books - buy or not?
>Diane, I can see why you'd enjoy the Bailey book, but with all the new
>cultivars coming out all the time, isn't it pretty much out of date in that
>area? (I.e., I'm evaluating whether it's worth purchasing.)
>
Diann,
I don't know whether Bailey has been updated on a regular basis, so I
can't say whether it would be worth buying at a new book price. I
pick up old books at thrift stores, library discard sales, and even
used bookstores (though they are more expensive).
I used to have a rule (back in the days when I had to sell my
daughter's outgrown clothes in the summer so I could buy her some
larger used ones for school in September). I would only buy a book
if I had taken it out from the library at least three years in a row.
Then I paid off the house and could buy NEW BOOKS! (and sometimes
even new clothes, but that is really low on my list of priorities).
I still like to look at books before I buy them, and would only order
a mail order book if I was already familiar with it. One trick I do
is to have a few "test species" to look up, and if the book doesn't
include them, I don't buy it.
Anyway, if you are interested in species, I think a book like the RHS
Index I mentioned is a valuable reference. It has lots of
information packed into its 1234 pages, (that is not a misprint) and
no pictures. It is the index to the RHS Dictionary of Gardening
which has several volumes and costs a few hundred dollars. The index
I got secondhand at Powells Books in Portland Oregon for $36.
If you are interested in the very latest cultivars, there is no real
need to buy an expensive book full of colour pictures of cultivars
that will soon become superseded, because nursery catalogues and
websites like Terra Nova and Asiatica will have them, for free (well,
a peek at the photos anyway.) You can even check UK nurseries ( one
of my favourites in Cotswold Garden Flowers http://www.cgf.net/ ).
There is a big trade back and forth so that you can expect those
European plants to be available here soon, and often enough now their
hot new plants are from North America, anyway.
Diane
