favorite guide books for native oklahoma plants

16 years ago

Please list your suggestions; thanks!

Working on identifying what's here. It's a slow job.

I got interested a few years ago after reading a newspaper article about the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. They have to spray brush-b-gone on the Chinese Lezpedeza to keep it controlled. The prescribed burns, trying to duplicate the periodic prairie fires of years gone by, just encourage it.

It is thick along the roadsides now. It is harder to get out by the roots than bermuda grass.

Gayle

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
Gayle,

I haven't found many books specific to Oklahoma, but then I am way down south in southern Oklahoma and we don't have a lot of bookstores here either.

Two books I purchased from a bookstore in OKC in the late-1990s and used quite a bit were by Doyle McCoy and were published by University of Oklahoma Press in Norman, Oklahoma. They were: Roadside Trees and Shrubs of Oklahoma, and Roadside Wild Fruits of Oklahoma. They had copyright dates of 1981. I don't know if they are still available.

Here's some other books I used. You will notice that many of them have the word 'Texas' in the title. They have been just as useful for me here in Oklahoma as they were when I lived in Texas since the prairie plants are virtuallly the same. They include:

National Audubon Society Nature Guide: Grasslands by Lauren Brown, 1997, 3rd printing, Alfred A. Knopf

Wildflowers of Texas, 1984, Shearer Publishing, Bryan, Texas

The Grasses of Texas, 1975, F. W. Gould, Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas

Texas Range Plants by S. J. Hatch and J. Pluhar, 1993, Texas A&M Press, College Station, Texas

Taylor's Guide to Natural Gardenimng, by R. Holmes, 1993, Houghton, Mifflin.

Wildflower Handbook, The National Wildflower Research Center, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, Texas, 1989

A Field Guide to Texas Trees by Benny Simpson, 1989, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, Texas

Texas Range Grasses by B. C. Tharp. Probably out of print. Mine is a very old edition from 1952. University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas.

Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines of the Southwest, 1960. Probably out of print. I got mine at a Half-Price Books Store in the D-FW area. University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas.

The following books are by Sally Wasowski and Andy Wasowski. They all related to landscaping with native plants. I love them. The Wasowskis may have more current books available also.

Native Texas Plants, Landscaping Region by Region, 1989, Texas Monthly Press, Austin, Yexas

Native Texas Gardens, 1997, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston, Texas

Landscaping Revolution: Garden With Mother Nature, Not Against Her, 2000, Lincolnwood Contemporary Books

My FAVORITE native plant book is not a book. It is the Noble Foundation Website. In case you are not familiar with it, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation is based in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and does amazing work with native Oklahoma plants and agricultural/horticultural issues. They usually have books available on their website too.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Noble Foundation Website, Grass ID Page
barton
Original Author
16 years ago
Dawn THANK YOU for the list! I have Doyle McCoy's "Oklahoma Wildflowers". I did not know he had written the other books.

I have discovered alibris.com as a source for out of print books. You can find anything there. It's like a garage sale that has all my favorites.

I will GO SHOPPING!!

