Sunset Western Garden book post 2000 is mostly accurate. Maybe 2 bucks on www.amazon.com for a used one. Knowing plants takes years of study.

I agree with the years of study part. Books just help give a head start. Thanks.

I moved to Seattle almost three years ago after living in the Southwest for 13 years. Because many of the trees and shrubs here were unfamiliar to me, I bought a dozen books for NW gardening. Two that I refer to the most are Tree & Shrub Gardening for Washington and Oregon by Alison Beck and Marianne Binetti and Trees of Seattle by Arthur Lee Jacobson. For general gardening info and tips, I also like Marianne Binetti's Easy Answers for Great Gardens.

In general I've learned that it really just takes time to become familiar with the different varieties here. I'm just now able to recognize most of the different trees because I've been researching trees for our parking strips.

In addition to this forum, I also use the following Websites: Great Plant Picks, WSU's Hardy Plants for Waterwise Landscapes, and OSU's Landscape Plants.

I've been here just a couple of months and although I've been gardening for a number of years, I know I'm starting over again learning plants.

I ordered the Sunset book and will check into the others you mentioned, mariev. Thanks for your response.

You can get the Sunset book at a discount at CostCo, when they stock it during spring (last time I was at a CostCo they still had some).

You can buy Jacobson's book from him directly, see his web site. Currently it is in its second (2006) edition. He added a comprehensive treatment of local flowering crab apples the second time around, this is a very important group for gardeners.

bboy, thanks for the heads up on Jacobsen and Costco- I opted for a hardback copy of the 2001 as it had good reviews on Amazon. Hadn't thought to check Costco.

Each edition is different, you should get the most recent (2007) one.

Why is the 2007 edition better?

From the cover:

2,000 New Plant Entries * More Than 1,300 Photos * Full-color Plant Illustrations * Completely Revised and Updated

Okay. Newer isn't always better, but I'll take your word for it. I'll probably wear this one out in a year so will buy the new edition next time. Thanks for responding.

In the case of the Sunset Western Garden Book, newer is better because new plants are being introduced all the time and older plants fall out of favor. You might fall in love with a plant no longer commercially available. Not that all new plants are always better than older ones but new plants isn't the only reason for the new editions they publish. There is new information from university testing and various trials too.

In addition to the Sunset book, I love Ann Lovejoy's collections of garden essays and the English gardening book A Garden For All Seasons from Reader's Digest.

With a book "new" means new to the book, unless otherwise. This is also often the case with nursery listings, a given item may be new to their catalog rather than new to the market.

I have one of Ann Lovelace's books but didn't know she wrote essays. I'll check the library. Thank you for the info.

Ann Lovejoy, apologies.

I she starts championing Queen Anne's Lace then we can start calling her Ann Lovelace.

Ahh. I'll forget me not her name again.

No biggie, he is teasing you. At least you didn't call her Linda Lovelace. ;)

The books that I so enjoy are Year In Bloom, The Border In Bloom, Garden In Bloom

They aren't new but I read them over and over. I find her writing very enjoyable. She has written many others on Northwest Gardening too.

In a story I read about her being discovered, so to speak, I believe it said she had crafted her writing after that of Reginald Farrer. So, you might enjoy some of his books as well.

Hey, that was a flower joke - I was teasing too...

Queen Anne's Lace,
forget me not.

I enjoy garden essays but have mostly read those from Henry Mitchell, Elizabeth Lawrence and Katherine White. I'll look forward to some new authors. Thank you.

Now I see "forget me not".

I rue my bad joke.

And so the pun continues.