5 comments about Taylor's Guide to Orchids: More Than 300 Orchids, Photographed and Described, for Beginning to Expert Gardeners (Taylor's Guides).

1. I grow and collect orchids strictly as a hobby. I first purchased this particular work at the time of it's publication and have been using it ever since. The photographs are wonderful and I have found that the 300 + orchids covered in this book are truely that...covered and covered quite well. The author's text, as to discriptions and "how to grow," are extremely useful. The grower/collector must realize though, that as the title of the book states, this covers more than 300 orchids. Needless to say, there are many, many more out there and If one wishes to own just one book that lists all of them, then be aware this one does not. That being said, I have yet to find a book that does list all of the hundreds and hundreds of varities and thousands of hybrids. I shoud think that this would be an impossible undertaking as each year these numbers increase many fold. I personally own several dozen books on the subject and am constantly adding to them. This is a good book, one that should be added to the many others you will no doubt purchase if you pursue this wonderful hobby. I recommend this one highly.



2. An excellent book with cultural information that goes well beyond what's in most beginner books, yet is accessible and easy to understand. The 300 gorgeous color plates, if overly saturated with color,at times, are restricted to a satisfying mix of genera, both species and hybrids. This book is compact and impossible to keep open and would benefit from a much deserved larger format. Highly recommended.



3. My girl friend left me with four orchids when she departed to take care of her sick parents. These were definitley the dregs of her 20+ collection. Surprisingly, I've been able to get two of them to bloom, but even all these pictures can't help me identify the blomming orchid.
   Excellent for instructions on how to take care of the plants; however, I will have to report back later if their procedures worked for me!



4. I originally bought this book for the descriptions of the orchids, but found a lot of basic orchid care information. I have several orchid books, and this is one of three I use the most.



5. This is an awesome book. It has been very helpful in learning about and identifying my quickly growing collection of orchids. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants an in-depth education of these beautiful plants and how the grow them.

2 comments about Orchid Grower's Companion: Cultivation, Propagation, and Varieties.

1. This is an excellent book about orchids. It shall take you from the very first steps into a more advanced understanding of this hobby. There's a lot of pictures and they are beautiful. The matter is tidily organized. Growing media, phytopathology, light and temperature requirements are clearly explained. I do recommend this book. For those who are on a budget a good alternative would be "Growing orchids" by Rittershausen.



2. I am a beginner as far as orchids go. I received a free orchid from Sarah Jessica Parker when I signed up for a free sample of her perfume "Lovely." Now I am hooked and in love with orchids! They are so beautiful! This book is one of the best and shows perfectly how lovely orchids are. It contains a wealth of information too. I highly recommend it.

5 comments about The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids.

1. Book contains about 298 pages divided into three sections. The sections are Orchid Cultivation & Description (15 pages), Species Encyclopedia (270 pages), and Glossary & Index (13 pages).

   The focus of the book is the orchid species encyclopedia. Each orchid is listed with information on genus, tribe, etymology, and a paragraph describing the characteristics of the orchid and its history. About 2/3rds of the species also include a photograph.

   Photography is excellent. Hundreds of clear, crisp, and properly identified images fill the book. It is truly an illustrated encyclopedia.

   I love this book! It is exactly the kind of reference book I needed. Being new to orchids, I have a difficult time seeing a name in a catalog and relating it to an image of an orchid flower. This book is great, it has helped me discover many new and interesting species. Well, at least they are new to me :-)

   My library contains several books on orchid culture that gives me clues to growing the plants. But this book identifies hundreds of genera, and 1100 species. Best orchid species encyclopedia that I've seen. Great reference book!




2. This is an excellent reference book for orchid collectors. The photographs of the orchids are wonderful, as well as the complementary description. It makes ordering orchids on-line easier as well as purchasing orchids at a nursery.



3. This book is truly my orchid Bible. There is some information about almost everything you want to know orchids. I find this book useful when trying to find the general characteristics of a genus or even to identify a plant by its flower. Many, many pictures, and they are all beautiful. They lack in the growing tips category, but make up with the fairly detailed species descriptions for the species they cover in the book. Hope this is helpful!



4. This is one of the Orchidbooks that anyone who loves orchids should have. Its filled with a lot off information of botanical orchids.
   
   It's one of my favorites.



5. I never received the book from Amazon. My order was cancelled after I had paid for it. I was refunded. I bought it from someone else and its great. Really good pictures and informative.

5 comments about Miniature Orchids.