I just checked Alibris. The Oklahoma Wildflowers that I have is apparently a hard to find one; the hardback goes for $100! I will have to quit stuffing it into my pocket.
Related Discussions
iPhone Native Plant Guide Apps
Q
Comments (2)
I just pulled the trigger and downloaded Florafolio. What a great app. It has a huge array wildflowers, trees, shrubs and ferns. Tons of pictures and useful information. It is well worth $2.99. If anyone wants to check it out, just click on the accompanying link. Any body know anything about botany buddy? It is pretty expensive. Here is a link that might be useful: florafolio link.
...See More
Favorite Gardening Books
Q
Comments (14)
All of my vegetable gardening books are many years old, most from Rodale Press purchased during the seventies. Rodale Books: ENcyclopedia of Organic Gardening Organic Plant Protection Plants-a-Plenty (lots on vegetative propagation) The Solar Greenhouse ORganic Gardening Under Glass (Someday I'll have one) The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener Getting the Most FRom Your Garden--This is the book that inspired us to switch to wide-row, deep-bed gardening. With these books and several years worth of ORganic Gardening magazines, we learned to garden. Another good book is Gardening, The Complete Guide to Growing America's FAvorite Fruits & Vegetables by the National Gardening ASsociation. My favorite flower gardening books are : Best Plants, 1000 easy-to-grow garden plants, published in Great Britain by Hamlyn but appicable here as it gives hardiness zones. Lovely pics. Flower Gardening 1-2-3, a Home Depot book, a great book for beginners Good Planting by Rosemary Very, another English book. But I love, love, love the chapter on Woodland Gardens and have used it as inspiration for my own The Long-Flowering Garden by Craigmyle, yet another English book with great photos. (I'm a sucker for 'purty pichurs'. The Perennial Garden, Color Harmonies Through the Seasons, by Jeff and Marilyn Cox is another Rodale Book I don't know if you can even still find these books, but that's my list for what it's worth. Dorothy
...See More
Oklahoma Garden Planting Guide
Q
Comments (32)
Robert, So OKCE replaced Spencer in 2007? Now I am confused. Why did you use Norman's data instead of Spencer's old data that goes back to 1994? Is your weather more like Norman's than OKCE/Spencer? Just curious. I believe OU and OSU have the best Mesonet system in the country, but being an Oklahoman, I am prejudiced, of course. During bad fire years, I use their OKFire feature a lot and our county Emergency Management Director even showed me how to use one feature of it to input our data and see what the weather will be like as our FFs fight a large wildfire. It is wonderful because it can tell you when/how major wind shifts will occur, for example. Usually our Emergency Management Director will run the model and relay the info over the radio to the firefighters, but knowing how to do it ourselves makes us more independent (and the EM director does occasionally go on vacation, for example) and also lets us use smartphones with Internet access to acquire the data we need right at the fire scene. I know Scott uses the AgWeather feature some too. The OK Mesonet is very versatile. As far as datasets and developing some sort of predictive model, I can think of a couple of reasons that might explain why no one has created one. First, there's the issue of liability. No matter how many disclaimers they put on such a website warning people that the predictive model cannot guarantee stable weather after planting occurs and also doesn't guarantee success, there still would be people who'd want to sue because the model "told them" to plant, they did, and then lost their plants to late cold weather. You know it would happen. Secondly, I don't know how a model could take into account how wet or dry the ground is. Even if the soil temperatures are in the correct range and the air temperatures are appropriate as well, how could this sort of program account for different moisture levels at different soil levels. We can look at our soil moisture numbers on the OK Mesonet (or, LOL, stick a trowel in the soil and see how wet it is first-hand), or we can use Keetch-Byram Drought Index numbers (0=totally saturated soil, 800=totally dry soil) to judge how wet or dry our soil is, but I don't know if those numbers are widely available nationwide (they should be) or if they could be built into a predictive program. Because I have thick clay soil that holds excessive moisture for a long period of time, I cannot plant any seed if the moisture levels in the soil are terribly high or they'll rot before they sprout, especially in cold conditions. I know that, so I'd take my own soil moisture levels into consideration even in if I plugged in my data and got a "plant now" message. Less experienced gardeners might not understand how much cold, wet soil can harm their seeds. How do you put that into a predictive model? Finally, every seed varies in its response to soil temperatures, soil moisture and air temperatures. Some seeds can sit in the ground forever and eventually sprout. Others can begin to rot very quickly under certain conditions if they do not germinate within a fairly brief timeframe. I don't know how you could include data for every possible seed type. The best info I've ever seen in terms of seed germination temperatures was a table prepared by Tom Clothier that showed how many days it takes various seeds to sprout at different soil temperatures. I have found it very helpful, so I guess I'd better find it and link it here. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's Seed Germination Data
...See More
which native plant book would you recommend?
Q
Comments (12)
grandbb, Here is a link to the Arizona Native Plant Society. They have a series of eight booklets - sort of like field guides - that should be helpful too. Plus, they area very affordable at $2.25 each. You can purchase them locally at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix or Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior, but if you have time you could order them before your visit. I hope this helps. Cathy Here is a link that might be useful: Arizona Native Plant Society publications
...See More
Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
Gayle,

I had a vegetable gardening book by Texas A&M University's Dr. Sam Cotner that was very precious to me and was also out of print. Whenever I found it on a used bookseller's website, it was always in the $85 to $150 dollar range due to its rareity.

I really wanted a second copy because mine was so worn out it was falling apart. I watched the web for about a year, and finally saw it somewhere for a reasonable price--like $20 or $30. I bought it! I love finding out of print books on-line.

When I lived in Texas, I could always find very, very old gardening books and plant ID books at Half Price Books for very low prices, often just a couple of bucks. Now that I am about 90 miles away from the nearest Half-Price Book Store, I shop more online.

A lot of the old plant ID books are better than the new ones because they have more photos. It costs so much to print photos these days that the newer guidebooks have fewer, smaller photos in general, and the books are very pricey.

Now, take good care of your Doyle McCoy wildflower book. It IS impossible to find at a reasonable price. I have looked for it for years!

Dawn

favorite guide books for native oklahoma plants

Comments (3)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

barton
Original Author

Related Discussions

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

favorite guide books for native oklahoma plants

Comments (3)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

bartonOriginal Author

Related Discussions

Okiedawn OK Zone 7

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

barton
Original Author