1001 Garden Plants in Singapore

by Boo Chih Min, Kartini Omar-Hor, Ou-Yang Chow Lin

A quick pictorial reference to the great selection of plants found in Singapore. More than 1,200 species of plants have been put together in this book.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Reference

501 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a picture catalog of the variety of plants that can be found in Singapore, from native species to the many introduced ones from around the world. While I can see how it is useful as an identification guide, the book does not go much beyond this very basic purpose, for there isn't much information on each plant, even basic things like size, description of flowers and fruit are missing. Instead there are little icons showing how much light and water is needed, and whether it is edible or attracts animals. Also, one has to flip through many pages if one needed help to ID a plant, since the classifications are very broad, for example climbers, trees, epiphytes etc.

[Am Y · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so excited to see the 2020 version of this out (which at the time of my writing this review was the newest version to my knowledge), thinking I would finally be able to identify some plants I often encountered here but did not know anything about. But a quick browse-through soon made me very disappointed - while there truly are a ton of plants featured, there is just very barebones info given on each. Quite a number are just represented by a single small photo of a section of the plant (e.g. top, leaf/leaves, flowers, etc), and there are absolutely no details about each plant given, aside from their family, origin, and other names they may be known as. Many entries show just the family, without even listing the origin and synonyms.

And I still couldn't find the plants I was looking for! Maybe it's because many plant listings only feature 1 photo, which really isn't enough to help identify a plant. It also doesn't help that nothing at all is said about the plant. Till now, I'm not even sure if my slightly pink spotty houseplant (which I've had for more than a decade) is an aglaonema or diffenbachia cultivar, because both have a multitude of cultivars that look so alike, and both come from the same family (araceae). I had better luck trawling the Internet searching for my plant (which one florist's webpage claimed was an "aglaonema blondie" [not sure how accurate this is, because, as you know, it's the Internet]) - although the book did give me a good starting point (by at least giving me the name "aglaonema").

I wish more had been said about each plant, such as "easily confused with..." or "could be mistaken for...", and that more photos of each plant were provided, especially photos of the entire plant and not just one part of it.

[Sharon Bakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Read" not the right word for a book of pictures! But I have looked several times at each page, so will count it. This is an invaluable guide to the garden plants and trees of Malaysia and Singapore. Very comprehensive with clear illustrations. Little text, but a useful system of symbols to tell you how each plant likes to be treated.

[al raubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

either you are horticulturist, botanist or just garden lover, this book is really good as a daily reference for you to get know your plants and its character.

[Hisham]

a very important

[Kast · Rating 5 out of 5]

a horticulture book that must have at every home.

[ChitHwe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-have reference for all gardeners or plant lovers!

[Mani Kandan]

good