Looking for the UK equivalent

I'm not a hort professional -- just a plant freak -- but I love my Dirr's "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants." Here's the question. An occasion is approaching for which I need to purchase a gift for a dear friend who now resides in the UK and is developing an interest in gardening, particularly in woody plants. It occurred to me that something like the MWLP would be appreciated, but, not being a hort professional, I have no idea what the equivalent standard reference is over there. I'm sure someone here can help me out with this.

Baa would know for sure. D-Mail her.

Heck buy them a year at DG. they would have more fun than dirr. Anyway I'm sure there is one but I know not where. What a book! I use it for everything. Planning, culture, propagation, and identification. I also use Still Manual of Herbaceous Ornamental Plants.

First choice:
W J Bean, Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles, 8th edition revised (4 vols + Supplement)

Second choice:
G. Krüssmann, Manual of Cultivated Conifers, and Manual of Cultivated Broad-leaved Trees & Shrubs (but currently out of print)

Resin

Oh boy, I keep forgetting which side of the pond Resin is on. Sorry Resin, you would most assuredly be in a position to suggest resources.

Resin, I don't think I can swing the $500+ the Bean will run and a quick look through some of my favorite book sites suggests the Krussman will be hard to locate even used. I'll keep looking, however. Do you have any other suggestions for a useful -- if less comprehensive -- text along those lines?

Hey Restin',

What about Hillier's Gardener's Guide to Trees and Shrubs? How does that compare to Bean? I have Hillier's, but have never seen Bean's.

Dirr refers to both of them throughout his book, but especially Bean.

The Krussman book is out of print in the U.S., I believe. When one can find it, it is very expensive. And--correct me if I'm wrong--but it has not been revised in decades and all newer cultivars would be absent.

Scott

There's a nice Hillier book with pictures and descriptions that I saw but only in the library. Are your friends into any particular type of plant? I'm pretty sure some online nurseries offer online gift certificates. Gift voucher on this one: http://www.trevenacross.co.uk/

Also, "The Garden" - Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society (www.rhs.org.uk) is an awesome mag that I pay the extra bucks for.

I've always found the descriptions in the Hillier books to be so brief as to be useless. I'd not bother with it.

Bean $500 now?! Yikes!

Resin

Hey Mary! Do I know you? Did you just come over from the "Dark Side" (GardenWeb)?
Welcome aboard! You'll find most of the old GW Tree Forum regulars here now.
Guy S.

Yes, it's me, the same MaryMD7 of GW. Of course, I signed up here and then promptly went computer-less for a week as a result of my other non-gardening passion. At least I had a chance to once again admire the boreal forests of my native MN as opposed to the deciduous hardwoods of MD.