RHS Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers
Christopher Brickell (ed.) · DK, 2019
The other half of the RHS pair: what to plant, not how. Organised by type, size and colour rather than alphabetically, so you can browse toward a decision.
The 5th (2010) and 6th (2019) editions are both 744-page hardbacks with the same title. The 6th updated the RHS hardiness ratings — the single best reason not to buy an older copy. Current ISBN: 9780241343265.
What's actually in it
- A photographic catalogue of roughly 4,000 plants, deliberately organised by plant type → size → colour rather than A–Z, so you can find something that fits a gap.
- A Plant Dictionary — an A–Z of 8,000+ species and cultivars with cultivation requirements.
- A Plant Selector — lists for specific situations: coastal, shade, particular soil types.
- Each entry gives light, soil, hardiness and general cultivation.
What it actually says
Specifics from inside the book — so you can judge whether it's telling you anything you don't already know.
- It is deliberately not an A–Z. The photographic catalogue of roughly 4,000 plants runs by plant type, then size, then colour — so you browse toward something that fits the gap, rather than looking up a name you already know.
- Updated RHS hardiness ratings, and this is the reason not to buy an older copy. The nine-band H1a–H7 system gives absolute minimum winter temperatures, not the long-term averages USDA zones use: H3 is −5 to 1°C (hardy in mild or coastal areas, at risk in hard winters), H4 is −10 to −5°C (hardy through most of the UK but not inland valleys, altitude or the far north), H5 is −15 to −10°C, H6 is −20 to −15°C, and H7 is colder than −20°C.
- A separate Plant Dictionary of more than 8,000 species and varieties with their growing conditions, and a Plant Selector in the introduction listing plants for specific situations — coastal sites, shade, particular soils.
- More than 1,380 new cultivars in this edition — though DK's own page says "over 1,400", so treat the exact figure loosely.
Buy it if
You're standing in front of an empty border and don't know what to put in it.
Don't buy it if
Anyone wanting technique. There is no pruning method, no propagation step-by-step, no pest treatment.
Where it falls short
Essentially no house plant coverage — this is an outdoor ornamentals book. Weak on edibles. And the most legitimate complaint: the photographs are close-ups that don't convey mature plant size, which is exactly what you need when planning a border. Cultivar coverage also runs out quickly once your interests get specialist — alpines, ferns, anything collector-grade.
Who wrote it
Christopher Brickell CBE VMH took a horticulture degree at Reading in 1954, joined the RHS in 1958 as assistant to the botanist at Wisley, became Director of Wisley in 1969 and the society's first Director General in 1985, retiring in 1993. He chaired the international commission on cultivated plant nomenclature, founded the Horticultural Taxonomy Group and Plant Heritage, and co-authored a monograph on Daphne — a working botanist, not merely an editor. The publisher states the book was produced by a team of more than fifteen horticultural specialists working under him — institutional authorship, but with a genuinely credentialled named editor rather than a house byline.
Where it was written
The UK edition uses RHS hardiness ratings (H1a–H7). The US edition is retitled and uses USDA zones — a genuinely different book for your purposes.
The facts
- AuthorChristopher Brickell (ed.)
- PublisherDK
- Published2019
- Edition6th edition
- FormatHardback, 744 pages
- ISBN-13
9780241343265 - LevelReference
Checked against publisher listings, UK retailers and library records in August 2026. If any of this is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.
Where to get it
Buying secondhand? Match the ISBN above — several books on this shelf have editions that look identical but aren't.