1. After ten months of waiting I expected more. Plant sizes are broken down like this;Miniature to 3" high/wide, Dwarf to 8", Compact to 12". I was hoping someone would dare to do a true miniature orchid book excluding orchids greater than 8 inches.
   This book has the basic culture section light, water, temp, etc. Most orchid growers use a light measuring standard called a foot-candle, instead we get the Canadian Orchid Congress's calculation of watts per square meter.
   Plant descriptions are quick and to the point. Highlights include country of origin, difficulty of culture, and recomendations for potting/mounting medium.
   Plants range across genera though focus more on current trends: Three pages of Bulbophyllum compared to thirteen pages for Paphiopedilum and eleven for Phalaenopsis with no mention of Phal. braceana or Phal. deliciosa(mines still in bloom, over a year now).
   Although interesting the Hybrids could have been left out, they tend to be trendy. When they are 'out' they can be harder to find than an Antillanorchis gundlachii.
   I know a lot of effort went into producing this book and an updated version was needed, it seems like an inclusive orchid catalog. Good for those just begining in this hobby but lacking for those of us who hoped for more. Will make a good coffee table book.



2. Miniature Orchids
   Another wonderful book from the author of ORCHIDS FOR DUMMIES and FRAGRANT ORCHIDS. I loved the intelligent introduction on orchid culture and growing under lights.The book has excellent information on a wide variety of miniature marvels, each illustrated with gorgeous photographs. I love big, showy orchids, but this book made me order a dozen tiny gems to add to my collection. A great job from a wonderful author. Buy it!



3. This book covers a wide array of miniature orchids - over 300 - with beautiful, detailed illustrations and information - about the flowers, blooom season, planting requirements, etc. I especially like the planting tips - ease of culture, and light and temperature requirements.
   
   I LOVE this wonderfully detailed book on orchid miniatures and have bought several copies to give as gifts to friends!



4. Miniature Orchids by Steven Frowine is a beautifully illustrated guide to collecting and raising miniature orchids. The illustrations are gorgeous, descriptions and instructions are very precise and understandable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book!



5. This is a beautiful book that opened up the world of miniature orchids for me. The information provided on each species is concise yet more than thorough enough for my needs as a hobbyist. I love the vivid, full color pictures that the author generously uses to show the hundreds of miniature varieties. I also found many useful tips on cultivation and insect and disease control that are covered in easy to understand terms in the first couple of chapters. If you want to learn more about miniature orchids without having to wade through excessive botanical and scientific jargon, I think you will find this book to be very helpful.

5 comments about Orchid Fever: A Horticultural Tale of Love, Lust, and Lunacy.

1. Easy reading,interesting,and educational.After reading Orchid Fever,I read a comment in Orchids at Home,and having read Orchid Fever,I realized that ugly,just like beauty,is in the eye of the beholder.



2. I read this with jaw agape most of the time. The main reason for this embarrassing state of affairs was the CITES ridiculousness that crops up again and again. Can people in positions of power REALLY be so stupid? Well, yep, they can, sadly enough for the thousands of plants that are destroyed in the name of "development," illegal to save by conservationists.
   But the people Hansen meets are equally worthy of a jaw drop. Their passion--there's truly no other word, unless it is obsession--for their orchids simply astounded me. Wonderfully humorous, enlightening reading.
   Now that I've read it nearly a decade after many of the encounters described, I am longing for an update. What's become of the CITES laws? Has common sense prevailed? What about the individual scientists and growers? Are they still as enthralled with their plants? What a terrific book, to leave me hungering for so much more!



3. "I thumbed through the pages ... Immediately I was confronted with centerfolds showing ... moistened, hot-pink lips that pouted in the direction of tautly curved shafts and heavily veined pouches." - from "Bodice Ripper", a chapter in ORCHID FEVER
   
   A porn mag featuring your favorite XXX-rated stars? Um, no. An orchid catalogue, actually, as described by author Eric Hansen in his narrative exploration of the science, business, hobby, and collecting of orchids, ORCHID FEVER. Who knew flower breeding could be so titillating, or so lucrative? Indeed, as of the turn of the last century, orchids generated about $9 billion of worldwide business annually.
   
   With so much money to be made, it's no surprise that the collection of wild orchids and their transport across national boundaries is so fiercely regulated, ostensibly to protect orchid populations in their natural habitats. But, of course, the cynical will recognize that it's all about the fees generated by the obligatory export licenses and certificates. Indeed, much of ORCHID FEVER is about the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), headquartered in Geneva, and its almost Gestapo-like enforcement powers, which, as Eric tells the story, have done virtually nothing to protect free-range orchids and have only increased their demand and value vis-a-vis breeders, hobbyists, and collectors.
   
   Hansen illustrates his subject by traveling the world from California to Borneo to Minnesota to Britain to Germany to Turkey to France to New York and to Holland to interview the field's "horticultural extremists, pioneers, lone rangers, fantasy merchants, flower show flim-flam people, paid informers, rapacious nurserymen, international plant smugglers, pollen thieves, eccentric botanists, corrupt orchid judges, legendary growers, misfits, groupies, and camp followers". Though, as the author states, normal, balanced people are drawn to orchids, he found such only infrequently.
   
