[.ca] The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Camellias (ISBN 0881924210)

If you love camellias ...:
This is clearly a niche book, but it contains a wealth of information about camellias, and pictures of a large number of varieties. I have yet to encounter a better book for a camellia lover.

Great Book for Camellia Lovers:
Even if you're not new to Camellias, this book is for you. There are plenty of great colour pictures, an indexing of varieties with descriptions as well as history and culture. For Australians, the majority of the photographs are 'typical', however not all can be taken as gospel. Still, its one of the best on the market.

Beautiful pictures, mostly C. japonica:
It's important to note that the book has an Australian perspective. Why important? The camellia varieties found in commerce will vary from place to place, and cultural needs will vary depending on climate and soil. I suspect that most North Americans won't know how their soil compares to that in regions of Australia (I don't!). The book is filled with beautiful photos. It's well printed and bound and offers a pleasant way to while away an hour when it's too rainy to work in the garden. It might even make a nice gift for a non-gardener. In my area (coastal North Carolina), sasanquas are more successful than japonicas. This book, like most Camellia texts, is heavily weighted to japonicas. Of the roughly 300 pages, about 145 are devoted to japonicas, 28 to sasanquas, 10 to higos, 38 to reticulatas, and 35 to hybrids. And, as noted by another reviewer, cultivation is given only about 10 pages. It's a great book for what it is: a photo gallery of about 1,000 camellia species, mostly C. japonica. What it is NOT is a book about growing camellias, nor is it one with especially good coverage of camellia species other than C. japonica.

As the title promises: An illustrated Encyclopedia:
This book presents over 1000 varieties of Camellias with short descriptions, parentage and flower period. The most remarkable point is that all varieties are illustrated with stunning photographies. The Camellias are grouped in several chapters: species, sasanquas, japonicas, higos, reticulatas and hybrids with short introductions dealing with their characteristics. The reader will see the full scope of Camellias and has the chance to compare synononyms, even chinese/japanese names are listed. However, of the 300 pages there are only 9 pages dedicated to the cultivation of Camellias. A hobby gardener interested how to grow Camellias will be disappointed.