Taylors Encyclopedia of Gardening
I am a plant nerd. As an adolescent I was a band geek, I lived for drama class, and I was unashamedly the president my 9th grade science club. No way around it: NERD.
About 20 years ago my thoughtful Mother-in-Law purchased a copy of Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening for me at a library book sale. My copy is a 3rd edition published in 1957. Of all the reference books on my shelf, it has been one of the most useful. I love it so much that I have purchased numerous copies via the wonder of the Internet to give as gifts to the horticulturally curious as well as providing backup for my old original copy now retired with a broken spine.
There is much to love about this book. For example, I look up Eschscholtzia, the genus wherein California Poppy belongs. Not only do I get the correct pronunciation: esh-sholtz’zi-a, but thanks to Norman Taylor’s book I also can tell you that the California Poppy was so named because J.F. Eschscholtz sailed with Otto von Kotzebue to the pacific coast in 1816. I find this interesting. I have a habit of acquiring random horticultural information that pretty much nobody cares about. For whatever reason I remember this stuff. I have no idea where my car keys are but I can reference J.F. Eschscholtz on his sea voyage with lighting speed and accuracy as if I had been on the deck of that ship with the man himself.
In addition to specific plant information, there are sections on design, green house growing, garden tools. It appears there is something here on just about any aspect of horticulture and landscape design. There is a 5-page section on Exhibitions and Shows with the advice “Read the rules carefully, they will be strictly enforced”. Seems like everything in the 50's was about conforming.
When one of my clients wanted to create a maze for her grandchildren, I used a diagram from the Herb Gardening section as inspiration: it turned out absolutely wonderful and it’s been months since she’s seen those kids.
Suffice to say this is a great book for all things garden, a real treat with copies still to be had for under ten dollars. If you come across one, nab it.