   "Behind the cash register (of a neighborhood grocery store) sat a long shelf filled with mass-produced Phalaenopsis hybrids, selling for $19.95; every time I saw them I thought about the California orchid grower who shot and killed his partner and then mutilated the corpse because they couldn't agree on how to breed and sell these supermarket-quality house plants."
   
   Perhaps the most engaging chapter, especially if you like frozen desserts, is "The Fox Testicle Ice Cream", in which Eric journeys to Maras, Turkey, the home of orchid ice cream, salepi dondurma, made from the tubers of the flower genus Orchis. Indeed, the chapter is so informative and interesting that a large segment of it was apparently plagiarized on a website I discovered sponsored by a Turkish-American business alliance. (After I communicated this fact to the author, he replied that it wasn't the first or last time such has happened, and he would pursue getting credit for the entry.)
   
   When I began dating as a teenager in the late sixties, if I really wanted to impress the girl I'd buy a stalk of 5-6 orchids for 3 bucks from an elderly next-door neighbor that grew them. I don't recall that the expenditure ever helped me get lucky, but they sure were impressive in the giving. Nowadays, try buying just one on Mother's Day for less than an hour's pay. After reading Hansen's excellent volume, I better understand the orchid's mystique.



4. 
   Having no interest in orchids whatsoever, I picked up "Orchid Fever" because I have been smitten with Eric Hansen's lucied and entertaining adventure writings (see previous reviews). This book is well researched and very well salted with Hansen's devastating wit and easygoing demeanor.
   
   We are introduced to the orchid universe via the growers, scientists, show judges, "orchid police", and so-called smugglers who turn out to be not so.
   
   Hansen once more captivates with these loosely linked stories of orchid obsessed people and the absurdities of the power brokers so bent on enforcing horticultural regulations that end up ensnaring the wrong people.
   
   "Orchid Fever" is part expose, part travelogue, part literary journalism, and part horticultural history. This really is investigative writing at its very best, at turns tantalizing and educational. This man has a seriously clever wit which keeps the narrative light and fluid.
   
   Hansen's abilities as a writer are superb: he knows his craft as well as any contemporary non-fiction writer. The seven years of creating this wonderfully woven bunch of stories is very much appreciated. From the first sentence, your attention is requisitioned and not released until the last - the mark of a Big League writer I think.
   
   As always with Eric Hansen, my highest kudos.
   
   Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   



5. There's probably a good book about orchids and the recondite subject of international orchid policy in "Orchid Fever." In fact, I'm sure of it. Unfortunately, Eric Hansen spoils his effort with a lubricious, snarky brew of exaggerations, sneers, dubious anecdotes and invented suggestions.
   
   One example can stand for a multitude of sins. Hansen attends a three-day conference and trade show of orchid fanciers, trying to set up the idea that these people are wild, crazy, risk-taking guys and gals -- not far from sociopaths is the general view. His evidence: The conferees sang karaoke and after that, "What went on in the hotel rooms after dark between the orchid growers was anybody's guess."
   
   You could write the same thing about an Amway convention. So?
   
   The serious issue behind this unserious book is how (or if) to conserve orchids that may (or may not) be threatened by collectors, habitat destruction or whatever it is that threatens orchids.
   
   The antagonists are, on one side, amateurs, businessmen and independent scholars; and, on the other, academics and international bureaucrats, who are accused of self-aggrandizement and appropriation. It is not an issue just with orchids or even just about plants. It comes up concerning ancient artifacts, fossils, sunken treasure, even -- in a non-material sense -- myths and legends. See my review of "A Dinosaur Named Sue" for an example with fossils.
   
   A friend of mine who runs an orchid nursery confirms the difficulty. Under a treaty called CITES that purports to protect endangered species, he must prove that his commercial stock (450 species) does not derive from wild-collected plants. Of course, ultimately, any orchid derives from such stock, but CITES has rules. My friend got much of his stock from his teacher, now dead. How can he prove where the teacher obtained it?
   
   My friend could have his business shut down. In the worst instance, he could be shut up in a prison. It has happened to others.
   
   "Orchid Fever" has obtained wide publicity and wide sales. It was aimed at the thoughtless, the sensationalistic and the lascivious, and there are plenty of those people out there. It's sad that probably the most-read book about orchids turns out to be a piece of low-rent crap.

1 comments about Easy Orchids: The Fail-Safe Guide to Growing Orchids Indoors.

1. My mother really likes orchids and grows them. I wanted to get her an orchid book that had great photos, good recommendations and ideas, had different thing that she could look at. She loved it and raved about it!! There are a lot of orchid books but I guess I found a good one for her :)

No comments about The New Encyclopedia of Orchids: 1500 Species in Cultivation.

5 comments about Orchids for Dummies.

