Plant Propagation: Principles and Practices

I was requried to get this edition for a plant propagation class (go figure) and I already owned a previous edition (the 3rd?) This book is wonderful. Great resource. I highly recommend it to anyone in the hort field who needs to propagate, so almost everyone!

I'm a first year Horticulture student, and this is my text for Plant Prop. Almost all of the information I've read so far - a few hundred pages - is new to me. Hartmann et. al. do a great job of taking complex, unfamiliar information and expressing it simply and clearly, so that I understand. In the margins of every page, they break out and define important terms, making it very easy to locate definitions when I need them. There are frequent boxes with "in depth" information that more fully explores concepts brought up in the general narrative. There's also a CD-Rom dictionary, which is helpful, although I find the access is a bit cumbersome - click on a letter, wait for it to open a list, click on a word (if the word you want is there - many of the ones I wanted to find are not included), wait for it to open the definition & picture, then click back to the first page. If it were simply searchable - if I could type in a word without clicking through the various screens - I'd use it more. It's a nice bonus, though, and they didn't have to include anything at all so it seems unfair to rate the book based on the accessibility of the disc contents. I will say this book would be most useful in tandem with practical labs that explore the concepts and offer the chance to experience what is in the text. I'm taking my class as an independent study, and I find it is very challenging to teach myself all of this material without the benefit of labs, even though my advisor is excellent and always available for my questions. I generally read the text at least twice and often four times, because it's so intense that I don't catch everything on the first run. I plan to try some of the techniques myself, once I gather the supplies I'll need; I think this will make all the difference in my true understanding and retention of what I've read about, and my advisor agrees. To instructors, I'd say to just be aware that even though the information is presented gently, it's still a lot for a new student to take in, and even the most conscientious student can get overwhelmed by a 100-page reading assignment. It's too much. Break it up, work in some labs, and really encourage discussion to make it come alive. In that context, I can't imagine a better text to use for teaching Plant Prop.

This was one of my textbooks 15 years ago, and I have depended on it in various editions ever since. The information is very dependable and complete.

For fans of plant propogation, this is a must-read. I read it every night, and I can't get enough of it. Be sure to dog-ear the section about the "stigma fertilizing the stamen." It's hot!