Orchids Are Easy: A Beginner's Guide to Their Care and Cultivation

by Tom Gilland

“As either a blueprint for amassing an orchid collection or a reference source for specific types of orchid, Gilland’s selective directory of the most popular and easily maintained varieties offers essential information. ...Gilland’s thoughtful instruction goes a long way toward correcting the old perception of orchids as difficult.”— Booklist.

Genres: Gardening

119 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

Reviews

[Paige · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good information, but practically all of the advice (some of which is outdated) is predicated on the assumption that you'll be building yourself a greenhouse exclusively for orchids. I was also pretty disappointed by the selection of orchid varieties included, but he was pretty upfront about being unable to cover more than a fairly narrow spectrum. For a library book, I reckon I got my money's worth.

[Aletha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty helpful, but could be better.

It's hard to tell for sure from just the picture alone if you have the orchids mentioned in the book, so it's be nice if it described more of the plants looks. I like that there doesn't seem to be a lot of pushing for the "right" way or his way to raise and grow orchids though, like a lot of botanists do. The book does have helpful information though, I just wish there'd be a LITTLE bit more elaboration on it.

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like the way this reference book was organized. I never did find my exact type of orchid. Perhaps there are different orchids or orchid names in the UK???

[Kat Rodenberger · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title of this book is VERY misleading. I was looking for a good, basic primer on the care of common species of orchids. This book starts with how to build your dedicated orchid greenhouse and fails to give advice about anything other than tinkering with the systems in said greenhouse.

Forgive me, but when I see the words beginners guide in a title, I assume I won't have to build an addition on to my house to use the book.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very informative about raising orchids. I checked it out because I was interested in re-potting mine. So much info provided.