1. This book doesn't have many pictures of orchids but it does have a lot of good, basic information. I have and use several books including Ortho's All About Orchids and Complete Guide to Orchids and Rittershausen's Growing Orchids. I've learned from all of them. Orchids for Dummies has suggestions that none of the others have. It also has a good index.



2. A good starter book. Gives a complete, detailed and no-assumptions information about most orchids and the varieties, care and handling.



3. this book thoroughly takes on how to grow orchids. Very easy to comprehend the complexities of what you've taken on. Very good reference source. Also would recommend 'Ortho's Guide to Orchids'.



4. So far So good , I know nothing about orchids and have just started to collect them. This book is easy to read and understand,now I am just waiting for results.



5. Like all the "dummies" books this one has expert advice. Unwittingly, I always assumed growing orchids was something only for the "experts". Not so, once I screwed up enough courage to purchase a few, I find it is both fun and rewarding.

5 comments about Understanding Orchids: An Uncomplicated Guide to Growing the World's Most Exotic Plants.

1. This book has all the information that I need to successfully grow orchids.
   It is the ideal book for all orchid enthusiasts, from the beginner to the experienced orchid grower.



2. This was one of the first orchid books that I purchased when I became interest in growing orchids as a hobby. I still use it as a quick reference. I highly recommend this book if you are new to growing orchids.



3. I have several Orchid books and this is my favorite. It's a great book for the beginner, or even the amature orchid grower. The book breaks down each aspect of orchid care: lighting, humidity, watering, potting & mounting, diseases, and even reproduction. There is also a wonderful listing of common orchid genera and their care requirements. They're listed with ratings of beginner-experienced-expert for their ease of care. The pictures are absolutely stunning. The book is an easy read and I come back to it regularly for reference.



4. This book explains it all. From lighting to the different kind of Orchid. I recommend it highly to someone looking into starting their own Orchid collection or even those with years of experience with these wonderful plants. Has terrific colored illustrations as well.



5. This is a phenomenal book for any one serious about their orchids. If you want to know what orchids work for the home, either on the windowsill or under lights, what potting medium to use, what pots to use, how to pot, how to split plants, when to repot, watering, light, humidity levels (and how to get to the right humidity levels) plus why individual plants need what they need, its in here. If you want to know how to identify pests and diseases plus what to do - its in here. It has a comprehensive list of 75 orchids and their individual requirements. It includes the details a serious hobbyist needs - including simple, yet extremely important, things like having to sterilize your tools and how to do it so that we don't spread infection between plants. All this along with absolutely beautiful pictures of many, many orchids!

5 comments about The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle).

1. This book reminded me of a story about the 'fishes':
   Curious about North Americans before moving to North America, friends of mine did all they could to meet a North American. He was quiet when they were discussing life with universal categories. When asked about what he is most interested in, the North American lightened up and told them everything he knew about the fishes, his hobby. He was experiencing, interpreting and loving life through fishes (or orchids, or anything that we are deeply intrigued by), and my friends heard the most interesting story, told with love, passion and knowledge, and remained quiet and speechless for a long time.
   The "Orchid Thief" is a fascinating book, and I truly loved all aspects of this journey - the visual language, the historical references, the characters and the whole gamut of their emotions.
   Some short stories though, were told long in the book, which makes you feel the fatigue in these parts of the narration.



2. Pretty quick read because it is totally, utterly engrossing. Orlean has a wonderful writing style, and a knack for just the right amount of metaphors and similes. Plus terrific descriptive abilities. Every bit as wonderful as the film "Adaptation" which was made from this book. I really liked this non-fiction book about obsession, collectors, orchids, plants, all things in southern Florida. She gets to the heart of a true collectors mind. La Rouche an unforgettable person. She makes us "see" him. To paraphrase one unforgettable line - "I hate hiking in the swamp with convicts who have machetes."



3. Excellent story,great writer and terrific subject matter for anyone interested in Orchids or the State of Florida and some of it's history.



4. Truly fascinating reading. A friend encouraged me to read this after I became interested in and purchased several orchids at a recent orchid show. This book is an engaging journey through the history of orchids and orchid collecting as well as a revealing introduction to the often mysterious and sometimes elusive people who have been drawn to and fascinated by orchids over time. If you have an interest in orchids, do yourself the favor of reading this well-written and meticulously researched work. In fact, even if you do not have an interest in orchids you will find this book well worth your time. You may learning something of yourself in the process of reading it.



5. So the movie of Adaptation was amazing and the overall story within this book is good, the themes and ideas hidden in there are good, but the writing, not so good.
   I was rather disappointed by the extreme lack of decent writing here. This book was not a pleasure to read at all. It opened up with a little mock interview that Susan gave to herself and it was really kind of bad, not creative, and sounds like it was written by a 16 creative writing student.
   All I can say is that the story was a good idea, the longing in some of parts was wonderful, but the writing, I am not a fan of.