Favorite plant encyclopedia?

Just wondering, what is everyone's favorite plant encyclopedia/s? I have several, and have to have all of them most of the time in order to look up something, and even then, they are lacking. My head swims at the list of books in the bookworm section! Owing an updated Hortus is one of my dreams.

Sunset's Western is apparently not well known, and I find it invaluable with it's 8,000 plants despite the fact it is missing quite a few. Rarely do I hear others speak of it, and I wonder why?

After the Sunset, I run to E.L.D. Seymour's New Garden Encyclopedia, Wise & Co, 1948, then to several smaller and newer collection books. I would love to know if there is another extensive plant reference book out there I am unaware of.

For this area, I rely on the 2 Southern Living Garden Books. There are 5,000 plants in the first ed. and 7,000 in the new edition. These books even note which cultivars are best for different areas of the south! Especially helpful for the northern gulf coast where conditions are tricky!
Jen

I had to laugh a bit, those are probably as available locally for me as Sunset is for you.

Hmmm! I guess your right.
I'm pretty sure they came from Sam's. Then, of coure, there's Amazon.
Seems like nothing is out of reach anymore.
Jen

My dream is to own a Hortus and thers a rumor that Amazon has some! I have a 1930 Hortus, and while it's grand, it doesn't include anything beyond that date. I shall have to seek the Southern books, but I would love to see them before buying them.

Ladyanne, you can pick up a Hortus Third (the most recent update which was 1976, I think) for $50 or so if you watch eBay and the used booksellers.

Terry, bless thee, will continue to keep an eye out!

I spy with my little eye, somebody mentioning ..... Hortus!!!

The AHS A-Z (in my case RHS) is the better encyclopedia (IMHO) and a new ed is out this year, approx 15,500 plants included.

Edited for removal of a zero ;)

This message was edited Oct 26, 2004 1:12 PM

Goodness. 15 thou? Well, drop a zero in there. Lol...my grayness (blondeness) is going to show here. Whatsa AHS?

The American Horticulture Society A-Z hands down is the best

imo
dori

Ah...thank you, Dori!!! I will definitely put that on my wish list!

Sigh. I was trying to stay neutral and simply answer the question at hand ;o)

For those of you not aware of the good-natured ribbing going on, Baa makes fun of my decrepit Hortus (grin) - as though any plant names might have changed in 30 years.

Baa would never do that. Baa? Right? I did see a Hortus, one of your wonderful members visited (and brought me a long desired night blooming jasmine) and he brought his Hortus for me to look at. I quietly wiped off the drool and let him go home with it, but it was a close call.

Anyone have intructions for building an ark?

Oh now Terry, I didn't say anything bad about Hortus just there ... I thought I was being very good by restraining my natural instincts *G*

(ducking rotten vegetables)

Ladyanne, thanks for catching that exta 0, it is indeed 15 thou and not 150 thou ;)

WHAT rotten veggies?!?!?!. Have you been peering over the fence at my poor neglected, ready to be put to bed for the season vegetable garden? Hmmm??? hehehehehe

AHS A-Z is my definite favorite. There's stuff in there that can't even be found on the Internet (yet)!

OMG....think I need a drink. Gee, they are throwing vegies!! Hey, I need those vegies for my ARK!

Sunset Western Garden is invaluable for me, here where the climate is not like anywhere else in the U.S. Winter is the easy growing season and summer is the challenging season.

LOL Terry, at least you had some veg this year!

Ummm, are you referring to my ill-fated veggie garden(s) of seasons past, or your own? (grin)...

I shall have many MANY seeds of 'Dad Speegle's Special' okra this year, since I didn't get it picked fast enough to pickle. And if anyone wants 'Caribbean Red' hab-type pepper seeds, speak. up.


Ooops..guess I'm hijacking a perfectly good thread about reference books. Sorry!

Terry, is you can't hijack a trhead, who can? We had one of our most bountiful gardens this year, right up to the heat that killed off everything in one day. : ( I miss my vegies!!!

