Western Garden Book: More than 8,000 Plants - The Right Plants for Your Climate - Tips from Western Garden Experts (Sunset Western Garden Book)

The Western Garden book is, of course, the ultimate authority for us on the West Coast. However, this edition is really cumbersome to try to use, because there is no longer an index of plants. Instead, to find a plant by its common name, you have to find its cross-listing in the plant encyclopedia (which takes a LOT more flipping of pages than finding it in an index would require) and then find it a second time by its Latin name.I'm going to check and see if they reinstated the plant index in later versions and, if they didn't, I'll probably actually buy an EARLIER version to use -- this one is that cumbersome.

I bought this for my daughter in law's birthday because she had a little container garden in her condo, but they moved and bought a house in a new zone suitable for different plants. That meant she was going to have to rethink her gardening because now she has a big yard with a pool in a very dry area, instead of the cooler coastal climate. She loved it. It gives her the chance to wander the pages and mark what she likes that would be suitable at her new house.... and consider things like possible leaves falling into the pool. I got one when I bought my first house. I knew she would love it too! :)

The beauty of the Sunset Garden books is in the way they combine high-quality information about plants and garden techniques with their zone system, which identifies micro-climates in the western states and keys the plants to those zones. Which rose variety will thrive in your neighborhood and which will not? Find out here. A must for western gardeners.

We have bought many editions of this book over the years. Each edition gets more information, more plants and covers more areas of the West. If you are serious about gardening, get this book as your first (and probably only) gardening reference book.

I've owned, and loved, two of these books in the past, so it seemed like a perfect house warming gift for a friend who recently moved into her first non-rented, very own, the garden-is-all-mine house. This latest edition has even nicer illustrations and photographs than my older well-used copy. I just peeked into it before I passed it on, but it seemed to have even more gardening inspiration articles. What especially draws me to this book is its emphasis on western gardening, in varied western climates, at varied western altitudes, and varied western soils. So many lovely gardening books assume eastern summer heat and rains, but I live near mild, cloudy Seattle where, surprisingly, our green winter lawns turn brown in the summer because it's so dry, and growing tomatoes can be iffy because of lack of heat. This book defines the variety of western climate zones, more than 20, shows on maps which zone you garden in, and rates the plants in its extensive encyclopedia by zone. I highly recommend it to western gardeners and hope there is an equivalent book for you central and eastern gardeners.

One of the best references out there for the Gardener. Choose to purchase a older edition based on reviews of the current edition. Had a prior copy that I used constantly. Prior reviews of the current edition pointed out that the current was not cross referencing common names with botanical or correct names... not sure if that is true ... however was pointed to this edition ... which does still cross reference. This is a book that will last generations and does not need to be constantly updated in your personal library . What is published here is accurate for decades

What to plant? When? How to prune it? When? What kind of soil does it need? Water? Sun? It’s all here in one giant volume! We refer to this all the time! An essential reference.

This edition is a HUGE improvement over my original copy which has to be a good 25 yrs old. Here, each plant group has an illustration, whereas in my old book, there may be one illustration per page. Plus there is more specific 'planting' type of information, and just more information in general. Glad I upgraded.

I somehow managed to lose my old copy of this book, which I used to use often. This one has been updated and is even better than before. I think it's pretty much the "bible" of gardening books for the west.

great resource for west coast gardeners! Very useful and well illustrated and set up book- it is a defintie go to resource. The only thing that I was a little dissapointed in was that it was shipped in a green plastic bag so it was not well protected during shipping and was a little beaten up. The sellor is working on the mail delivery packaging change and was very responsive to my concerns about it

The condition was not new - it had been shipped without plastic and the cardboard box caused the pages to become wavy - it was quite disappointing