By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

There are, around the West, a sprinkling of wonderful horticultural libraries that can take you places you never dreamed of going. Last week, for example, I took my friend Rich Quarles (that's him at right) to the library at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island, WA. It's the perfect place to spend a rainy afternoon reading works old and new. Rich was fascinated with a book that described a sundial that set off a cannon at the same time every day so plantation workers would know when to break (it was done with a magnifying glass). I was more drawn to W. J. Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles, which is authoritative and opinionated in a way that only Michael Dirr approaches in Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants.

Here are some western botanical garden libraries that I love. Many have admission fees: check the online links.

Bloedel Reserve is on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Their library is open 1 to 4 Mondays, and 10 to 4 every other day. It is located in a room in a chateau-style building that looks north across Puget Sound. The library is intimate, with just under 1400 books, but all are cataloged online at LibraryThing. Surrounding forest and gardens cover 150 acres.

The Helen Crocker Russell Library of Horticulture at San Francisco Botanical Garden has 27,000 volumes and 450 periodicals, plus a 1600-volume children's horticultural library. It's open Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 4. San Francisco Botanical Garden (formerly Strybing Arboretum) has 50,000 plants on 55 acres.

The Helen Fowler Library at Denver Botanic Gardens is another gem, with huge numbers of books, antique nursery catalogs, and digital resources. Members of Denver Botanic Gardens can check out books. Hours are Saturday through Thursday, 10–5.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA, has to be mentioned because the gardens are splendid and the library gargantuan. But alas, the library is open only to serious researchers; if you're working on your PhD, you're in.

The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden's library houses 30,000 books, with about 18,000 in open stacks. Most are listed in their online catalog. Their strong suit is in plants of Mediterranean and subtropical gardening. The arboretum itself covers 127 acres. Library hours are listed on their web page.

The Schilling Library at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix has 7500 books focused on desert plants, plus periodicals and an online browser. Open weekdays, noon to 4.

Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar, CA, is another small one (the gardens cover just 2.2 acres), but it has 25,000 books and hundreds of thousands of papers and documents. The focus here is on Southwest History, and while this library is also set up for researchers, they cast a broad net with that term: a kid writing a paper for elementary school qualifies. Open Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday, 9 to 4:30.

The Elisabeth C. Miller Library, at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horiculture in Seattle, is open to the public and lends books. Surrounded by its own very interesting gardens that are part of the broader University of Washington Botanic Gardens, this library has 15,000 garden-related books and hundreds of periodicals. Hours are posted online.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

A friend of mine is going to the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta this upcoming weekend, and asked if I could recommend an interesting nursery to visit nearby.

Well, that was easy.   Pearson's Gardens & Herb Farm in Vista, of course.  A small nursery hidden in a residential neighbor that grows an amazing variety of herbs.  17 varieties of rosemary, 34 different thymes, 27 oreganos, and 50+--I stopped counting--different kinds of lavender.  Also tons of unusual things like arnica, patchouli, Vietnamese coriander, fenugreek, angelica, and horehound.  A slew of ornamental salvias as well.  Good place to find unusual cultivars such as S. discolor or S. muirii.

You can also get gourmet vegetable starts.  Right now, ready for fall planting, all kinds of field greens including heirloom leaf lettuces, Italian dandelion and chicory, purple and yellow cauliflower, red celery and red pak choi, purple aspargus,and lots, lots more.

Don't live in Southern California?  Pearson's also offers mail order service.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Dropped into Roger's Gardens last weekend to get into a fall mood.  It worked.  The nursery was already stocked in full celebration of the season. 

But where were the customers?  The parking lot was full but I seemed to be the only one strolling among the plants.

Turns out everyone else was inside scaring themselves silly over Roger's amazing assortment of Halloween-themed merchandise.

Whether you plan to decorate your house and yard for Halloween or not, drop in for a look if you live in the area.  Or check out the nursery's Blackstone Theater Halloween Video on their website.  The setting they've created is quite a production.

Me, I'm probably just going to settle for a collection of these wonderfully gloomy pumpkins.

And maybe, if I'm feeling flush, I'll add this deliciously morbid wreath.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

As I mentioned in a previous post, Descanso Gardens planned to install two giant "paintings" composed of plants at their new Sturt Haaga Gallery.

When I paid a visit while construction was still going on in late August it looked like they had an awful lot left to do to meet their deadline.  (The Gallery opens this Saturday, September 17.)

I wasn't sure they were going to make it.  Clearly they have.

A closer look (click on the image to make it bigger) so you can appreciate the textures.

For a preview of the Sturt Haaga Gallery's opening show -- an exhibition of Andrea Baldeck's black and white botanical photographs -- click here.

By Johanna Silver, Sunset associate garden editor

You still have two days to make it to The Sonoma County Fair Grounds in Santa Rosa to check out The National Heirloom Exposition hosted by the folks from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. A team from Sunset was up there yesterday, and we were all blown away by the spirit of the event. It is NOT to be missed.

Here are a few shots I snapped on my phone.

Heirloom apples

Heirloom winter squash display

This guy won the giant pumpkin contest. 

A heritage rooster

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Sounds scary, doesn't it?  But the big bugs that have invaded Arizona aren't going to alarm anyone.  They're pure delight.  They are the way, way, larger-than life sculptures of insects created by the Long Island, New York artist David Roberts.  And they have been a hit wherever they've landed ever since Roberts introduced the series at the Dallas Arboretum in 1994.

