A comprehensive and professional textbook on the principles underlying the successful growing of plants for landscape plantings, playing surfaces, commercial production of flowers, fruit and vegetables, and the garden. The first part of the book deals with the nature of plant growth and the factors that influence plant development. The following chapters examine the pests and diseases that attack plants and the ways in which horticulturists control them. Finally, the last part of the book discusses the root environment - soil and other growing media, soil water, plant nutrition and the role of organic matter. In this second edition greater emphasis is laid on the diversity of plant use in horticulture. A new first chapter sets the scene and looks at the impact on the industry of the conservation movement and organic growing, which is reflected throughout the book. Topics given fuller treatment include water conservaton and alternatives to soil as a growing medium.