Florida Landscape Plants: Native and Exotic

by John V. Watkins

"An indispensable reference. . . . Every Florida gardener should have this book."-- Florida Times-Union "If you live in Florida, this book is for you. . . . It is the best book I have seen on the subject."-- Horticulture Florida Landscape Plants has been the standard plant-identification manual in Florida for students, nurseries, homeowners, and visitors for over 30 years, providing information for over 400 landscaping plants for North, Central, and Southern Florida!  An entire page is devoted to each plant, accompanied by an illustration and detailed description for identification purposes. The common and botanical names are given followed by detailed information on growth habit, foliage, flowers and fruits, landscape uses, habitat, light and soil requirements, salt tolerance, culture, propagation, and pest control. The authors, realizing that most plant enthusiasts and home gardeners are not trained botanists, have kept technical expressions to a minimum and have provided a glossary to explain essential scientific phrases.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference

420 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

John Vertrees Watkins

Reviews

[Rebecca]

This book is SO useful. I don’t think it’s meant to be used if you don’t have some understanding of botany. It was required reading for my botany class, and we used it to practice plant descriptions. In that regard it’s incredibly useful. For the average gardener, I would recommend other guides with color photographs. But as someone who is learning to identify plants by Latin names and botanical descriptions, this is a great resource.

[Susan Molloy]

Invaluable reference book that works well for my gardens. Each plant is well-depicted as a sketch, with a few full color drawings to flesh out the information. The Latin and common names (where applicable) are very helpful, too.

I own the 1969 hardcover version.

💥 Recommended.

[Susan Ford Collins]

Drawings are too stylized. Need photos to be more useful. B and W. Need color.