The Best Books

This persuasive call-to-action implores us to transform the landscapes where we live and work into functioning habitat— embracing a new, grassroots approach to conservation that is our best hope for reversing the alarming declines in biodiversity that threaten our survival. It is the most thorough discussion yet about the essential importance of native plants to all of us, and Tallamy emphasizes the joy of stewardship, reminding us how resilient our ecosystems can be when given the means to recover.

This guide helps us to fundamentally re-think our approach to gardening—to see our landscapes as part of a broader ecological system and to manage them by working with natural processes. It explains concepts of plant physiology and community that are crucial to successful landscape management. The chapters on creating and managing meadows and shrublands are uniquely valuable.

The first of Bill Cullina’s excellent trio on native plants, this guide describes over 1,000 wildflowers. Book sections are organized by genus, with general discussions about the ecological value, horticultural use, and propagation of each— then followed by greater detail on the preferred growing conditions and native ranges of individual species.

An information-rich reference on several hundred woody plant species native to North America, with an emphasis on those from the east. Cullina’s lively, expressive writing style makes this book, and the others in the trio, a joy to read.

This is a tremendous resource about the more obscure plant groups— mosses, ferns, clubmosses, horsetails, grasses, sedges, and rushes. It includes details that are hard to find elsewhere, about species’ propagation and use of these plants in garden settings.

This compact, generously illustrated paperback guide profiles 31 native tree species that perform well in garden settings. Each entry provides a succinct summary of the tree’s physical characteristics, preferred growing conditions, potential landscape uses, and ecological value. Instructions on growing native trees from seed are also included.

A second portable paperback guide from the Wild Seed Project that profiles 48 vigorous, low-growing plants and helpfully lists twenty plant “guilds”— groups of groundcovers that pair well together because they share similar growth rates and light and moisture requirements. Lovely drawings and photographs demonstrate that ground level plantings can create a beautiful, textural tapestry of foliage, flowers, stems and seeds.

The Wild Seed Project’s third paperback guide profiles 43 native shrubs, noting their typical height and spread, growth habit, ornamental features, and preferred sunlight and soil moisture levels. Each entry calls attention to the way a shrub’s stems, foliage, flowers, berries and/or nuts support pollinators, birds and mammals throughout the year.

This book covers thirty northeastern wildflowers, with a comprehensive chapter detailing the unique life history of each species. The pages are replete with Gracie’s remarkable photographs, which beautifully illustrate everything from a plant’s physiology to its ecological relationships with insects. A great resource for naturalist and gardener alike.

Another beautiful guide from Gracie, this wonderful resource includes a wide range of more than 35 species, with wonderful detail about botanical characteristics and fascinating explanations of complex ecological relationships. It focuses on native plants, with the additional inclusion of a few notable non-natives long naturalized and commonly found in the landscape.

A great reference for North American orchids, grouped by region, and including several dozen species native to the northeast. Interesting highlights are woven into stories of the author’s travels, bringing the descriptions to life. Very valuable for learning about these beautiful and mysterious plants that are always magical to discover when exploring the woods of New England.

This one-volume reference covers the gamut— including trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, grasses, and ferns. It profiles several hundred species, discussing native ranges, preferred growing conditions, and other attributes. If you want to start with just one guide to northeastern native plants to help you consider their suitability for your landscape projects, this is a great choice.

A new guide to plant selection dedicated to species native to New England and the mid-Atlantic region, replete with information on wildlife value as well as physical characteristics and growing conditions. The introductory chapters are essential reading for new gardeners. We love the inclusion of many promising but relatively unknown species, especially in the annuals and vines sections, which will hopefully become more available in the nursery trade.

This anthology has everything that you could possibly want to know about this species, once one of the most common trees in our eastern forests, but now functionally extinct. It also includes interesting discussions about efforts to nurture this species' return.

A helpful one volume resource on native plants. Although a bit older (and out of print so harder to find) we include it here because it has an especially good section on native azaleas.

This valuable book offers concise profiles of approximately 100 herbaceous and woody genera or species that work well in garden settings. Drawing on the authors' experience as horticulturists, plant characterizations are lively and informative. Includes good suggestions on companion plants that pair well together visually and have similar light and moisture requirements.

An expansive volume covering more than 100 tree species native to the United States east of the Continental Divide. Chapters detail each species' characteristics, ecological niche, and use in horticulture. Very well written with useful photographs.

