Customer Reviews

Native Trees for North American Landscapes

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3 star:		(1)
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This outstanding new book will become one of the primary references for all kinds of information about native woody plants of North America. Many of the plant descriptions have far more detailed information on culture, diseases, and ornamental characteristics than the widely known reference books by Michael Dirr (the 'standards' by which all other woody plant references are judged). While the intent is to provide information and promote the ornamental characteristics of native woody plants, for home gardeners and landscape professionals, this will also prove to be a valuble reference for naturalists and others mainly interested in these plants in the native, rather than the cultivated, landscape. The photographs are outstanding, and will certainly promote interest in many little known and underutilized woody plants. I never knew there were so many native North American oaks! As a botanist and later home gardener with a life-long interest in woody plants, there are few books in the past decade which have been published with this level of detail and value.

Guy and Jim have done it again!

I have one of Guy and Jim's other books: Landscaping with Native Trees and I am so excited to finally have their new book: Native Trees for North American Landscapes.

This book is well written and is written in a style that both the plant-person and the novice gardener can easily understand and appreciate.

Guy and Jim provide a breakdown for each of the trees listed in the book. This is a listing of the information given for each tree:

-Description (includes size)
-Leaves
-Flower and Fruit OR Cones and Seeds
-Best Season
-Native and Adaptive Range
-Culture
-Problems
-Cultivars
-Similar and Related Species
-Comments

The above information makes it very easy for anyone to decide whether a particular tree is suitable for their site (and USDA growing zone) and how they want to use the tree, whether it be as a specimen, screen, etc.

I read Ben Johnson's review of this book and I don't quite understand his vendetta against Guy and Jim and this book.

Ben had (has) some problems with some of the technical words that Guy and Jim have used periodically through the text. Ben must not be able to use the glossary that is included in the back of the book because all of the words that he has a problem with are included there along with their definitions. Don't be frightened by Ben's fear of new words. If you find a word that you are not familiar with, then check the glossary in the back of the book for the definition - it's that easy. It's how we learn.

After reading Ben's review of this book it is clear that he is not really reviewing the book so much as trying to attack Guy's character. This is not the place for that sort of thing.

I, too, frequent the forums on GardenWeb and I have found Guy to be very generous with his advise and help. I read the thread on GardenWeb regarding the removal of a tree because of a problem with the birds pooping on vehicles and, again, Ben has twisted and taken words out-of-context to attack Guy. I have never met Guy in person, but I have the utmost respect for Guy because of all of the help I have received from him through the forums on GardenWeb.

If you want help sorting out which native trees you might want to include in your landscape or you simply want to learn more about the wonderful native trees that grow in this great country of ours, then this is the book for you!

Guy and Jim have written this book about native trees because of their love for our native trees and to get people to, hopefully, include some native trees in their home landscapes.

The photography in the book is outstanding, too.
You will not be disappointed if you purchase this book.
Mike

I am a plant freak, and I am a gardening book freak. I have many, many books, probably too many. Literally. So many books that I've bought that looked interesting at the store have wound up sitting on the shelf, never to be opened again. This is one that will never even get to the shelf.

This book is so comprehensive, so informative, so beautiful to look at, and so danged readable that I find myself seeking it out whenever I've got a free moment. How many gardening books have you bought lately that poured forth all the information you could possibly want? How many have you bought lately that were a lot of fun to read? Now, how many can you name that do both at the same time? A precious few, but this one does.

Timber Press celebrated their 25th Anniversary this past year, and I did something I never do, I wrote the company a letter. In essence, what I said was this, "I never mind buying a Timber Press Book, often sight unseen, because I know it will be good." This book is excellent, even by Timber Press standards.

If you have any interest in trees or gardening, you will find this book a "must have." Informative, enjoyable, beautiful. What else could you want?

Timber Press has done it again! They have a reputation that preceeds itself for publishing only quality. I had purchased Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants and was extremely disappointed in that illustrations provided were black line drawings lacking detail I craved. Additionally, I had difficulty with the manner in which Dirr presented material. The Native Trees For North American Landscapes book was capable of presenting extremely technical information that both a seasoned veteran and an amateur, such as myself, could both derive substantial benefits from. The authors have a knowledge of botany that resounds from every page. This book is destined to be an authoritative addition to any library be it academic, home, or public.

