You Grow Girl™

I bought a book on orchid care last night. Now that I'm all "crazy for orchids" I thought it was time I had a book. I'm very picky when it comes to books. Basically what it comes down to is if the book lacks pretty pictures and has what I deem to be bad design, I probably won't buy it. It's true. I am that shallow when it comes to books. I not only judge it by it's cover but by the quality of the photography, the typography (if it uses Mistral *shudder* it leaves my hands immediately)and even the way the cover feels. I like my general plant care books to have good step-by-step instructions that include photographs. Along side the practical, I want them to have beautiful artistic images of plants including super-closeups and soft focus... or something. And then there is colour. Colour rules my world. There is nothing I hate more than bad colour and bad colour combining. I absolutely despise forest green, yet so many plant books are forest green. And the worst... forest green and royal purple, a bad colour combination that began as a "den for men" type trend and popped up EVERYWHERE in the early 90's. I'm telling the world right now, I despise purple. I've used it once or twice out of obligation or the silly idea that "maybe I can make purple work for me". I just imagined THE WORST ever; a forest green book with purple and gradients and Mistral in a yellowy gold. My eyes are burning with the evil!

I have, on occassion bought an ugly plant book or a plant book that *gasp* didn't have colour photos. But this is only on the rare occassion when I know the book has good information contained within. I need some kind of proof before the transaction can occur. I know I'm probably missing out on something good out there by being such a stick-in-the-mud. But plant books without pretty imagery just don't make sense to me.

Back to the book I bought last night. I looked at every book on orchids in the store and decided that "Gardener's Guide to Growing Orchids: A Complete Guide to Cultivation and Care" had the right mix between practical advice, step-by-step photography, more information than your basic beginner book (this is critical), nice design, and lots of pretty pictures. Oh and the cover is nice and smooth and silky the way I like it. And furthermore the price was totally right at $16.95 CDN. What I learned last night is that there are a lot of books to help you identify your orchid, and there are a lot of really basic orchid care books. There are also a few advanced books, but I didn't see them there. But to find a book that balances between beginner information and more advanced cultivation practices, while providing more in terms of history and botany than "Orchids grow in trees. Orchids sure do have pretty flowers.", is a hard thing to come by. I think this book just might fall within that category.