PRACTICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ORCHIDS

A complete guide to orchids and their cultivation, these flamboyant, intriguing, beautiful and exotic plants have evolved to become the largest family of plants in the world. This classic book written by two of the world's leading orchid authorities and newly updated helps you identify, choose and display these delightful flowers successfully. It offers a round-the-world tour of the range of tropical and temperate habitats in which orchids are found and explains main orchid types, how early explorers discovered the first tropical orchids and started an orchid craze that continues today. It explains orchid botany and nomenclature, inspirational ideas for growing these plants indoors whether in glass tanks and baskets or on trees and stones, as well as growing orchids outdoors. There is information on basic tools and equipment, compost mixes, potting and mounting, propagation, feeding, watering and light control and dealing with pests and diseases. The Orchid Directory explains their natural habitat, size, flowering time and growing requirements, and all the main genera are covered from Cymbidium to Dendrobium, from Phalaenopsis to Phragmipedium as well as a selection of specialist orchids. There is also an easy-to-use glossary. On each grand very glossy bright white heavyweight page are between one and four colour photographs, many in close up, exhibiting the range of colours of pinks and orange and white and mottles and veins and patterns and blotches and spots, and shapes and textures, standing clear of the foliage and how flowers are produced at various times of the year, blooming again the following year. In 2009, the authors were jointly awarded the Westonbirt Orchid Medal for Outstanding Literary Achievement on the Subject of Orchids. The final inside back cover photograph is so close up you can almost feel the spongy iridescent silver sparkling texture of the pin spots on the beautiful white flower photographed. 256 very large pages, colour.
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