I think the other reviewer was having a bad day when he wrote all that stuff about this book, because this book is a godsend. I have been looking for something this comprehensive for a long time. It is extremely well-organized, with beautiful pictures and good, solid information. I really enjoy all the extra information provided by the author on various tree species, too, much of it interesting ethnobotanically. The author has an obvious affection for trees that I find quite infectious. His writing is packed full of information while somehow also maintaing an element of charm and fun, a combo that is pretty hard to find in a gardening book. I expect my copy will be extremely worn within a very short time. Worth every penny!!

137 billion tax dollars were spent last year alone eradicating, controlling, and managing exotic species of plants which included trees such as The Chinese Tallow, Tree Of Heaven, Autumn Olive, and Buckthorn. It is time the public be made aware that native tree alternatives are out there and they are the responsible choice. Release of a book so well written and sensitive to the complex and diverse issues posed by the existence of invasives is long over due. Kudos to Sternberg and Wilson for endeavoring to write such an informative book. Native Trees for North American Landscapes addresses these issues and many more. This is a must have book for anyone in the forestry, nursery, or landscape industry as well as the home hobbyist.

This is one of, if not the best book about trees you can buy. It is informative for the amateur as well as the pro. The pictures are beautiful, my favorite is of the Burr Oak photographed in a horse pasture. I waited over a year for this book, well worth it! I consider myself an amateur arborist and would highly reccomend this book to anyone with an interest in trees and nature in general. I do not see an underlying agenda by the author, just useful information and honest opinions.

Guy Sternberg and Jim Wilson's Native Trees For North American Landscapes represents a lifetime of research and work: the authors provide an in-depth technical catalog of detail on native trees and their environments, providing tree 'profiles' which describe flowers, fruit, plant ranges, and culture. Sections outlining best seasonal features are particularly useful, telling gardeners which plants are showiest per season. Stunning photos and outlines of common cultivation problems and solutions make Native Trees For North American Landscapes a solid, invaluable reference for landscapers, libraries and home gardens alike.

Beautiful book! Lots of well-written text about each species and plentiful high quality photos. Very well made. Something that is useful not only as a reference, but as a coffee table type book.

Native Trees for North American Landscapes is a thorough reference for its topic. It is also a gorgeous book with many photos illustrating its topic. For the authors a native tree is a tree whose pre-Columbian habitat included North America north of the USA/Mexico border for which a live specimen is in existence. While they don't have space to cover all such species, as they note covering all the Crataegus species would double the size of the book, the coverage is very wide. For example, they cover both the Franklinia alatamaha, which is available in many nurseries, but no longer available in the wild, and the Quercus tardifolia, which may exist as a single specimen in Big Bend National Park. Because species don't respect borders I suspect they cover most of the species native to northern Mexico.

The many chapters tend to be short. The first few are on general gardening issues. As might be expected in a book that covers all trees and not just the smaller ones, and whose authors are foresters, the emphasis is on the larger landscapes: forests, parks, golf courses, arboretums, etc, but there is material pertinent to all landscapes. Then comes the heart of the book: the Menu of Native Trees. Each of the ninety-six menu chapters starts with a discussion of an exemplar species, roughly comparable in detail to a USDA data sheet, followed by briefer discussions of similar species. Some of the related trees will sometimes be non-natives. The chapters are in alphabetical order by the exemplar species name. The result is usually a breakdown by genus, but a genus with many species may have several exemplars, and an exemplar from a genus with few species may be followed by a discussion of related genus.

I wish they had covered some medium sized shrubs that often come in tree like forms: e.g. the larger manzanitas. It does include some large shrub species that rarely have tree forms from Genus that are typically trees, e.g., the scrub oaks. Some species are dismissed as non-native, e.g., some mulberries, that I believe are circumpolar. The discussion of dry summers in the western climate in the Quercus gambelii section is true of much of the west, but misleading for the gambel oak, which is found largely in regions of the southwest where the Mexican monsoon produces significant summer rain.