An excellent book came to me recently, "Plants for the Tropical Xeriscape: A Gardener’s Guide," by Fred Rauch and Paul Weissich ($55, University of Hawai’i Press).

The authors, who have written several books on landscaping in Hawaii, include more than descriptions of plants and how they grow best. They offer insights such as whether a plant can survive in salty soil or salt-laden wind. Two examples of salt-tolerant plants are the bougainvillea and the amazingly fragrant Rangoon creeper.

Akamai landscape managers know if their bougainvillea get hit by salt-laden Kona winds, they should quickly rinse the salt off of the flowers and leaves so that the whole plant doesn’t defoliate.

Plants from the world’s subtropics that thrive in Hawaii are also featured, though happily all were screened for invasiveness before being featured in the book. The authors used a Hawaii weed risk assessment guide as a tool to make sure they did not promote the planting of alien weedy plants.

There are many useful aspects to this book, from the lists of less thirsty native Hawaiian plant options to the charts and tables of special garden needs.

The wide variety of common, rare and unusual, old-fashioned kamaaina garden plants with pictures is useful for us landscape and garden designers. I love using books like this to help my clients visualize landscape possibilities for their gardens. Many of us are visual, and we need to see colorful pictures; this book contains more than 1,300 photos and illustrations.

Although I love this book, I have a personal connection to the authors. Weissich has been a mentor for me and my husband, Clark, and a major inspiration to many of us "plant nuts" in Hawaii. He was director of Honolulu Botanical Gardens for 32 years. I volunteered there and got my first job there at the age of 17.

Weissich was ahead of his time, proclaiming the benefit of xeriscaping Hawaii-style for many years. He and I were among the founders of the Halawa Xeriscape Garden, which is one of the best evolving public examples of less-thirsty gardening in Hawaii.

Halawa Xeriscape Garden is managed by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, and our nonprofit group, the Friends of Halawa Xeriscape Garden, offers an annual plant sale and many classes and garden tours to teach people to save water in their gardens while growing epic plants and having fun.

Rauch was the University of Hawaii at Manoa horticulture professor who lured me back to graduate school with the appealing project of documenting how we propagate and nurture native Hawaiian plants. He was a kind teacher who kept us all learning more about growing the plants we cherish.

For information about the book or to order, visit 808ne.ws/UHPress.

Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable landscape consultant specializing in native, xeric and edible gardens. Reach her at heidibornhorst@gmail.com.