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Bizarre Botanicals: How to Grow String-of-Hearts, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Panda Ginger, and Other Weird and Wonderful Plants
Gardeners love tulips, lilies, and pansies—the common, but beautiful, plants found in the average garden. But there are realms in the plant world far beyond these familiar favorites. In Bizarre Botanicals , plant experts Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross take readers on a curious botanical journey of weirdly wonderful plants that can be grown at home.
Bizarre Botanicals features over 75 astonishing plants that have extraordinary abilities—from pyrotechnic spores that can burst into flame when ignited to flowers that lure insects to their deaths. Each plant profile includes essential care and cultivation information. A difficulty scale alerts gardeners to how easy (or difficult) it is to grow the plant at home.
There’s no reason to forsake lilies and petunias. But after reading Bizarre Botanicals , gardeners will want to take a walk on the weird side and try a few of these peculiar plants for themselves.
Bizarre Botanicals features over 75 astonishing plants that have extraordinary abilities—from pyrotechnic spores that can burst into flame when ignited to flowers that lure insects to their deaths. Each plant profile includes essential care and cultivation information. A difficulty scale alerts gardeners to how easy (or difficult) it is to grow the plant at home.
There’s no reason to forsake lilies and petunias. But after reading Bizarre Botanicals , gardeners will want to take a walk on the weird side and try a few of these peculiar plants for themselves.
283 pages, Hardcover
First published October 31, 2010
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125 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 22, 2012
If you want to get out of your gardening comfort zone, look for this book. It features, as advertised, unusual and bizarre plants.
Chapters are Carnivorous plants, Ferns & fern allies, Flamboyant flowers, Love plants (heart-shaped leaves, etc.), Odd inflorescences, Weird leaves, The plant zoo [check out the cuckoo flower (Impatiens niamniamensis), goldfish plant, & bat-faced cuphea], Prickly plants (including the monkey puzzle tree & wing-thorn rose), Orchids (see the medusa orchid), and succulents (including the baseball plant & the climbing onion).
They feature only plants you can likely find and grow, skipping some equally strange plants like the parrot flower that are "unavailable outside its native range." They give Latin name, difficulty rating, indoors vs outdoors, light & hardiness, moisture & growing medium, with notes of special things to watch for. The pictures are almost worth the price of the book.
Highly recommended.
Chapters are Carnivorous plants, Ferns & fern allies, Flamboyant flowers, Love plants (heart-shaped leaves, etc.), Odd inflorescences, Weird leaves, The plant zoo [check out the cuckoo flower (Impatiens niamniamensis), goldfish plant, & bat-faced cuphea], Prickly plants (including the monkey puzzle tree & wing-thorn rose), Orchids (see the medusa orchid), and succulents (including the baseball plant & the climbing onion).
They feature only plants you can likely find and grow, skipping some equally strange plants like the parrot flower that are "unavailable outside its native range." They give Latin name, difficulty rating, indoors vs outdoors, light & hardiness, moisture & growing medium, with notes of special things to watch for. The pictures are almost worth the price of the book.
Highly recommended.
June 10, 2011
I spotted this book at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens and was interested. I was basically expecting a sort of photo tour of some weird plants. And I did get that. The photography was especially beautiful. I was surprised to discover that it's actually pitched towards the home gardener interested in growing these strange plants themselves. As such, virtually everything in here is commercially available, if difficult to grow. I have no intention of growing anything, because I have the exact opposite of a green thumb, but I did think it was cool that it's a how-to instead of just gawking.
August 13, 2018
While the tone ranged from tolerable to off-putting at times, Mellichamp's book gave me a new appreciation for plants. I've always considered myself a book geek over a science geek, but if there's one thing this book does right is that it conveys just how cool plants are, in a way that makes you feel like you're learning something without being overly technical.
The alleged goal of the book is to profile a series of plants the interested gardener can grow themselves, thus putting an emphasis on plants that are interesting, affordable, accessible, and generally can be grown from a natural seed rather than something cultivated by people. To that end, the book is divided into 10 chapters, each with its own category of plants. There's a brief pre-amble at the start of the chapter to provide an overview of the category, then a short description of the plants within it, emphasizing the plant's appeal, its biological functions, and any other salient details. It starts off strong with a chapter on carnivorous plants, but I was generally interested throughout--I'd say the chapters on ferns, prickly plants and succulents appealed the most, just because of the variety of adaptations the plants had adopted to survive.
The book's downside, and it's a major downside for me at times, is the tone. At best, Mellichamp likes to indulge in what I'd generously call dad jokes. At worst, it's just a step too far into something sexist, or even transphobic. YMMV, obviously, but it was actively a detracting point for me, and if I wasn't reading it for research, I don't know that I'd have finished it.
The other side, though, is that the book's selection of plants feels stellar. It honestly opened my eyes to an aspect of the world I've been largely indifferent to up to date. I'm not rushing out to buy a cactus right now or anything, but I feel like I can tell a fern from an orchid (low bar, I know) or talk about a plant's infloresence, and I'm generally interested to see what's out there. So--fascinating subject matter, but not the best delivery.
