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Complate Book on ALL trees
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Posted by
little_acorn 5 (
My Page) on
Sat, Aug 25, 12 at 10:02
| I am looking fr a book that gives full details on ALL trees that grow in North America.
Also a complate book that gives full detail information on ALL trees that grow in Ohio. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| Doesn't exist. Still plenty of species to be "discovered" by science, and there are plenty of species that simply are not cultivated, so no information as such can be given. I assume that is what you mean by "full detail information", which in science would be a full technical description. Lastly, North America also include Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as the US and Canada. North America does not stop at the Mexico border. Arktrees |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| Oh, forgot to add Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the rest of the Antilles to that list. Arktrees |
Here is a link that might be useful: North America
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| Maybe I should have said US only. Is there any for the USA and is there any for OHIO? Thank-You for your help. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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- Posted by bboy USDA 8 Sunset 5 WA (My Page) on
Sat, Aug 25, 12 at 14:10
| This kind of question is usually a cue for someone to suggest the Dirr manual. It might be close to what you have in mind, depending on what specific information you are seeking. Just be sure to compare what it says to accounts in other references. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| I'd suggest Native Trees of North America as a starting point. Written by former GW member Guy Sternberg, it is an excellent and quite detailed overview of most of the species that native to North America, at least east of eth Rockies. Obviously not the full range of tree possibilities - a huge number of common choices are NOT native to this region and the west coast is rather untouched - but plenty of choices of some great trees for all sorts of garden situations. Ohio is not that far away from Illinois.......you might want to take a drive to visit the arboretum Guy founded in Petersburg to see many of these trees firsthand |
Here is a link that might be useful: Starhill Forest Arboretum
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| With all the cloned cultivars out there some lists are ridiculously long. I have an old copy of the Dirr book. It is like an encyclopedia with personality. I use non-retail websites like hort.uconn.edu for reference and also some more extensive catalogs like Forest Farm's as well. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| There are books on Ohio trees; do a search on Amazon and see what you find. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| Best one volume book out there is Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. Every state seems to have a native trees/plants/etc of (___)...cuz trees are so cognizant of political boundaries. My trees come from blue states. Or is it purple... Spend some time at a local library. There are dozens of books out there...some older (Wyman), some out of print (Jacobsen), some just exist in the halls of libraries with small budgets...no disrespect to the library. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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- Posted by bboy USDA 8 Sunset 5 WA (My Page) on
Sat, Aug 25, 12 at 20:09
| Like Dirr, Wyman says a lot of stuff that is "off". The UConn site ain't all that either. Trained in historical research, Jacobson is more careful and reliable than seems to be too common in garden writing, but his North American tree book dates back to 1996. And is not an everything there is to say about each tree, narrative type of account. This one stop shopping book question recurs here periodically. There really is no one place to get it all, even the internet. Whenever I want to learn about a particular plant or other topic I look just about everywhere that is convenient to me, seems fairly reliable or incisive - articles, books and web sites. I have a horticultural library a little more than half an hour's drive away. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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- Posted by whaas 5a SE WI (My Page) on
Sat, Aug 25, 12 at 20:17
| GG, your post on Guy reminded of all the flipping cool oaks he has. I only have Chimney Fire and Birthday Candle. If I had more land and one zone hardier I sure would have a field day with planting those varieties. The Dirr manual is quite good. Its the only book I actually held on to as I use the web for everything. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Oaks
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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- Posted by bboy USDA 8 Sunset 5 WA (My Page) on
Sun, Aug 26, 12 at 16:11
| >The Dirr manual is quite good< Again, do not take this reference as the last word on any subject. There is a lot of information packed into what is by now a quite large format book, but the much-touted authoritativeness and peerless accuracy is most definitely not there. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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| Yet Dirr is still considered the leading horticultural reference for woody plants for this country. Some of the perceived issues with authoritativeness and "peerless accuracy" are most likely due to information in previous editions not being as current as one would like. Info in the plant world changes pretty darn rapidly. I'm waiting for my copy of the 6th edition, as the degree of detail provided by this text is hard to match anywhere, even through most online sources. And then of course there are those who just like to find issue with a recognized authority :-) |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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My favorite book meeting the OP's criteria is Jacobsen's 1996 North American Landscape Trees. Dirr's work is exhaustive, but may have some errors as others have mentioned. However my preference for Jacobson is based on his writing style being more engaging - Dirr's "Manual of Woody Plants" seems aimed at being academic reference volumes rather than a spirited guide for the home gardener. Jacobson is simply the better _horticultural_ writer. You either have it or you don't - almost every page of his book has something interesting to read. (When Dirr does have digressions, they can seem vaguely pointless - like mentioning that he visited some beech trees in Europe with JC Raulston. Raulston was a great guy who did much for southern horticulture, but it's a sentence that doesn't need to be in the book.)
It's slightly baffling Jacobson never released another edition, but it could be that horticultural publishers rightly consider the market for such a book to be small. It's really a volume for true plant nerds. I can actually read about types of trees that scarcely interest me, like Malus, and find his style engaging. He includes many facts on the cultivation of species in Europe and places Vancouver that doesn't seem of interest to Dirr, who obviously focuses on the US Southeast. I consider it one of my most invaluable horticultural references. That being said, it's still missing a few species here and there. True of Dirr, too, however. I can think of some semi-obvious things missing from his volume...and even the latest edition is dismissive of certain species when it need not be. |
oops
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| oops...I meant places LIKE Vancouver. I carefully edited that post (not carefully enough) 'cause I didn't want to seem to be slamming Dirr. A lot of work has gone into his books, no doubt about it. Maybe some people would prefer him...different strokes for different folks as the saying goes. Clearly the market has decided such books are Dirr's to write, but I'm not sure how many people he's competing with besides Jacobson, at least in North America. Surely, The Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs covers even more species with shorter descriptions, and serious gardeners in maritime climates (the US west coast) would be foolish not to avail themselves of a copy. |
RE: Complate Book on ALL trees
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little_acorn,
it sounds to me that you are really looking for a collection of books. The Woody Plants of Ohio by E. Lucy Braun would be a good choice for your first book. |
mistakes
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| I'm perusing the latest volume (I assume) on Amazon.com's book preview. Comparing, for example, the treatment of Arbutus in both volumes. Dirr dismisses A. 'Marina' as a cultivar of A. X andrachnoides when it is clearly not. The foliage doesn't even look too similar. And he should be able to figure this out, as there's been an A. X andrachnoides in the collection of Woodlander's Nursery in SC for a decade or so, while Arbutus 'Marina' inevitably dies in the Southeast the first year it is planted, and this has been known for some years. I think JC tried it back in the 1980s: and several parties, including myself, have tried it more recently. Jacobson in 1996 correctly notes it must be some further hybrid with something that cannot tolerate non-maritime climates. (perhaps A. canariensis - which would be expected not to tolerate humidity as the 50% greek hybrid can. Greece can actually be somehow muggy compared to places like southern California for example. Or the Canary Islands.) Furthermore, he strangely omits Arbutus texana, which is native to North America for heaven's sake, and at least gets a brief mention in Jacobson. I don't know that it's used for landscaping the SW, but it certainly could be on a limited basis and therefore should be in his volume. I've seen them in their native haunts in West Texas and they are one of the most beautiful trees native to this country. (Admittedly, not as amazing as a full grown Madrone. But close.)
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