This is a book for avid amateurs and those with professional or semi-professional interest in tropical horticulture and gardening. Landscapers, managers of parks and gardens, property developers and students of horticulture will find here explanations of fundamental concepts and principles, a pictorial guide to 1000 types of ornamental plants in systematic order, and notes on their cultivation and propagation. All plants are traced to their historical origins, an those of special cultural and economic interest are highlighted. All the major steps leading to our present understanding of plants, from classification and nutrition to behavioural patterns under tropical conditions are explained. Major gardens in the world are reviewed to provide tropical practitioners with a better understanding of their art in a global and historical context. The author grew up in a farming community, trained as a botanist, and worked as a scientist in the forestry sector in Malaysia. As a front-line tropical taxonomist, plant explorer, ecologist and breeder, as well as a manager and designer of arboreta and gardens, he has been uniquely well placed to observe and participate in many horticultural developments in tropical Asia.