A wonderfully rich exposition on why Tallamy promotes the genus Quercus as so critical to sustaining biodiversity and so important to our landscapes. Beautifully written, totally accessible, and full of fascinating ecological detail.

This guide highlights a curated collection of species that perform well in urban and suburban settings, detailing ecological value as well as landscape use and attributes. Many helpful photographs show each species planted in a garden or other landscape setting.

First Revision, 2011. A complete checklist of all the plants growing in Massachusetts, showing county by county where they have been documented and whether they are native or introduced. This book is no longer available for purchase, but this links to a complete PDF. A CD of this publication can be ordered from MassWildlife.

Illustrated by Elizabeth Farnsworth and Gordon Morrison.
This is the definitive botanical reference for the identification and classification of New England's flora, both native and naturalized.

This is the only comprehensive book on the Cape's wildflowers, covering everything from rare species endemic to the region, to more widespread species that are much more common. Full of beautiful color photographs, it organizes the species by habitat type.

A useful reference on fifty of the most common trees, shrubs, and vines of Cape Cod. Each species is described in great detail, with helpful information on its typical growing conditions and habit, its importance to wildlife, and even its fire ecology.

This field guide covers 1,000+ species of perennials, annuals, and small shrubs that are native to, or naturalized in, New England. It provides strong introductions to botanical nomenclature, plant families, and natural communities, as well as an easy-to-use key. Plants are grouped by flower color.

This expansive guide includes 1,400+ species of herbaceous wildflowers, covering a wide area from the northeast to the mid-Atlantic and Midwest. Features excellent color photos that illuminate the key structures of flowers and leaves that are needed for accurate identifications, as well as a helpful range map for each species.

The pre-eminent guide to the caterpillars of 700 species of Lepidoptera found east of the Mississippi. It includes important information on the host plants of each species, and valuable images of both the caterpillar and the adult moth or butterfly that it will become.

The go-to guide for identifying 67 native and naturalized tree species found in the Northeast, using their most easily visible feature: bark. Includes excellent descriptions of bark structure and ecology, as well as a highly detailed and accessible key.

This book features writing from eleven authors on urgent environmental topics, such as water conservation, carbon sequestration, nitrogen efficiency, edible gardening, and the Sustainable SITES initiative. The chapter on "Managing Soil Health" is particularly valuable.

An in-depth manual covering all aspects of landscaping in the era of climate change. It includes a section devoted to native plants, and makes an eloquent case for managing our land to support other species as they adapt to a changing world.

A prescient look into the unexpected outcomes and ecological implications of wildlife conservation. For anyone frustrated by the flocks of Canada geese taking over local parks, who has been attacked by a wild turkey, or is tired of deer feasting in their garden, this book explains how we got here and how we might move toward a more balanced future. Eloquently written, with entertaining wit and rich detail.

A useful resource if you are designing native plant gardens, with good discussions about defining “native,” understanding horticultural cultivars and hybrids, and finding native alternatives to common non-native species. The suggestions about how to incorporate natives into traditional, formal landscapes are particularly helpful.

This groundbreaking book earned numerous awards for Tallamy and has had tremendous impact since its publication— a must read for anyone interested in native plants, ecology, and gardening. Drawing on his own research as an entomologist, Tallamy demonstrates the importance of landscaping with native plants to sustaining biodiversity. The book includes extensive information about which woody species are host plants to moths and butterflies, and other valuable insects.

An excellent source of inspiration for creating gardens that capture the beauty and replicate the ecological functions of natural landscapes. It includes rich detail on the complex ecological relationships we must understand to build real habitat for insects and birds, and each section is brought to life with lovely, illustrative photographs.

This book promotes using the principles of plant community ecology to create resilient landscapes that require less maintenance than traditional styles. It offers in-depth, practical guidelines for creating and managing a multi-layered, matrix planting that is highly designed and artistically “legible” to a public audience.

A good primer for the home gardener on installing and maintaining meadow-style plantings. It provides helpful demonstrations of the various ways a site can be prepared and planted, depending on the size and resources available for a project.

This book covers the basic principles of creating bird-friendly landscapes—providing shelter, water, and vertical habitat layers, and it rightly focuses on the single most important action: planting native plants. It includes a guide to common North American bird species and the plants they need, with an emphasis on fruit and nut producing species.

