I would suggest you get a collection of region specific books: I have one for Trees of Georgia, Ferns of Georgia, and Shrubs/Woody Vines of the southeast.

"Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast", by Pojar & Mackinnon is like a bible for your area. The book is often just referred to as "Pojar" for short. It has trees, shrubs, ferns, grasses, wildflowers, and more, plus keys to plant groups. Check one out from the library for a while to see if you want to purchase one. Usually runs between $20-$25, but worth every penny.

Thank you both. I actually do own Pojar and a couple others, but it's amazing how much isn't there. Pojar is mostly native (or almost native), but there are a lot of ornamentals that aren't native that I end up having questions about. Also, other than paging through the photos, there isn't a real system I can follow. I know a tiny bit about keys, but don't you need to know the family before you can begin to key a plant?

You might try getting a general tree book like the Audubon Society Field guide (there may well be others like Peterson). It has things nicely organized by leaf type and it does include non-natives. You'd want the Western version.

"doen't you need to know the family before you can begin to key a plant?"

No, at least not in most I've used. Sometimes the initial key to get you to a family is located in a different part of the book from the detailed key that gets you to individual species.

Borrowing several from a library is a good way to find what works for you. Not everyone processes this stuff the same way and a key I like may not be a good one for you. With any of them, it is best to set aside time to carefully look over the instructions for using it. It often explains something that you might not notice otherwise. Also chose one with everyday terms like "hairy" instead of "pubescent" if you want to keep it simple.

Newcomb's Wildflower Guide is one I find useful and easy to use. Some friends do not like it because has little color and doesn't have photos of actual plants. I'm not sure if it would include many plants from your region, though.

I find the ornamental plants to be difficult. There are so many cultivars of some species that I'll never really know which I have :(

Newcomb wouldn't be much good for you if you live in Washington; it's for the northeast. But there's probably a similar one for your area.

I find that you really need separate resources for wild and cultivated plants; you won't find garden plants in your native plant books and vice versa, unless the garden plants have naturalized themselves, of course.

The real problem with keys is that they always use the detail that you didn't notice when you had the plant handy. Or, my favorite, they use both the flower and the fruit, which is a problem if you only have a picture or saw the thing once. When I'm forced to actually key something out using the local 'bible', Gleason and Cronquist, I either take the book out in the woods with me or end up going back a couple times to check on details.

My copy of Peterson's Wildflower book has a list of plant families and brief descriptions of them in the front of the book; my copy is for the Northeast, but I think most of the Peterson field guides have something similar. In fact, most plant ID books have something similar somewhere. For learning about the families it is probably easier to start with a plants you know and go over the family description with regard to that plant; this gets you familiar with the features that the families are based on and you're more likely to pick up on them when you see them in an unfamiliar plant. I think a lot of us learned mostly by practice - the more you look at things the easier it is to figure them out.

Does seem like there ought to be an 'easy key to plant families' somewhere, but I don't know of any offhand.

WW

This data base gives you quite a few options. HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: USDA Plants

Same as with books internet resources cover sub-sets, like plants of a certain region. Especially with keys there is nothing that will enable you to identify any plant anywhere. Despite our best efforts (global deforestation and warming) there are still far too many kinds of plants on this planet to make that possible.

With some kinds of garden plants cultivars number in the tens of thousands, with new ones constantly being generated.

Thank you all for the information. I guess I'll just stick to my books (though I will try out others from the libraries as suggested) and this great forum.

If you are near Seattle there is the Miller Horticultural Library at the Center for Urban Horticulture. For another local source of information about plants seen here...

Here is a link that might be useful: Welcome to the Website of Arthur Lee Jacobson - plant expert