When it comes to clothing I generally can't be bothered with labels - perhaps because my lone pair of Italian designer jeans went grey and saggy about the knees after only a couple of washes. But when it comes to gardening books, I am a complete sucker. Any book with the Royal Horticultural Society tag on it speaks to me in the same way that the red strip on a pair of Prada sports loafers speaks to a shoelover. "You must have me! I am an essential and heretofore-missing part of your existence", urges the volume that bears the RHS imprimatur. And, in the bewildering and over-populated world of plant reference books (for that is what I'm concerned with this week), the RHS logo signifies the comfortable expertise that you get only at the venerable hands of a 200-year-old organisation.
Its most recent offering, The Garden Plant Selector, by David Joyce (published by Ryland Peters Small, £25 in UK) is a guide to over 3,000 plants, but with a different slant to the regular plant directory. Based on the very sensible idea that knowing the natural habitats of plants will help us to select those that are best suited to our own gardens, the book opens with a beautifully illustrated essay (with photographs by Jerry Harpur) on plants in the wild, followed by one on the various conditions we are likely to encounter in the garden. In the plant listings section, each well-fleshed entry (which goes under both the common name - if there is one - and the botanical one) gives excellent practical information along with the geographical distribution and the habitat of the plant in the wild. More than most, this guide helps us to better understand what particular plants need, and whether we can give them what they want in our own gardens. It should be of good use to the new gardener who may view their patch - as I once did - as a blank, green canvas to be painted willy-nilly with any plants that take the fancy. This book leaves no excuse for sun-loving lavenders being drowned in the soggy north-facing border or shady ferns being baked to a crisp in the full belt of the midday glare.
The Garden Plant Selector does not set out to be a comprehensive guide to all the plants that a gardener is likely to encounter, but, with 3,000 listed, it is certainly a good starting point. The keen plantsperson may be better served by the RHS A - Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants (Dorling Kindersley, £55 in UK) a weighty volume detailing 15,000 plants - and with 6,000 photographs . Its fairly hefty price (especially when you add on the sterling differential) places it solidly in the self-indulgent category, and many gardeners may not feel comfortable shelling out such a large wad. But those frugal types might like to leave this article strategically lying around in the run-up to that unmentionable feast next month, because the RHS A - Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants makes a most acceptable gift. I'm not quite sure what to make of another RHS publication which appeared earlier this year. Good Plant Guide (Dorling Kindersley, £9.99 in UK) is a nifty-looking little handbook which lists 2,000 "award-winning plants". The award in question is the RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM). It is bestowed on plants that are deemed to be of excellent garden use by being ornamental, healthy and relatively unfussy. But many wonderful, easy plants have inexplicably been denied the AGM: the tall, long-flowering border perennial Verbena bonarien sis and the honey-scented, sculptural shrub Euphorbia mellifera are just two that many Irish gardeners swear by. For the person who wants to fill their garden with dependable plants, the guide is definitely useful. But, to my mind, the implication that only AGM plants are worthy plants is a little pompous.
Personal choices - as opposed to institutionalised awards - make for some of the best plant manuals. My favourite is Graham Stuart Thomas's Perennial Garden Plants (Dent, £11.99, paperback). The photographs and illustrations (the author's own) are few, but the plant descriptions paint vivid, detailed pictures of 2,000 species and many more hybrids and cultivars. Apparently Graham Stuart Thomas - who is nearly a nonagenarian - decided to give his life to gardening when he was eight. It shows in his complete devotion to his subject. Jane Taylor, another respected gardener, has this year amassed her top 500 plants in Special Plants (Quadrille, £25 in UK). It's a glossy, seductive book (with crisp, vibrant photographs by Marijke Heuff) that is given great muscle by intelligent, informed writing. And for new gardeners, Pippa Greenwood's Flower Gardener (Dorling Kindersley, £16.99 in UK) deals with a limited and well-chosen selection of stalwart beauties in a simple and perky manner supported with clear practical advice. It's an undaunting starter book, perfect for those who might be swamped by a drier, more detailed volume.
Finally, as the living framework of every garden is trees and shrubs, a good guide to them is essential. I swear by The Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs (David and Charles, £14.99 in UK, paperback). There are no photographs, but 9,000 varieties are described. For those who want pictures, The Hillier Gardeners' Guide to Trees and Shrubs by John Kelly (£35 in UK) or The Hillier Colour Dictionary of Trees and Shrubs (£14.99 in UK, paperback) should fit the bill.
Garden diary: The Irish Flowers Council will present an International Floristry Promenade at the Great Southern Hotel, Dublin Airport, tomorrow, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m. Admission is £5 at the door. The show will feature flower-arranging designers from Ireland, Holland and Italy, including world-famous Italian designer Anna Gariboldi.