Steve Bender, senior garden writer at "Southern Living" magazine, has organized a remarkably useful reference book, with lay-flat binding and an excellent index. The plant encyclopedia includes more than 5000 southern ornamentals, with descriptions, climate zones, popular cultivars, landscape uses, and cultural requirements for each. There's a section on gardening resources and an illustrated gardening dictionary that includes techniques and practical advise for all aspects of gardening. But the best part of the book, is the 75-page "Plant Selection Guide," which consists of 26 illustrated tables including such lists as "Fragrant Plants," "Plants that Attract Butterflies," "Plants That Tolerate Shade," "Plants That Tolerate Drought," "Plants for Hedges and Screens", "Southern Heritage Plants," etc. With thousands of line drawings, color photographs and maps, this is perhaps the single most useful reference for gardeners in USDA hardiness zones 6-11.
