Smith & Hawken: 100 Orchids for the American Gardener

Very informational format for those of us not too knowledgeable on the subject of orchids. Beautiful photographs and clear instructions.

I have found this book to be helpful in finding information regarding a specific orchid. I'm the Orchids host at BellaOnline.com and need to be able to research and become familiar with a variety of orchids. This book devotes 2 pages to each of the 100 orchids featured--one page to the growing requirements and the other to a full page color photo of the plant in bloom.You may not be able to find the exact plant pictured, but the information included will give you a good start on finding an orchid with similar needs. If you are looking for a profile of Oncidium "Sharry Baby", you can find one here--with a nice photograph. The first section of the book contains general information on culture, buying orchids and various locations to house your collection.

This book provided a great overview of the main genus of orchids. I would have liked to have seen more about how the genus are related, and which can be crossed to produce a hybrid. Also, what techniques are used for judging orchids? The pictures themselves are worth the price of this book. More than half of the orchids pictured will be imposible to find, but a good local gardener will be able to find you a close match.

This book is a good source for orchid lovers. The photos are beautiful, but I couldn't help feel as if I were previewing a fancy catalog. Why were these orchids picked to be in this book? I was disappointed that the plants listed were not of the more readily available variety. I had the book with me when I went into Smith and Hawken and the odd thing was some of the plants they had for sale were not listed in the book. So I guess it's not a catalog after all. A great thing about the book is that it offers information on the plant shown so the reader would have an idea what plant would bloom in what size pot. It also gives you good info on how to care for a specific plant so you don't make the mistake of buying one that would be too difficult to care for.

I found this book to be easier than most orchid books to read and understand. It covers a wide variety of orchids. However, it tends to be over simplified. Orchids are not as easy to grow as the author lets on. Also, some of the orchids mentioned in the book are not readily available and some tend to be very costly.Bob Hirnyk