid, or IAA. Several synthetic substances (naphthaleneacetic acid, or NAA; 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, or 2,4-D, etc.), having auxin-like effects when applied to plant tissues, have been studied and are used commercially."
Fortunately, the entire book isn't written this way, but there are way too many sentences just like this one.

As a gardener, I found this book to be a great introduction to botany. It is not a simple book, but a very well written book that takes the details of botany down to a beginner's level.

There's a lot of technical details here. It's not an easy breeze to get through it, as I'm sure a full semester's class in Botany might be.

I've heavily underlined this book and refer to it often. I hope to take a college course in Botany after plowing my way through this book. I use the term plow not because the writing is hard to read, but because so many technical details are covered. The writing pushes you along because it is so interesting.

This is a great book.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

In the early 90's, I had the opportunity to teach a beginning botany class to home gardeners. The class had been taught for several years and Capon's book had been choosen for the text. I read the book and was surprised by the flagrant inaccuracy on topics such as plant anatomy and photosynthesis. The chapters were poorly arranged and overly technical. Since people as whole tend to remember what they were first taught as law, it disturbed me that many gardeners may be misguided.

Capon gets down to business and explains how plants work. No more will the reader/gardener utter such pablum as "pinching forces energy down instead of up in the plant." She/he will intelligently note that pinching the apical meristem decreases the hormones that control upward growth, thus increasing the activity of hormones controlling lateral growth. Very well explained facts about how plants do what they do.

Capon obviously loves his subject and is that rare science writer who can make his subject into an adventure, a romance, a thriller, an action-packed story. One of the best lay-science books I've ever read in any field and a must for anyone who loves plants.

This book is easy to understand. It is interesting while technical and educational without losing you in scientific monotony. It has helped me understand my plants and make good technical based decisions for their care. I wanted to delve deeper because of this book.

A super introduction or re-introduction to botany. The book will inspire the reader to delve even more deeply into botany for the pure love of plants. The only complaint from this reader is a mysterious off-handed remark, that monocots are the most advanced group of plants is not well substantiated within the text. "Advanced" because of their large numbers, because they include the major grain sources to feed mankind? Or are they smarter than dicots? Enjoy the thoughtful challenge and don't miss the book. Perhaps Capon will offer a sequel or at least a better explanation more suitable to his rookie readers!