I have Weeds of the West. I know your not in the west, but weeds grow everywhere because they are so adaptable. It's a good book with pictures and descriptions in order of family. I bought it when I did my Weed Science class. It can be ordered thru WSU website...

Try Amazon.com or Barns & Noble and see if they have any weed books geared to the NE...sometimes your local extention office may sell such publications as well.

Vera

Here is a link that might be useful: Weeds of the West

What a good idea. I need a book about NE weeds. I have some things growing now that I think are weeds, but I'm not sure and I don't want to pull any of my perennials.
I'll check back to see if any other sources are mentioned. There is probably something online somewhere. I'll look around.

Check out this link. It has photos and info about weeds in areas of the US.

Here is a link that might be useful: weedalert

Wow, that was fast. Thanks for the ideas guys. wrichard, that's a good site, and I am indeed bookmarking it, but I need something I can bring into the garden with me and look things up.

Hoping some more folks chime in with recommendations. In the meantime, I'm off to amazon.com...

:)
Dee

Okay, just had to post this. Went to amazon.com, did a search under "books" category for "garden weeds of new england", and got this title as the first hit:

Proceedings of the New-England Anti-Slavery Convention, held in Boston on the 27th, 28th and 29th of May, 1834. (Paperback)

This may take some time...

:)
Dee

Dee, Here's what I use: Weeds of the Northeast, by Richard H. Uva, Joseph C. Neal and Joseph M. DiTomaso. I've found it to be an excellent book, has photos every second page, and good descriptions of seedlings and habitat. It's a trade-size paperback, not laminated, but good and sturdy and cost me $29.95.

Hope that helps.

Alison

Digerdee, thank you soooo much!
This post really made me chuckle at an old memoryÂ20 years at least!

I found an intriguing plant growing in my garden. I was fortunate to have a gardening buddy right next door so I enlisted her help. She also scrutinized the thriving plant and, like me, found it somewhat familiar yet not like anything known. We each consulted our books (a meager selection) but could not identify the intruder. We watched, we waited, we anticipated. Finally it bloomed. It was phenomenal! A huge golden blossom unlike any we had ever seen beforeÂat least not like THAT blossom.

And then we laughed! We looked at each other and laughed. We looked at the lovely golden bloom and laughed some more. We laughed until the tears streamed and others came to see what was so hysterically funny. Holding our sides, we pointed to the most robust, huge, gorgeous dandelion youÂve ever seen.

Moral of the story: a weed planted in compost enriched, friable, loose, lovingly worked soil can look completely different from any weed you see in a book.

Meanwhile, you've reminded me that I need to consult my wildflower book for the name of my current weed. It's a darling little thing with a pretty rosette of leaves hosting a lovely bouquet of delicate white flowers. Unfortunately, it flings its seeds far and wide and smothers anything it comes near. Naming it and learning its habit is half the battle to knowing how to combat it.

Hmmm...that's odd. Usually when I shop at Amazon my keyword searches come up with matches for just what I'm searching for. You also search by title or author if you have that info.

Vera

hoehum, that is TOO funny!! But that's exactly what I mean, lol. I had a friend who I used to help garden, and we'd do the same thing. We'd each look at the seedling, make suggestions, decide we weren't sure, and then "wait and see". But the kicker was, we'd do the same thing the next year - most likely with the same darn seedling, lol!

Well, since I work at a library, I went through the catalog today and put holds on several books that looked good. All the books my library has had illustrations, which I just can't work with. I need photographs. I found a book put out by the AHS which was perfect - only about 4 inches tall, three inches across, two inches thick, laminated cover, and shiny pages - but it was a perennial book, not a weed book. If they only made a weed ID book exactly like that, it would be perfect.

I did take out a book which looked good - and when I got home I discovered it was the one you used, Alison! It looks like it's the best one I've seen so far, so we'll see.

Thank you everyone!
Dee

Dawiff....I saw that Weeds of the Northeast book at Amazon and it really looked great! I added it to my Amazon Wish list for Mothers Day!!! Thanks for the great suggestion!
Joann

Digger, take a look at the wildflower books. Most of what we call "weeds" are simply native wildflowers. The pictures in the Audubon series are great and the Golden is pretty good too.

One of the big gardining books (it might be the Reader's Digest) has a section of weeds in the back.

hoehum and diggerdee, i did the same thing my first year of gardening, must have been 15 years ago. i had this thriving, strong and eager plant growing in my flower bed. i babied it for a month. went on vacation, gave my kids intructions to not mess with my beautiful flower and besure to water it if it loooked dry. when we came home a week later, it had bloomed the most beautiful little pink flowers. i have no idea what the weed name was, but knew right away it was a weed. i still get kidded by my DH every year. He wants to know what new and exciting weed i'm growing this time.
jennie

Weeds of the Northern US and Canada by Royter and Dickinson, University of Alberta press. I got this at Borders, should be readily available. Has two pages per weed, with several photos, including seedling.

jennie, it's not so bad when you do it the "first year" you are gardening, but after you've been gardening for 10 years (or in my friend's case, 40 years!) it gets tiresome, lol! Not to mention embarrassing too! Ah well.

Thanks for the suggestion, annebert. I'll check it out.

:)
Dee

Silly me - I already requested this book from the library, annebert! I've been looking at so many titles the last day or two I can't keep them straight. Sheesh - I'm going to start seeing weeds in my dreams, lol! As if the ones in my garden aren't enough...

:)
Dee

Why buy? Internet: free! try this:

Here is a link that might be useful: Identifying Early-Season Weed Species