I am always looking for good gardening, butterfly, and hummingbird books to reference. I often borrow books from my local library and if it is a book I find really useful, I'll try to pick it up online for cheap (as a used or discounted book).
I know there is a Bookworm section here at DG, but I'd rather hear from people in this forum on their choices. I thought it might be a useful forum thread for those interested, to list our favorite and most useful Gardening and/or Butterfly and/or Hummingbird books.
My current 2 favorites are:
The Family Butterfly Book by Rick Mikula - Very useful and entertaining book about butterflies and how to raise them - particularly Monarchs!
Florida Butterfly Gardening by Marc and Maria Minno - This is my constant reference book for Florida butterflies as well as their host plants. I paid full price for this book, but it was well worth it for me.
(Please note: I am in NO way affiliated with the authors or publishers of either of these books!)
I am looking for a good hummingbird book. Any recommendations?
Your favorite Butterfly and/or Gardening Book(s)
I also have the Florida one. Also, Florida's Fabulous Butterflies by Emmel/Kanny. Got it at Amazon.com, cheap.
Karen - I'll have to check the book you listed out from the library. Thanks for posting it!
Karen - WOW! That book you listed has some fabulous butterfly photos in it! I stopped by the library today when running errands and checked the book out. Really good photo reference! Thanks for the lead on this book.
I just returned to the Library two video tapes on butterflies--(Do you mind if I mention these here?)
One was "Attracting Butterflies to your Backyard" by the Nature Science Network. It was a nice approach to 'quick start' butterfly gardening--including explanations of host plants, nectar plants and how to identify some common butterflies. I found it helpful.
The other was Eastern Butterflies (or some such similar name--I've returned them so I can't confirm the title!) which focussed on the various butterfly groups, what their host plant are, and how to identify them. A little more technical but it gave good tips on how to ID them and excellent shots of the butterflies flying (one aspect of identification.) A good video, also, and available for the butterflies of the western United States, too.
I can't say these videos were 'riveting' (I watched them when I had insomnia and they could be considered non medical substitutes for sleeping pills) but they are full of information!
Thanks Tabasco! I think I saw the same video that you listed first. I hadn't thought of mentioning videos! Great idea!
I went to the University of Florida Inaugural Butterfly Festival in Gainesville this past weekend. Found some great books. And was lucky enough to take sessions with the authors and get the books autographed.
1. Flying Flowers by Rick Sammon and Alan Chin-Lee - awesome photographs and good information about the butterflies pictured. I attended a butterfly farm tour and the Butterfly Rainforest tour with Alan Chin-Lee.
2. The Life Cycles of Butterflies by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards - A visual guide to the complete life cycles of 23 common garden butterflies.
3. Florida Guide to Butterfly Gardening by Dr. Jaret Daniels - I attended his butterfly gardening 101 session, it was great.
4. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Butterflies - 100+ Questions and Answers by Dr. Gary Noel Ross - he did an awesome multimedia presentation called Enchantment of Wings with photos along with the music from Riverdance.
All four of these are very good books, and ones I hadn't seen before.
Terrie
This message was edited Oct 16, 2006 8:36 AM