The New Encyclopedia of Hostas

This book delivers exactly what should be expected from something called an encyclopedia. The introductory sections cover everything from botanical naming conventions to siting, planting, companion suggestions and troubleshooting every potential problem with growing hostas. The majority of the book deals individually with over 700 varieties with every important detail. While I am certainly not new to growing hostas, I was ready to expand my garden and add several new varieties. This book gave me many useful ideas and helped me identify plants I already had in place. One pleasant surprise; while the author is British, the writing style is comfortable for an American reader, and the photos show great examples from both sides of the Atlantic. And about the photos - outstanding and beautiful! This is a very useful resource at a very reasonable price.

I bought this book to identify my hosta. Years ago, I purchased unique varieties of hosta which came from a hosta farm that is no longer in business. It did help me somewhat, although I felt as if I was stepping back in technological time searching through pictures. I wish this book was an app to identify instead of a picture search which takes hours. I appreciate the beautiful pics though.

Love this book. I'm a newbie to hostas but in the last year have really begun to appreciate their beauty and versatility. This book has taught me everything I've needed to know to make some amazing hosta beds. I now have over 60 different varieties and love each one. This book has also helped me identify several of the varieties I already had. I've spent many hours pouring over the beautiful pictures in this book. My friends now joke about me being the "hosta guru" and come to me with their hosta questions. This book has taught me most of what I know.

Unlike Mark Zilis' Hostapedia, this book is not intended to be comprehensive. Instead it it lists Grenfell's favorite 700+ cultivars. There is an excellent photo of each as well as detailed descriptions of the leaves, clumps and flowers as well as cultivation directions: what kind of setting works best. The book is broken down into the various types of leaves: green, blue, blue-grey, medio-variegated etc. I find this a bit annoying since to find a particular hosta you need to go to the index and hope for the best. But it is one of the classic and essential books for any hosta collector and obviously not as overwhelming as Zilis' tome.

Loved this book so much that after two times borrowed from the library, I wanted my own copy. The copy was listed as used, but is in great condition.

Book was in excellent condition and came to me on time...this book has phenomenal information!

This is the most wonderful book of all the information one needs in order to select whatever type of Hosta that one desires. I have grown Hostas, but only a limited number. Now through knowledge from this book, I am increasing my collection with total enjoyment and continue to read and research in this book almost daily. I had checked out a copy of this book from the public library and kept renewing it until I used up my entitled 5 renewals so decided it was time to purchase a copy for myself. If you garden in the shade and like a lot of variety in a plant that is relatively easy to grow and maintain, this is a great book for you to own.

A great book to all who feel overwhelmed by the vast selection of hostas on the market today.The book has individual, detailed descriptions and high quality color photos of many many hostas.The hostas are grouped by leaf color: green hostas, blue hostas, gold hostas,variegated-margin hostas and medio-variegated hostas.Each color-group makes a chapter in the book, and is of great help in organizing ones hosta-dreams.The text is superb, covering specific information for each cultivar: color and shape of its leaves and flowers,its growth-rate: slow or fast. The plant shape: open habit or a dense mound, its natural disease resistance,the hosta's origin and more.

It’s about Hostas and it’s encyclopaedic - what’s not to like? Everything you might reasonably want to know about these lovely plants, and an intro by Prince Charles who turns out to be a fan of them.

A comprehensive, but not overpowering, book that covers everything you need to know about growing these wonderful plants. Hostas listed by colour of leaves rather than alphabetically which makes looking up one of the 750 listed varieties a little bit harder but by no means difficult. With over 8000 varieties of Hosta don't expect to find all of them but the well known ones and the ones to look for are all in this book.

A good comprehensive guide to growing hostas. A good compilation of some of the numerous hostas which gives an excellent coverage of many of the varieties available. I found it somewhat American in bias but otherwise an excellent reference tool. The photographs supplied alongside the descriptions was very helpful however only shows the plants in adult form. Would have been really useful to have juvenile pictures as well.

Superb book.A slightly odd categorisation means you have to wade through the pictures to find them(like all green Hostas are grouped together) but there is an index.I have managed to identify most of my Hostas using this book as I have lost all the plant labels!

Well written book with great hosta photographs. For the beginner to more experienced gardener this is a good book to buy on Hostas.