What Gardeners Grow is a great tool for anyone trying to decide what plants would be great plants to add to their personal gardens. The book was filled with hundreds of plants and all the basic information for caring for each plant! A must read for anybody trying to decide where to begin with their gardening journey!

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
The book does not have any photographs, only drawings of the plants. The information about the plants is brief, but enough. There are also short bios about the gardeners who chose the plants. In the ebook format, it feels like there are too many plants.

This beautiful book is full of evocative artwork throughout. Head gardeners from around the world's most beloved gardens offer up their suggestions of what gardeners should grow and why. Alongside each entry is a detailed description of each plant's properties. Be warned, this book is a serious time user, I got lost in it for hours. It makes for a great pastime, just make sure you have pen and paper to hand to make notes and write your plant wishlist.

Highly recommended for all the green-fingered folk in your life.

Thank you to #Netgalley and #Bloom for allowing me access to a beautiful #ARC of #Whatgardenersgrow

I want to thank the publisher and netgalley for this e arc.

The book is mainly a primer of most loved plants by different gardening experts, landscape designers, plant enthusiasts, large garden owners.
These are listed by name, reasoning as to why plant is chosen and all the requisite information. Loved the many many plants shown here. Also, love the plant arteork.
One minor gripe is not having artwork for each plant. I can't for the life of me, associate any names without pictures. That would have really helped.

This book is labeled as a selection of favorite plants by famous plant experts (mostly from the UK). It consists of half-page summaries of each person's favorite plant. However, approximately one in five plants is illustrated with a colorful drawing reminiscent of a herbarium specimen. Each plant is described in a good-sized paragraph plus a side bar with basic information (type, flowering time, size, hardiness, light & soil requirements. While this is a very unique concept and the artwork is quite good, I didn't find the presentation attractive enough to really read all of the entries. I would much prefer seeing photos of each plant (and fewer plants, if needed, to balance the cost).
Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This book has lots of information for all gardeners, maybe even too much! This book read to my like a text book, so it wasn't as enjoyable as I had hoped. The few illustrations were lovely, but I would have appreciated more and possibly accurate photos of the plants.
I had an e-book of this, but even if I had a hard copy, I'm not sure if this is a book I would flip through for information. It also seemed to lack organization that I would need as a home gardener.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced copy in return for my review.

Thank you NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion, Frances Lincoln for accepting my request to read and review What Gardeners Grow -- 600 plants chosen by the world's greatest plants people.

Published: 04/18/23

This is an encyclopedia of plants with a few sketched images strewn throughout. I was reminded of my debate days and the fact cards I made. Each plant has a paragraph, however, no picture. The sketches are whimsical and appear to be placed strategically, breaking up the monotony.

This is a miss for me. I had the E-book, and it was difficult to see the entire plant fact. Given that there are no pictures, and the plants are not regionally based, I'm not certain what to do with it or its purpose.

This is a really pretty book with unique botanical illustrations & thorough plant descriptions. It definitely is inspiring to read about how various experts have come to grow and love certain plants & why. This isn’t your average flower book, but could be a great book for the more advanced gardener!

Forget your botany textbook. Be a nerd and love this amazing creative text with beautiful illustrations of the plants described instead!

Each page describes about two plants with pictures focusing on the important parts, their descriptions and where they grow best.

Such a good, big book for everyone who’s interested in plants and flowers! You will fall in love with this nonfiction, amazing plants book more and more the more you keep reading it. The artwork is outstanding!

Thank you, Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion, for the advance reading copy.

As a gardener, I know I have my favorites. They might not be the most beautiful or rare plants I love (like plumeria or hanging blue jade), but they are the ones that I know I can grow in my climate and soil, reliably survive the winter, are perennial and easy to propagate and still give me a thrill when they bloom (in my case, that’s lavender). I’m not sure what that says about me (reliable but sweet scented?), but this book is an amazing look inside the minds of famous “plantpeople”. As the book notes “Each entry offers a brief glimpse into the mind of the contributor and their tastes and approach to plants.” Some love to give detailed physical descriptions, others reflect on the beauty or challenges of cultivation.

There’s a mini-biography of each contributor and I was very grateful for a plant index (there’s a people index, too). Julia Snowball, of Yorkshire Lavender, turned out to be “my” person. A lot of the magic of this book is due to the illustrations of Melanie Gandrya. They’re not the anatomical botanical type drawings one is used to in garden, but sort of folk-artsy. That makes this also a great gift for both advanced gardeners and simple flower lovers. 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group/White Lion and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

I was so excited by the premise of this book! I love the idea of gardeners sharing their favorite plants. That said, it fell short for me. There are no photos and few illustrations, and those are lovely but not really accurate for the plants. It is also published in the UK and most of the plants won’t grow in my Minnesota garden. And while they list zones, they do it in a very confusing way where I’m still never sure if a plant will grow here unless it’s one I already know. For instance, they list it as 6a. What? It should be a range, like zones 4-8. Occasionally they list a range but then it appears backwards, like 6-1 and since zone 1 is so cold I’m inclined not to believe them. Lastly, it reads like an incredibly long encyclopedia. I had hoped for enthusiasm, fawning, raving about plants. This is very dry.

I’m sure it will be well loved by experienced British gardeners who want detailed lists of wonderful plants, but other gardeners may want to peek inside first to see if it’s a good match for them.

I read a temporary digital copy of this book via NetGalley.

This is a lot of fun. The book has LOADS of plants. Explanations, hints and tips, where they grow best. I would have loved pictures for each plant though. But overall super helpful. I am putting in a yard in the spring and this will be a huge help and reference!

This is a very good book and obviously there were a lot of hard work put into it, and ton of super elegant drawings. But, it wasn’t for me, because it is for more expert gardeners and people who already have a background about gardening. I also believe it would be much easier if it was put into chapters each one talks about plants share a specific feature. This book might not be for me, But I really I adored the beautiful flowers drawings here and there, thumbs up for the artist. :)

Very dense and very informative, I find the concept of this to be much more appealing to me than the end result is to browse. My skill level is just a little low for the presentation of the information, which seems like it would be an excellent find for an accomplished and experimental gardener. I was looking more for tips and advice, while this is much more a compendium of the best loved of skilled gardens.

This is such a beautiful book. I much enjoyed flicking through to pick out my own favourite plants and see what the professionals thought of them, and then reading each entry in detail which gave me lots of ideas for my own garden.
There's the likes of gardener and TV presenter Katie Rushworth, who loves Monarda, to plantswoman Sarah Raven who loves the Dahlia 'Rip City' (I'd never heard of this one).
Each entry has the plantsperson's description of why they've chosen a certain plant, to information about how and where to grow that plant.
I really did like the concept and layout of the book, and the illustrations are lovely.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in return for an honest review.

This is a great read for learning specific plant information and diving into what experts around the world gravitate toward. If you’re looking for a very detailed account of plants and a scientific layout, this may be a book for you. For someone who is looking to learn about plants, I think it’s very informational. It’s not a book I will probably add to my personal library, other than the cover is adorable and there are some pretty illustrations throughout. Not every plant has an illustration with it, but it has information on how to grow each plant and perfect for someone who wants to have a consolidated spot for tracking their plants they may be planting in their gardens.

This is an interesting concept for a gardening book but for me it doesn’t really work. There are so many plants packed into the pages with loads of information on them but a distinct lack of pictures. The pictures that are in this book are cartoonish drawings, which are pretty but I didn’t find that helpful. To me a gardening book about plants needs to be visual for identifying and helping the gardener.