Today the Big Bugs arrive at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. 

The ten giant sculptures--the ants, for instance are 25 feet long and 12 feet high, and the dragonfly has a wingspan of 17 feet--will be dispersed throughout the Garden waiting for you to find them. Shouldn't be hard.

The Big Bugs will remain in Phoenix through Sunday, January 15, 2012, and the Desert Botanical Garden has planned several events to make the most of the exhibit.  Big Bug Movie Nights sounds like the one not to miss. The series begins the night of October 1 with Ants and concludes with Arachnophobia on November 16. 

If this sounds like as much fun to you as it does to me--I'd put the 1958 version of The Fly on the top of my list--sign up now.  Space is limited and reservations are required for these screenings.  Call 480-481-8188.

The Moonlight Masquerade sounds like fun, too.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

aerial photo by Scott Dressel-Martin

Above is the form the Corn Maze at the Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield will take this year.  The 8-acre!! cornfield pattern was inspired by the Exhibition, Native Roots/Modern Form, which is a tribute to the sculptor Allan Houser, whose pieces are showcased throughout the Gardens on York Street.

Now to dazzle your friends, all you have to do is commit this pattern to memory and race through the complex maze with impressive speed.  And, to be on the safe side, maybe download a map to hide in your pocket just in case.

Other options: enjoy the Corn Maze from one of the two 15-foot-tall illuminated bridges overlooking it. Or use a child as an excuse and tackle the mini-maze instead.

The Corn Maze opens to the public on September 9th and will be open every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday thereafter through October 30th.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Photo of Gallery by Jill Mamey

The first strokes of the giant plant "paintings" have begun at Descanso Gardens.  See my previous post for more about the Sturt Haaga Gallery, the Gardens' newest addition, shown below, and about the grids which in two weeks' time will be supporting dramatic vertical gardens.

While we're waiting for photos of the fully planted grids, let me share a few photos of Andrea Baldeck, whose giant prints -- not as big as the grids but still huge -- will be the subject of the first exhibition at the new Gallery. 

 Ranunculus

Moonflower

Garlic Scapes

Amaryllis

More about Andrea Baldeck

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

I love the cooling nights and lower sun angle of late summer. Plants set seed, flickers call in the distance, and I'm ready for a nursery road trip.

One of the best I know is near Portland, Oregon, where three great nurseries can keep you busy for a day or a weekend. Cistus and Joy Creek nurseries are open every day, but Bamboo Garden is only open Saturday, so if you want to make a Labor Day weekend trip out of it, today's your only chance to bag all three at once. All three nurseries are on large rural properties where they have display gardens that support retail and mail-order sales, plus design services. The nurseries are 13 to 23 miles apart.

This is also a terrific time to shop for nursery stock. As the days get shorter and cooler, transplanting becomes easier, and soon cool-season rains will take over and do your watering for you.

Cistus Nursery on Sauvie Island (15 miles northwest of Portland) has the most unusual stock, including lots of fascinating natives and Mediterraneans. Many push climate-zone limits hard, so it's best to ask about hardiness before you buy.

Bamboo Garden in North Plains (20 miles west of Portland) has 16 acres of bamboo, most of it in sometimes-huge naturalized groves, but considerable space in containerized stock as well. Expertise in both running and clumping bamboos runs very deep here. While you're visiting, be sure to track down Jiro's coccoon.

Joy Creek Nursery in Scappoose (18 miles northwest of Portland) is justly famous for its perennials (including such diverse groups as hostas and penstemons), but their clematis and hydrangea collections are spectacular as well. This is a wonderfully peaceful place to walk, take notes, and make garden plans.

Happy Labor Day weekend.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Photo courtesy Betty Ford Alpine Gardens

In the West, plant choices thin out as you gain altitude and latitude—but not as much as you think. Five public gardens make the point. All have great assortments of summer-flowering plants, and many of these gardens will have terrific fall color from mid-September through October.

Albuquerque BioPark Botanical Garden (Albuquerque, NM; 4960 ft.)—Thirty-six acres of gardens and conservatories make a visit here an all-day experience. There are Japanese gardens, a heritage farm, a butterfly pavilion open through Labor Day, and much more.

Betty Ford Alpine Gardens (Vail, CO; 8264 ft.)—The highest-elevation botanical garden in the West, this is only staffed through Labor Day, but it's open to walk-throughs every day after that (though you'll have to bring your snowshoes in winter). Cool summers and cold winters make this garden's beauty all the more remarkable.

Denver Botanical Gardens (Denver, CO; 5300 ft.)—Perhaps the premier botanical garden in the West, this has everything from food festivals and plant sales, to say nothing of perfectly maintained plantings. It's also home to the Plant Select program, which spotlights the best plants for Rocky Mountain gardens. More about this garden in a few days.

Georgeson Botanical Garden (Fairbanks, AK; latitude 64°, 51')—This is the northernmost botanical garden in North America, and it succeeds in an almost-impossible environment, where summer-winter temperatures can swing by as much as 150° F. I follow their trials of annual flowers and vegetables: if they make it here, they'll grow in cold country anywhere.

Red Butte Garden (Salt Lake City, UT; 5085 ft.)—Water features, natural gardens, medicinal garden, pear arbors, rose garden, fragrance garden, and four-seasons garden give you plenty to see. There are also lots of workshops this month, and even an evening garden tour.