The alleged goal of the book is to profile a series of plants the interested gardener can grow themselves, thus putting an emphasis on plants that are interesting, affordable, accessible, and generally can be grown from a natural seed rather than something cultivated by people. To that end, the book is divided into 10 chapters, each with its own category of plants. There's a brief pre-amble at the start of the chapter to provide an overview of the category, then a short description of the plants within it, emphasizing the plant's appeal, its biological functions, and any other salient details. It starts off strong with a chapter on carnivorous plants, but I was generally interested throughout--I'd say the chapters on ferns, prickly plants and succulents appealed the most, just because of the variety of adaptations the plants had adopted to survive.
The book's downside, and it's a major downside for me at times, is the tone. At best, Mellichamp likes to indulge in what I'd generously call dad jokes. At worst, it's just a step too far into something sexist, or even transphobic. YMMV, obviously, but it was actively a detracting point for me, and if I wasn't reading it for research, I don't know that I'd have finished it.
The other side, though, is that the book's selection of plants feels stellar. It honestly opened my eyes to an aspect of the world I've been largely indifferent to up to date. I'm not rushing out to buy a cactus right now or anything, but I feel like I can tell a fern from an orchid (low bar, I know) or talk about a plant's infloresence, and I'm generally interested to see what's out there. So--fascinating subject matter, but not the best delivery.
July 13, 2022
Violence, sex, traps for the unwary, pungent odors, unexpected movement, predation! Who says plants are boring? Descriptions of some of the most exotic plants in the world and practical advice on how to grow them--should you want to do so. From Titan arum-corpse plant (Little Shop of Horrors) to weird orchids (aren't they all?), Piggy ginger, bat plants and baseball plants this is a fun little book for the botany nerd. I loved it.
July 24, 2021
Learned new things and added rare plants to my wishlist. Wouldn't want to have the same plants everyone else has on Insta right?!!
February 6, 2022
Interesting! I found a few more plants to grow in my witchy garden!
December 23, 2015
Bizarre Botanicals: How to Grow String-Of-Hearts, Jack-In-The-Pulpit, Panda Ginger, and Other Weird and Wonderful Plants by Larry Mellichamp and Paula Gross (Timber Press 2010)(635.9)(with a Forward by Tony Avent of Plant Delights of Raleigh,NC) is one cool gardening book! The text is paired with beautiful photographs. The plants' difficulty of culture is rated on a scale of one to three from easiest to most tricky. At least one of the plants described here is a volunteer in my own Zone 6b garden in Knoxville, Tennessee. My rating: 7/10, finished 11/16/11.
December 8, 2010
Lovely little collection of some seriously odd botanicals. The forward is by famous nurseryman Tony Avent, which is always a good sign.
The small collection of facts about each nicely photographed plant left me wanting more. There were plenty of plants I recognized, and several that I've grown- and for those, the cultivation notes seemed right on. The tone is folksy and accessible- it read at a middle-grade level. If I were a school librarian, I'd be certain to buy this book.
The small collection of facts about each nicely photographed plant left me wanting more. There were plenty of plants I recognized, and several that I've grown- and for those, the cultivation notes seemed right on. The tone is folksy and accessible- it read at a middle-grade level. If I were a school librarian, I'd be certain to buy this book.
March 28, 2016
Lots of great plants to want to own in this book! All the plants featured have growing tips and a write up about them. They label each plant with a difficulty rating from 1 to 3 so you have some idea if the plant will be difficult to maintain. Hardiness zoning is based in USDA hardiness zones and they do recommend if a plant is better suited for outdoors or indoors. All and all this book contains some interesting plants and would be a good buy for plant enthusiasts.
January 11, 2012
This book was an interesting read and there were gorgeous photographs. The growing tips were a little sparse for a beginner. There are 2 pages of tips and then each box in the margin with a difficulty rating, indoor vs. outdoor light, hardiness, moisture and growing medium. I mostly ignored the growing tips and enjoyed reading about these unusual plants.
October 18, 2012
LOVED this book! Was full of awesome color photos and lots of info on a wonderful variety of very odd, unique, and interesting plants. Some I had heard of, most I had not, but all I learned about. They even tell you how to make them a part of your garden or home! If you are into plants and gardens and also into plants for their uniqueness and not just beauty, this is the book for you!
September 24, 2012
After visiting the UNCC greenhouses, I was eager to get my hands on this book full of the unusual botanicals we saw on our trip. Beautiful and strange species that can be cultivated by daring gardeners. On the lookout for a String of Hearts now!
April 27, 2011
Some very very cool plants in this book - many can be grown as houseplants and the book gives a "difficulty" rating to growing the plant.
April 7, 2013
An intersection between Botany and Gardening. Or maybe... (science (biology (botany (gardening)))).
February 22, 2015
This is a fabulous book with really interesting photos of botanicals so interesting as to seem unreal. Great instructions and photography.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews