Book suggestions please

Hi Folks
I'm new to the forumn, mostly new to gardening in any useful sense and have a new garden.
The new garden has some really cracking shrubs and trees as well as a large number of roses. Unfortunatly the last owner probably wasn't the one who put them in or loved them!
I'm trying to decide what can be salvaged and what needs/can withstand a big haircut but first I need to figure out what I have.
I've picked up the 'Collins - Complete guide to British trees' which is fantastic and shows everything you need to identify a tree and wondered if there is something similar for shrubs? A bit of searching on the web has not thrown up anything specific.
I need something that has good pictures of leaves, stems, buds, flowers etc. Most of the books I've seen are more aimed at purchasing plants than figuring out what you have.

Any suggestions would be greatfully received.

Graeme

 

hallo Graeme,
to Gardeners Corner. It will be easier to help with ID once you have put some photos on for other members to see. There isn't much that they are ever stumped with. Have a wander around and enjoy the evening air awhile. Others will be along soon to say hallo,
Jenny Namaste

 

Just grabbed the first 2 shrub books from the bookshelf behind me http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trees-Shrub...p_lbr_books_authors_browse-bin:Roger Phillips & http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Illustrated-Book-Trees-Shrubs/dp/0831788208 and you're right, you either need to know the name or thumb through the entire book.

 

Yes. It's frustrating. The Collins tree guide is a perfect format. Pages of leaf shapes/branch and bark appearance, buds and flowers. Really useful tool. And searching for books on line isn't ideal as you can't thumb through them and see the format. Hence the question.

 

Hi Jenny and thanks for the welcome and offer.
I may have to resort to taking pictures and identifying them with the help of folks on here but it is a big garden with lots of plants and my Internet is so slow that it would be quicker to go and get a degree in horticulture!
Fingers crossed someone will have come across a useful book.

 

Hi Graeme. I have a book called Sensational Shrubs by Richard Bird (pbl 1998) which has good photos of most of the most common garden shrubs along with help regarding cultivation etc but as previously said most books are aimed at suggesting what you should get rather than identifying what you already have. However, there are good books telling you about general principles regarding pruning and you may find that if you can get in there and work with the plant you'll get to know it better and then will recognise it in other gardens, garden centres etc where you might find a label or someone who will tell you what it's called - if that matters to you. [What's in a name?]

In this area we now have some free bookshops as part of the recycling scheme and there are loads of old gardening books there, you may have the same or perhaps look in charity shops or if you're lucky enough to still have one, a library. I think browsing is definitely better than looking for titles on-line.

Good luck