The Savage Garden

[RyanG]

does anyone here own The Savage Garden? if so what do you think of the book? i like the book and it has helped me ALOT

 

[Est]

I've got it. Definite good read. Gotta love CP books!

 

[rattler]

good read, decent book. not everything in it is 100% correct but some of that comes down to not everything works for everybody. definatly a must have in a personal libraryjust dont take everything in it as gospel

 

[glider14]

Quote[/b] ] not everything in it is 100% correct

what do you mean?
i love the savage garden. it has answered most of my questions in the past and it is just an all around good book.
alex

 

[rattler]

number one off the top of my head Utricularia longifolia is not an epiphyte, there are others but to be honest i havent read through my copy in 6 months

 

[jimscott]

I have it. It's a great book for a beginner and for those who have been growing CP's for a few years. I keep referring to it as I progress to more challenging plants.

 

[shokuchuu]

First CP book that landed in my hands. I read it over and over at least 100 times before I even bought my first CP after years of resiting curiosity. As you learn in the practical field of growing, you start bending textbook "rules" to suit your own tastes and what works for you and your plants.
For me, keeping Nepenthes has become a "natural instinct" whereas I still need to refer to text for Sarracenia, and can't keep a VFT to save my life.
Savage Garden is a great starting point.

Cheers
Amori

 

[Tropics]

Great book.  But D'Amato grew most of his plants under certain conditions (bright light, for example, if I remember correctly), so if you have different conditions, you may have to modify your practices.

 

[The Griffin]

Quote[/b] (Tropics @ May 03 2006,6:21)]Great book.  But D'Amato grew most of his plants under certain conditions (bright light, for example, if I remember correctly), so if you have different conditions, you may have to modify your practices.

Words of wisdom here.
Slack's second book, Insect-Eating Plants and How to Grow Them" is awesome too, but D'Amato's book is much easier to get. My first one was "Carnivorous Plants of the World."

Cheers,

Joe

 

[Tamlin Dawnstar]

If there is one "rule" about growing CP it is that everyone has different conditions to which they must be aware of and modify any advice given by any author. The only real teacher is experience and in this failure is a better teacher than success.

Same goes for the Slack book (I hand copied the original book) since conditions in England are different than here. It was good advice to start from though, and so is the SG.

SG is a good starting point, but as has been mentioned, it was not brought down from the mountain carved in stone by its author! Grow lots of plants, and experiment until you strike the magic that works for YOU.

 

[Tinytimid]

It is my first book, but sometimes I feel like it reads like stereo instructions, but I'm learning.

Still not sure where I'd be without it.

 

[RavnKing]

One of the best books out so far. If a person could buy only one CP book, this would be the one to have.

 

[chloroplast]

It's an easily-readable and generally good GUIDE to growing many CPs. In my opinion, it should not be considered a RULE BOOK filled with absolutes.

 

[jimscott]

Gotta love his down to earth writing style, too.

 

[Anna]

Hi All:

Im planning on buying Savage Garden book since Im new to this hobby. Could someone tell me what other books I should have in my collection?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Anna

 

[rattler]

Barry Rice's book is a good one, lil less growing info than Peter's but great photos and Barry breaks everything out into lists which is handy......he also has more info on Genlisea and Heliamphora than Peters but thats mainly because more info has come out on them and how to grow them since Peter wrote his..........

 

[swords]

Yes, I own the book, along with every other CP book ot there that I've found in the English language, (in all totalling only about 30 books). The last one I got was called Growing Carnivorous Plants by Barry Rice and it's also fantastic, a little pricier than SG but I love large format hardcover books! Either book will do fine for a first CP growers book. When you define a genus of plants you want to work with then you will probably want a genre specific books but these are both worthwile to own. Scan Ebay and Amazon and you will come across some additional books, be careful some of the CP books on Amazon are actually kiddie books full of glossy photos for kindergarteners to look at and not "about" cultivating the species, so read the descriptons and customer reviews first!

If you're into growing Nepenthes (my old specific) you can actually check out Orchid Growing books, mostly the same cultivation information applies, except that Neps just need to be watered more often than most orchids and lowland neps don't like as much air circulation as lowland orchids - though the montane species require it.

 

[xvart]

You can try these links as well:

CP Bibliography of Recommended Books for Beginners

recommendations...

Happy reading!

xvart.

 

[Nepenthes]

The Savage Garden is definitely a good book, but as rattler pointed out, it has quite a few flaws and errors. I didn't buy this book until after about a year of growing Nepenthes. I gathered all my information online through web pages and forums such as this one. I noticed some of the cultivation information provided in the SG is erroneous, but this could also be due to the fact that the book was written some time ago and more and more information is becoming available about CP's. Also, as Tropics pointed out, Peter D'Amato suggests cultivation tips that work for him in his climate, but may not necessarily work for others. Either way though, I bought the book because I like the pictures provided and some of the information can be useful. I just wouldn't rely solely on it as a bible (it is a good place to start).

I started on this forum by reading through hundreds of posts about everything in general. It took a lot of time, but it was worth it in the end, because I got to catch up with a lot of the wisdom the long time growers here have imparted. Google was and is, definitely my friend in cultivation tips for CP's.

 

[NeciFiX]

I've read TSG along with Barry Rice's book and Carnivorous Plants of the Americas (I believe it's called, I forgot the author) and I think The Savage Garden was the best of the three, simply because the CP of America's book only covered CPs in America, and Barry Rice's book was more of a picture book/general information, not so much as a how-to guide. The Savage Garden had a good amount of pictures, and is lengthy, a bit out of date though.