TOW - your favourite reference book for the garden.

TOW - What is your favourite gardening reference book.

Which book do you refer to most often when you are about to or have just bought a new plant?

The American Horicultures Society Encyclopedia A-Z of gardeing plants

I half agree with you notmartha, because I use the above mentioned book in conjunction with my Sunset western garden book.

Me too, along with From Seed to Bloom and AHS Plant Propagation. Those three are the ones I go to first. If it's wildflowers, the National Audobon Society field guide Eastern ed.

A to Z has to be first on the list. But there are many to compliment this encyclopedia.

"Botanica"; "Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants"; "Exotic Plant Manual"; "Perennials for American Gardens"; "Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs"; "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden". To list a few that I go to frequently.

Lots of others that are more specific.

I agree, A to Z is the best. Just love it.

'A-Z' plus 'From Seed to Bloom' are my gardening bibles :-) Padre

I have two I can think of just off the top of my head, because there are many, but these I read all the time:

Rodale's Garden Problem Solver
and
Louise Riotte's Carrots Love Tomatoes

I use A-Z and I also like the Sunset Western Garden Book.

"Carrots Love tomatoes"? This is one I have to get. Sounds like it might be about companion gardening.

Absolutely, and a wonderful book. Can almost carry it in your pocket..:) I learned a lot of what not to plant next to each other, as well as what grows well together. Ours has worn corners and such now and I'm not even sure if it is still in print, but if you can get a copy from Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble...I would do it. :) Kathy

Hi Everyone, Just subscribed to this site and I love it already. My garden bible is the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials by Professor Marshall Craigmyle. I bought a home with established gardens, and what I don't know (a whole lot) I can find in it. It has photos which help me identify what is already here, and if I see something at the nursery I think I want I can look it up to find if it does well in this area.

I rarely read books, I usually check the info from the internet.

My favourites are the Kodin Kukat -series, and quite new Sipulit & Mukulat book which I bought for only 10 € last Spring.

Being from the South, I really like the books by Walter Reeves such as 'Gardening in Georgia' and also 'The Southern Living Gardening' book. If I can ever save the money, I'd like to have the complete series of the Taylor's guides and the "A to Z encyclopedia".

I am with berrygirl.

Southern Living Garden Book,
Southern Living Problem Solver,
Southern Plants by James Turner & Botanica by R.G. Turner Jr.

I can't live without any of these books.

Honeybee

My favorite is 'Dave's Garden' by Dave & Co. {:^)

A to Z is my favorite gardening reference. It is in my morning room on a book stand and is always open. Altho I will have to say I do have to look in the Sunset book sometimes when i can't think of the botanical name for something. Sunset does list common names which is a help for someone like me whose memory deserts me when i need it most. Donna

Does A-Z of Gardening include many tropical plants and plants we can use in zone 9? I just bought The Well-tended Perennial Garden and was disappointed that there were not many plants that we can grow. I suppose the Southern Living books are good for our area.

Welcome to DG, Torquay!

I forgot to mention, I love Traci DiSabato Aust's book

The Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting & Pruning Techniques

It's top-notch information and very readable (enjoyable, even).

This message was edited Oct 11, 2003 12:58 AM

Rutholive, the A-Z has a list of common names in the back for those times when that's all you know.

barbur, it has a lot of tropicals (not that I'm growing any, for all you tropical lovers out there).

barbur, the Exotic Plant Manual is good for tropicals.

Botanica by Mynah press.
A-Z encyclopedia of Garden plants,
I often spend hours browsing these.You wouldn't think so though,by the amount of items I put on the Identification lists!! :-)
I like browsing the seed catalogues too, as quite often I've identified things from their photos.
what I find frustrating is when I know I know the plant, but can't think what it is, I can spend hours trawling through my books, knowing I've seen a photo of it somewhere.
I'd love to start collecting some of the more specialist books now.
Whats yours Mark, because your knowledge is pretty thorough when it comes to plant identification,as I know from the amount of times you've helped me out.

This message was edited Oct 11, 2003 1:23 PM

My reference book varies by the week as I tend to read about specific plants or species. Just looking above my head, and counting, I have 100+ books dealing with single species to the basic how to propagate plants and of course the RHS A-Z.

Right now I'm reading about Trilliums because I've bought my first Trillium - Trillium pusillum.

One book that I've read and re-read loads of times 'cos I think it's quite amusing the way it's written is 'Garden flowers from seed' by Christopher Lloyd and Graham Rice.In it you can almost hear the discussion between two gardeners as they sit in their potting shed, comparing notes.
It's one of those factual biiks that I find enjoyable to read as it's not technical or stodgy,but enjoyable.

sueone, that is a classic for seed starting. Not every plant discussed, but they do give their opinions and then some. Good read for the winter evenings.

Susanne Ashworth's Seed To Seed

An absolute goldmine for people who grow edibles...and wish to save seed without crosspollination.

My edition is dog eared and well worn..and I've got my eye on the second edition.

"Carrots Love Tomatoes" and "Seed to Seed" are the list as 'buys'.