New Master Gardener Volunteer Book Club Selection is…
The Scent of Scandal
Craig Pittman
University Press of Florida
After its discovery in Peru in 2002, Phragmipedium kovachii became the most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared to $10,000 on the black market. Then one showed up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where every year more than 100,000 people visit. The collision between Selby’s scientists and the smugglers of this rare ladyslipper orchid led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and criminal charges. It made headlines around the country, cost the gardens hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, and led to tremendous internal turmoil.
Read all about it in this enthralling account by award-winning journalist Craig Pittman.
320 pp.
$20.95
20% off!
$16.76
Other Florida MGV Book Club selections
Composting for a New Generation
Michelle Balz
Cool Springs Press
Composting for a New Generation lays out all the options for today’s sustainability-minded gardeners. It includes instructions for building backyard tumblers and African keyhole gardens, tips for dealing with fruit flies, vermiculture, hugelkultur, making Bokashi and compost tea, and more. It also includes a fascinating section on the science of composting—take note, parents of children with science fair projects. Even if you’ve been composting for years, there are new techniques and projects to learn.
If you’re new to composting, once you start, you’ll wonder why you ever took out the trash.
192 pp.
$22.95
Florida Oranges: A Colorful History
Erin Thursby
Arcadia Publishing
The first orange groves, planted in St. Augustine in the 1500s by Ponce de Leon, were the precursor to what would become an integral part of Florida’s identity. Orange groves slowly spread across the state, inspiring horticultural and manufacturing ingenuity. Discover the story behind Deland’s eccentric “citrus wizard” Lue Gim Gong, the rise and fall of smuggler Jesse Fish and the silver-tongued politician William J. Howey, who made his fortune selling plots of groveland through the 1920s. Celebrate the heyday of orange tourism and the farmers who weathered freezes, floods and citrus greening. Join author Erin Thursby as she explores the history of the Sunshine State’s most famous crop.
195 pp.
$21.99
How Plants Work
Linda Chalker-Scott
Timber Press
Why do container plants wilt even when they’ve been regularly watered? Why did the hydrangea that thrived last year never bloom this year? Plant physiology – the study of how livings things function – can solve these and most other problems gardeners regularly encounter. In this book, horticulture expert Linda Chalker-Scott brings the stranger-than-fiction science of the plant world to vivid life. She uncovers the mysteries of how and why plants do the things they do, and arms you with fascinating knowledge that will change the way you garden.
For more, visit http://ifasbooks.ifas.ufl.edu
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