Reviewed by annieb123 on
The Kew Gardener’s Guide to Growing Orchids is a new tutorial guide to growing and enjoying orchids by Philip Seaton. Due out 21st Jan 2020 by Quarto on their White Lion imprint, it's 144 pages and available in paperback format.
Whenever gardeners think about inspiration and knowledge on a worldwide scale, the Kew gardens are at the very top of a very short list. They've been going strong for almost 260 years at this point. This book includes an herbal compendium for the culture and care info of more than 70 individual orchids along with several attractive plantings arranged as projects. This is also one of a series of books from Kew with culture advice and troubleshooting tips for different types of plants (herbs, houseplants, bulbs, fruits, and vegetables).
The introduction includes general info for growing orchids of different types followed by a good collection of specific species and their culture requirements. Each of the entries includes a beautiful hand-drawn botanical illustration, taxonomic names, type of plant (terrestrial, sympodial, epiphytic, monopodial, etc) as well as size, temperature and other requirements. The projects in the tutorial chapters include things like repotting, binding orchids to a bark substrate, making a corsage and others.
Much of the photography is from stock photos, but all of the project photos are purpose made for this edition. The culture information is straightforward and peppered with good tips and tricks for encouraging the best performance from all of your plants.
Four stars. Well written and full of attractive photography and gorgeous botanical illustrations.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
Reading updates
- Started reading
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- 28 December, 2019: Reviewed