I have the large Sunset book, but usually only use it to find the botanical name for something that I can only think of the common name, which I can also do in my AHS A to Z, which is my far and away most favorite.

I also have the 8th edition of Exotica, pub. 1973 I think, which I used a lot before I got AHS A to Z. I have one of those small tables that has a slant top for large books plus the left side stays level. My A to Z is there in my morning room open all the time. Donna

Looks like I am going to have to find an AHS! I have several Sunsets, for different locations (ie computer, bedside, greenhouse) and might have to come up with a portable library cart!

I love "Botanica The Illustraded A-Z, the generic of The American Horticulture Society A-Z ...It has over 15,000 plants complete with write-up and colored pics..Got it at Sam's for about $30.00 or so..I wanted the The American Horticulture Society A-Z for so long, but I am glad I had not paid all that money for it when I found Botanica..The only problem is it is so darn heavy, lol..& over a 1,000 pages..

Larkie

Terry, I'd never cast nasturtiums on your veggies especially since mine are either awful or non-existant ;) One of those things I'll just keep throwing money at!

Ladyanne, you'll have to report Terry to ... ummm ... Terry for thread hijacking *G*

Hijack on!!

Yesterday, I collapsed and bought the AHS A-Z which was available locally, and left behind the AHS Plants and Flowers and the AHS Herb book, regretting it terribly. I may go back today. It's wonderful, weighs a ton, but I have already found five of my plants that are not in it. I did want to thank everyone for recommending it!

http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/1472/

My AHS A to Z , lists 15,000 plants, 6000 photos, and has 1095 pages. it is heavy but I rarely move it. I do get quite a bit of exercise going back and forth from my computer to the book in the morning room, but that is good!!!!! Donna

Please permit a moment on the old soapbox. Several books mentioned in this thread are listed in the Bookworm here:

AHS A-Z Encyclopedia: http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/2/
Botanica's Encyclopedia: http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/650/
Hortus Third: http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/95/
Sunset's Western Gardening Book: http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/66/
New Garden Encyclopedia (Wise): http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/1469/
Southern Living Garden Book: http://davesgarden.com/gbw/c/6/

If one of these (or another book) is your favorite, or one of your favorites, (or even your LEAST favorite) please take a minute (less than that probably) to add a note and rating. With the holidays coming up, your opinion of a particular book will be tremendously helpful to those looking for gift ideas for their favorite gardener.

On a recent shopping trip w/the wife (we seldom shop together) I stopped at a book store and asked if they had a copy of a gardening book I was looking for. They did not have it, but could get it they said. I don't often go into Roanoke so did not order it.
My wife without announcement of her intentions to me, found a used copy of the book on E-bay at a fraction of the cost. The copy has a coffee stain, bothered her, but not me in the least.
The neat part - besides the cost - the book has been autographed by the author, go figure.

I love, love, love, love, love to find used/close-out books online. (Neat-o to get an autographed copy to boot!)

When I get a hankerin' for a book, I always check Abebooks, eBay and Half.com (until it goes away...) for book bargains and have been a happy camper. I helped DH find a CPA update/tax guide/something-or-other he needed for about 10% of the bookstore price. Even with shipping it was a steal.

This fall, I introduced our oldest son (college freshman) to the concept of buying used texbooks online. We went to the campus bookstore and the offcampus bookstore, jotted down prices and ISBNs, came home and found some books for substantially less money, others about the same as the bookstores. He bought the cheaper ones online, and went back to the offcampus store for the others ;o)

Terry, your delighful bookworm is what got me started looking for more, good references. I have been looking for a Hortus, but had not found one by the time I ran into the AHS and it went home with me along with a healthy discount. Looking for the Botannica next. The problem with buying books online is that I don't like buying sight unseen. If I find a local Botannica I can browse through and then if I find one on line, no problem. I buy a rather large amount of books (I need to build another room just for them) and owned one of old herbals books purchased at a garage sale for many years before I realized the signature wasn't a past owner, it was the author! Fun stuff, garage sales.

There are also several search engines specifically for finding used and OOP books, among them http://www.bookfinder.com/ and http://used.addall.com/