Books

Even though I've been gardening for 15+ years and growing professionaly 7 years, I still consider myself a novice. I've been checking Amazon for books on propagation and growing from seed but there so many of them and I haven't reconize any of the authors.I really,really need a book w/ calender of when to sew what in my hot,humid zone 8. Anyone have any suggestions on which books/authors to buy?

P

Have you tried looking here on the Bookworm? I'm sure you can find good recommendations there on good propagation books and also books on Southern gardening. The ones specially on southern gardening are more likely to have the calendars of when to do what in the garden, but they may not have too much info on starting things from seed, so if you need info on both you may end up needing to get 2 books.

There is a DGer, nannanavaro; she recently posted sort of a primer on propagation, virtually word for word from a book she highly recommends. I am sure if you Dmail her she will happily give you the name. I know the thread is somewhere in this forum but I don't exactly know where.
April

My favorites are Plant Propagation by the American Horticultural Society ( with Alan Toogood), then an older book by Toogood on propagation. Noticed that someone on one of the threads had reprinted the Thompson & Morgan Seed germination guide (note to self, need to write this stuff down in order to find it again easily!) Oh, and also the Tom Clothier web site, I just learned of this through DG.
These are all good for info.

This message was edited Jun 16, 2006 9:15 PM

I just place order w/ amazon.com for "Making More Plants:The Science,Art&Joy of Propagation"by Ken Druse and "Plant Propagation by the American Horticultural Society"by Allen Toogood.

thanks gang for your input.

P

If you plan to propagate woody plants, you may wish to try "The Reference Manual of
Woody Plant Propagation" by Michael A. Dirr and Charles W. Heuser, Jr., Varsity Press, Inc., ISBN: 0-942375-00-9. It has been described to me as the bible of southern growers. I use it often. It gives you the research on propagating choices for over 1100 plants.

I took a propagation seminar at Rutgers Univ. this past weekend and they also highly recommended "Manual of Woody Plants" by Dirr. I have heard this book recommended several times. The info is supposed to be very detailed.