SOLVED. Non-fiction gardening book Each page was devoted to one plant, and gave description of plant and its subspecies, growing zones, soil and water needs, light requirements, growing season. [s]

[A.]

I read this book back in middle school, so it was published at least prior to 2006. It’s a non-fiction gardening “reference” book, for lack of a better term. Hardback, glossy pages, possibly over 1000 pages long. The first couple chapters were about basic gardening information (soil types, growing zones, light requirements, grafting plants, etc.), but the bulk of the book was devoted to in-depth information about various gardening plants. Each page was devoted to one plant, and gave description of plant and its subspecies, growing zones, soil and water needs, light requirements, growing season, and even if the plant was poisonous to people or animals. Each plant had at least one picture, usually two. However, what was most memorable to me was that the plants were organized first by type (tree, flower, shrub, groundcover, etc.), and then further sorted by light requirements. I’ve tried looking for this book at my college and public libraries, but the closest any of them came was “The Complete Garden Flower Book” published by the Laurel Glen publishing company, and that was definitely not it. Please help! I’ve been looking for this book for years, now.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Complete Guide To Gardening And Landscaping? Could it have been a Time-Life book?

Can we rule out:

New Complete Guide to Gardening
Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Gardening
Ortho's Complete Guide to Successful Gardening

[A.]

Pretty sure none of these are it. This book was seriously dense - I distinctly remember that it was wider than several of our dictionaries. Like I said, it was closer to 1000 pages long, possibly more.

[Lynn]

Have you tried checking out any of the RHS gardening books? A lot of those are huge volumes. I think that most of the RHS books are published by DK.

Google has photos of the covers, which may jog a memory.

Good luck.

[A.]

The RHS encyclopedia looks promising, but I can’t be sure without looking through it. I seem to remember the book I’m looking for being almost entirely green (not light green, normal or darker green) with a close-up picture of a flower on the cover, but covers seem to change with each new edition of a book, anymore.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

The Illustrated Home Garden Guide? It's green, the pages are described as "magazine weight pages", and it's 1798 pages.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Illustra...

[A.]

You guys, I found it!!! It’s Time-Life Books’ “The Complete Garden Guide: A Comprehensive Reference for All Your Garden Needs”. Just short of 1000 pages, detailed close up of a white flower. Thank you everyone for your help. 😊

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, A. Here's the link - The Complete Garden Guide: A Comprehensive Reference for All Your Garden Needs by Time-Life Books.