You should add to your books that make you laugh, every year gardening magazines put out articles that the "best cut rose" or "best garden rose" are brand new roses which are just coming to market. Roses which haven't even been grown in home gardens yet, and they are the "best of the best". Amazing. Kim

I just gave most of my hardcover rose books to the local arboretum for their library. Magazines and catalogs are left in the doctor's waiting room.
I often wonder how many people might have gotten interested in gardening, or roses in particular, due to a magazine I left behind. Saving them is no good as I never check back or reread them. I don't have time so might as well share.

That's a good idea. I got started with gardening with a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book that I picked up at a neighborhood yard sale. I found a guide to roses once that had notations next to so many of the roses. I thought it was more interesting than what was printed in the book. It had funny descriptions when you compared the hand written stuff with the authors words. The wording about the rose would say Fantastic fragrance and first rate show table form, and the hand written comment would say rusts like an old battleship, unreliable color and doesn't bloom worth a @#$*!

I have more than 60 rose books and used to be a compulsive collector. But some have been useful for the historical information they give if not for the rose descriptions. A Swedish book from 1962, called Best Roses, is quite funny in retrospect. The author claims that Ballet, the pink Kordes HT from 1958 is the best of all HTs and should be planted in large numbers in every garden. Nobody grows it now in Sweden to my knowledge.

For practical purposes I rely on only one encyclopedia of roses for Nordic gardens, a thoroughly researched and serious book. (The author thanks me in the foreword, giving the book an extra kick for me). It's a bit dull though, so I sometimes read some of my coffee table books for pleasure, especially in winter. This kind of book, if good, is a substitute for garden visiting.

I also have 400 books on general gardening, garden history, garden design, garden visiting, etc, in several languages, and plan to donate the rarer ones to the landscaping department of the agricultural university. I pass on my old magazines to younger gardeners. I think my hairdresser should have some, too, come to think of it. There may be customers who don't want to read only about celebrities and royalty.

There is no such state of being as too many books.

In the very beginning I saw Mike Shoup's book "Roses in the Southern Garden" at the little nursery that sold OGR's. I was gaga over it and searched and searched for a copy that wasn't outrageously priced. I was buying book after book - used on the internet - because I was desperate to see what gardens were supposed to look like. I received a few of those rose jam books, too - very disappointing. I've weeded out the losers mostly, and I don't read them often or even look at the photos anymore, but I love the comfort of seeing them on my shelves. Some are truly beautiful books. I suppose if I were snowed in for months, I'd read them more, but without a dormant season and with the TV on, they don't get read like they should.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

I guess "too many" is a personal state. Between "inheriting" several collections from elderly and ill friends who wanted to make sure their libraries didn't find their final resting places in the recycling bin and gifts from well meaning friends and relatives, there have been a number of duplicate copies of books which have come here to live. I've found they make wonderful re-gifts to other rose lovers. Add those which have had pretty pictures but no real substance, nothing to really absorb and use, and room quickly becomes absorbed with the sheer volume of material. I found weeding through the books to whittle them down to those which actually "fed me" as liberating and enjoyable as I have whittling down the rose collection to those which have actually shown me they are happy to live with me. Kim

I find it hard to throw away some old catalogs. Last night I was sighing over Sequoia's & Michael's Premier Roses. Sure miss them. Mr. Moore had some neat stuff & Michael had some funny comments ("This rose is too good for such a crummy name")

I adore the magazine Country Gardens. I have all but a few issues [still looking for those] to make a complete set from 1992 when it started to present day. I try to keep my gardening books to only the ones I really love. A house fire in 1994 completely destroyed everying including my lovely library - wish I could find some of the Derek Fell books I lost - I can find some but not the ones I had. My library isnt as big now but the books I have, I truly love. Just bought the new Mike Shoup book Empress of the Garde - lovely thing! I have stacks of gardening magazines from 1994 on.....need to go thru, tear out the photos I love and donate the rest - cannot stand to throw them out....

Ouch! I'm sorry about your fire. Mine was June 5. 1996. It destroyed far too many books. I kept many damaged ones quite a bit longer than I should have. Kim

'There is no such state of being as too many books.'

Unfortunately, Catsrose, there is. A few years ago, I did a count of my books and gave up around 8,000 (not just me but my offspring have all been avid bookies). My tall, thin house is even thinner because books are stacked up the stairs (3 flights), along every corridor and most walls in the house (an average wall holds about 600 books). All well and good.....as long as we never moved house. Now though, we are looking at having to downsize dramatically and the books are an issue. For sure, I considered donating to charity shops but, quite honestly, I have major issues concerning their ethics and principles - won't go into it here (sighs of relief all round but....). Cannot bring myself to sell them either. In fact, I have been doing something a bit weirder. I have been leaving them around town, on benches, in cafes and most especially, in our local park. I often write a little review and ask that the recipient continue to pass each book on down the line. A few years ago, I think there was a little idea to do this and 'follow' the books using a website and various codes...but I am OK with just sending them out into the 'wild'. However, even doing half a dozen a day would take me over 4 years so I suspect my local doctor's surgery and various homeless shelters are going to find large cardboard boxes on their doorsteps any time soon.

I used to give my old magazines (on all topics) to the local coffeeshop, which always had a stack of reading matter for customers. Recycling here in Italy is a bit of a problem, unlike in the U.S. where my unwanted books go to the Friends of the Library book sale after sibling review.
I love owning as well as reading books and would never willingly be without them, but I agree with Suzy that you can have too many. I try to keep my collection down to a reasonable ratio with what I could possibly read, in a material sense, and limit it to books that I am somewhat likely to read or re-read one day. After all, books that stay unread on my shelves are just an unused resource, a lost opportunity for some other reader. In the case of books on gardening I try to limit my collection to volumes I actually refer to with a certain frequency. Fortunately I'm not addicted to glossy coffee table types of garden books, and don't have any.

This post was edited by melissa_thefarm on Mon, Jan 21, 13 at 10:18