This accessible guide will be particularly helpful to those new to understanding pollinators. It lays out, in a clear and compelling way, why we must all do our part to halt pollinator declines, and outlines all the key elements needed in a landscape that will support a diverse mix of insect pollinators.

For anyone who wants to take a deeper dive into some of the most common insects in our gardens, this is the book for you. It offers a fascinating look at the tremendous diversity of bees, wasps, and ants, as well as the vital and often unexpected ecological roles they play.

This richly detailed guide is a tremendous resource for understanding the complex interactions between native plants and insects. Holm highlights over 60 species of native wildflowers, and describes the variety of insects that pollinate them, disperse their seeds, use them as larval hosts, and more, all illustrated with remarkable photographs.

An in-depth guide to nearly 30 bee genera, with information on their life cycles and ecological interactions that is vital to creating truly valuable bee habitat. It also includes descriptions of 100 native plant species, particularly trees and shrubs, that provide forage for bees.

A comprehensive guide to 150 species of flower-visiting wasps found in eastern North America. Filled with remarkable photographs, it is valuable as a resource for identifying wasps, as well as for understanding their vital ecological roles and learning how to create habitat for beneficial species.

An excellent primer on the integral role that insects play in terrestrial ecosystems. Waldbauer paints a breathtaking portrait of the ways we depend on these creatures to perform basic ecological functions, like pollination and decomposition, that are vital to human existence.

A good general guide on the importance of native pollinators to our ecosystem and our food supply that discusses the wide range of insects, from bees to beetles, that act as pollinators. It also offers helpful information about creating pollinator friendly gardens and landscapes.

A good book for any gardener enchanted by butterflies. It emphasizes the vital importance of native host plants to all species of Lepidoptera, and calls out some common misconceptions about the usefulness of non-native species (i.e. Buddleia). Of particular interest, the recommended plant lists note each species' value, both as host plant and nectar source.

Replete with wonderful photographs, this book captures the splendor of landscapes in the eastern deciduous forest. Rick is a master at highlighting the effortless beauty and artistic structure of natural scenes, and showing how they can inspire the design of the woodland gardens we create.

A delightful compendium of botanical lore including botanical terms, notable botanists, interesting plant history, and highlights of a few remarkable plants to boot! The next time a botanical term stumps you, pick up this gem of a book—or simply peruse it for the love of learning and a bit of fun.

A compendium of more than 40 essays from the nineteenth to early twentieth century, written by noted conservationists, landscape architects, and horticulturists. Essential history and context for the issue today.

This inspiring book weaves together scientific knowledge, personal stories, and "indigenous ways of knowing" to help us find meaningful ways to "heal our relationship with the world." Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a Distinguished Professor of Environmental Biology at SUNY Syracuse.

Biographical and inspirational, Morrison reflects on how “the wild” has informed his work as a landscape architect over more than six decades— at the Curtis Prairie in Wisconsin, in the Georgia Piedmont, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and in other unique environments across the country. A wonderful read. Morrison's subtle understanding has much to teach us.

A heartfelt appeal for us to save our planet by creating ARKs (Acts of Restorative Kindness)—patches of restored native ecosystems that act as sanctuaries for biodiversity. The author’s message is rooted in a deep sense of kinship with the Earth and all the beings that inhabit it— both the rooted and the unrooted— weaving together prose and illustrations that evoke a modern-day folktale.

Foreword by Darrel Morrison
This is a helpful book for thinking about plant communities. Chapters such as "The Juniper Hillside," "The Oak Woods," and "The Stream-side" were first published serially in 1929 in House Beautiful magazine. Morrison's foreword is exceptional, and this book is a historical treasure reminding us that native plants were once mainstream in American life.

A seminal book about gardening from an ecological perspective. It laid much of the groundwork for today's renewed awareness of native plants and attention to the ecological importance of our managed landscapes. Simply, a great read.

This deeply passionate and philosophical book asks us to re-think how we garden, urging us to act not just for ourselves and our ideas of beauty, but also for the other organisms that share our world. The author speaks to many contemporary issues, exploring novel questions in horticulture, biodiversity, social justice, and resilience.

A wide-ranging guide to invasive plants affecting various regions across North America. It is good general reference on identifying these plants, understanding their effects on local ecosystems, and finding species specific-control methods.

This inexpensive guidebook is the go-to source for identifying 66 of the most invasive plant species in Massachusetts, and understanding their negative impacts.