Thanks for posting that Donn. I've pre-ordered and can't wait to see it!

Donn, do you get the Timber Press e-newsletters? I haven't seen that book mentioned yet, but they sometimes clue you in on good prerelease deals or other specials. And, frankly, I enjoy them just for the missives from Tom Fischer, the executive editor and a gardener himself.

Off to find out who Rick Darke is... (sorry... I'm sure I ought to know him already!)

I do get the newsletters. Very good stuff, and they've collected more than a few dollars from me for their books.

There's a very good bio of Rick Darke at his website, linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: rickdarke.com

Yeah... me too. The "Pattern Garden" book and the pots book that they recently profiled are both on my wishlist.

And now that I check out the link you provided, I am very ashamed. I actually OWN "The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses" but never really registered the author's name or knew that he was such an interesting guy!

It arrived today! It's been raining most of the day, so the timing was perfect.

What a great book! Some of it, both text and photos, is partsworks (snatched from the last book), but there is so much more in the new one, it's incredible. It's more than I hoped for at first (2 hours) glance.

I haven't run all the stats, but the first thing I checked was how many Carex species are covered. 70 in the new book, compared to 49 in the old one. As expected, the new book includes many cultivars which have come into the market since 1999. The 'Encyclopedia' section is 240 pages compared to 169, with far more photos and larger pages. Photo count overall is 1000+ compared to 500+. Tons of new design photos.

So far, my only regret is there isn't much more care/maintenance information than in the old book. The general care section is virtually the same as before, and there still isn't much species-specific information, as in the Greenlee book.

My early opinion is very positive. It's definately worth $40, tax and delivery included. We have a cold snap arriving tonight, and I intend to stay warm and cruise this book more closely.

Hey...no fair donn! My copy didn't arrive yet! I'm looking forward to it though.

My book arrived! Wow! Lots of pages of info to plow through...can't wait to get the kids to bed and start reading!