Recommended Reading/Reference
Weeks, Katharine C., Gardening with New England Colonial Plants, Their History, Uses & Culture, 1993. (Available through The New England Unit of the Herb Society of America).
Comment: An excellent primer for anyone interested in early American gardens.
Leighton, Ann, Early American Gardens “For Meate or Medicine,” The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA, 1970.
Leighton, Ann, American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century “For Use or Delight,” The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, MA, 1976.
Comment: Ann Leighton's books are of interest to history buffs as well as gardeners.
Grieve, Mrs. M., A Modern Herbal, Dorset Press, 1992. (First published in 1931 by Jonathan Cape Ltd., revised edition 1973.)
Comment: A classic.
Hopkinson, Patricia, et al., The American Garden Guides: Herb Gardening, Pantheon Books, Knopf Publishing Group, New York, 1994.
Note:
“Compiled by three of America's finest herb gardens—Cornell Plantations, the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley, and the Matthaei Botanical Gardens—in consultation with five other great gardens and arboreta.”Comment: Excellent!
Phillips, Roger, & Nicky Foy, The Random House Book of Herbs, Random House, New York, 1990.
Comment: An excellent reference book, with herbs categorized by use, for example: culinary herbs, dye plants, herb teas, strewing herbs, etc.
Staff of the L. H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University, Hortus Third, A Concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada, MacMillian Publishing Co., New York, 1976.
Comment: The definitive source for botanical names, although some plants have been re-classified since this was published.
Rhonda Haavisto & Jane O'Sullivan, May 13, 1995