More than 300 color photos illustrate the plants, their flowers, leaves, and fruits. The descriptive text includes information on where the plants are found as well as their known medicinal uses. An index to medical topics is helpful for quickly locating information on specific ailments from asthma and headaches to colds and stomach aches. Symbols next to plant descriptions provide quick visual caution for plants that are poisonous or cause allergic reactions. Organized by plant color for fast identification, this guide is a tool for understanding the traditional medicinal uses of the plants around us.

    Developing new vegetable varieties doesn't require a specialized education, a lot of land, or even a lot of time. It can be done on any scale. It's enjoyable. It's deeply rewarding. You can get useful new varieties much faster than you might suppose. And you can eat your mistakes.Authoritative and easy-to-understand, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving is the only guide to plant breeding and seed saving for the serious home gardener and the small-scale farmer or commercial grower. Discover:- how to breed for a wide range of different traits (flavor, size, shape, or color; cold or heat tolerance; pest and disease resistance; and regional adaptation)- how to save seed and maintain varieties- how to conduct your own variety trials and other farm- or garden-based research- how to breed for performance under organic or sustainable growing methodsIn this one-size-fits-all world of multinational seed companies, plant patents, and biotech monopolies, more and more gardeners and farmers are recognizing that they need to "take back their seeds." They need to save more of their own seed, grow and maintain the best traditional and regional varieties, and develop more of their own unique new varieties. Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener's and Farmer's Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving shows the way, and offers an exciting introduction to a whole new gardening adventure.

    Two dozen new photos and illustrations make this new edition even richer with information. Its convenient paperback format makes it easy to carry and access, whether you are in or out of the garden. An essential overview of the science behind plants for beginning and advanced gardeners alike.

    Now based in Georgia, Armitage began his gardening career in Montreal. Thus, he knows a lot about what happens to plants in both Northern and Southern gardens. He shares his experience and experiments with great good will, offering a depth and breadth of information that is rarely surpassed. Armitage's take on hundreds of hardy perennials includes cultural specifics, propagation techniques, and suggested companions. This chunky book may seem intimidating, but don't let the textbook look put you off--all the information, technical or otherwise, is presented in clear, accessible terms that won't puzzle beginners yet offer advanced gardeners the answers they are seeking. On the whole, Armitage avoids trendy tender perennials such as Meconopsis (the blue Himalayan poppy) that don't perform well for most North American gardeners. His focus is on solidly hardy plants, those that thrive in USDA zones 3 to 8. He does, however, include a few newly popular plants such as Gunnera, the enormous Chilean foliage plants, and there are lengthy sections for hellebores, heucheras, and other horticulturally hot plants, mentioning and rating many of the newest named selections. --Ann Lovejoy

     Bruce Hoadley, a professor of wood science and technology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, provides:an overview of the wood identification process a look at the basic anatomy of woody plants hundreds of easy-to-use charts and crystal-clear photographs and microphotographs sources of information and materials, and a glossary of all technical terms used in the book

    A delight to read, combining legends and lore with tips on care and planting, this guide is a must for exploring the city's green spaces or your own back yard.

    An authoritative, all-round reference on herbal preparations, hydrotherapy, nutrition, diet, vitamins and exercise, for the treatment of over 200 common ailments.

    

    The authors describe nearly 1500 species and varieties.

    This book groups, pictures, and describes each wildflower according to family. Technical terminology has been kept to a minimum, and line drawings, a picture glossary, and a glossary of botanical terms help identify species quickly and accurately. The first book in the series, Prairie Wildflowers covers open-terrain wildflowers. The second book, Forest Wildflowers concentrates on wildflowers of the forest environment. This book covers high-altitude wildflowers. For any nature-lover who has asked, "What flower is that?" Alpine Wildflowers holds the answer.

    This book is arranged by flower color and has color bars on the edge of pages.

    Now back in a second edition with updated nomenclature, refined plant descriptions, better photographs where improvements were called for, and a new design, Jon Farrar’s Field Guide to Wildflowers of Nebraska and the Great Plains, originally published by NEBRASKAland magazine and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, is a visual treat and educational guide to some of the region’s showiest and most interesting wildflowers. Organizing species by color, Farrar provides scientific, common, and family names; time of flowering; distribution both for Nebraska specifically and for the Great Plains in general; and preferred habitat including soil type and plant community from roadsides to woodlands to grasslands. Descriptions of each species are succinct and accessible; Farrar packs a surprising amount of information into a compact space. For many species, he includes intriguing notes about edibility, medicinal uses by Native Americans and early pioneers, similar species and varieties, hybridization, and changes in status as plants become uncommon or endangered. Superb color photographs allow each of the 274 wildflowers to be easily identified and pen-and-ink illustrations provide additional details for many species. It is a joy to have this new edition riding along on car seats and in backpacks helping naturalists at all levels of expertise explore prairies, woodlands, and wetlands in search of those ever-changing splashes of color we call wildflowers.