Today I want to rave on about a book we were given for Christmas : Australian Native Plants, 5th edition (John W. Wrigley & Murray Fagg). It's not a new book. It was first printed in 1979 and this edition was released in 2003 and reprinted last year. I imagine that anyone interested in Australian natives would be quite familiar with it. But in case you've never heard of it I'd just like to add my voice to the chorus of praise. This is a very good book. In fact it's everything I look for in a reference book. It has all of the information that you could occassionally need organised so it can be easily found.
The book has two main areas. The first eight chapters provide an overview of Australian natives followed by comprehensive (though not exhaustive) chapters on selection, propagation, care, pests and diseases. Each of these chapters is well illustrated which is essential for the wannabe gardener.
The next three chapters, which represents the bulk of the book, groups the 3500 plant entries into ground covers, shrubs and trees. Each chapter is ordered alphabetically with each major species (ie grevillea, acacia etc) starting with an overview followed by individual plant entries. The book doesn't cover every plant from every species. But the entries for each species are a fair reflection of their prominence and variety. Obviously species like grevillea will be represented in all three chapters. Where this occurs a pointer is provided to the main species overview.
Each plant entry provides all the features you'd expect (description, propagation, cultivation) and uses symbols to quickly identify the plants main features. An explanation of these symbols in featured on the front and back flaps of the books dust cover as well as being printed on the books first content page. Nearly 20 symbols are used and include things like; bird attracting, perfumed, attractive fruits, recommended for foliage etc. Similarly, color coded symbols show the recommended climactic regions for each plant with a map of Australia showing the 8 climactic regions (adjacent the symbols legend). I guess it would be nice for overseas readers if a description was provided for each climatic region to help assess a plants suitability for their region.
The book contains over 1000 colour photographs representing close to a third of the plants covered. There is also an illustrated glossary at the back of the book for those of us who don't know what 'etiolation' means.
If you have an interest in the rich cornucopia that is Australian native plants then you probably need this book. After a month of living with this book I can't imagine ever living without it.
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