Five gardening books published in 2003 have earned the American Horticultural Society’s Annual Book Award.

The winning books, profiled below, are An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms by Robert Lee Riffle and Paul Craft, The Passion for Gardening by Ken Druse, Time and the Gardener by Elisabeth Sheldon, Tropical Flowering Plants by Kirsten Albrecht Llamas, and Your House, Your Garden by Gordon Hayward.

The award winners were selected by the AHS Book Award Committee, chaired by Dick Dunmire of Los Altos, California, a former editor of the Sunset Western Garden Book. The other members of the committee are Linda Askey of Birmingham, Alabama, formerly senior writer for Southern Living magazine; Keith Crotz, who owns American Botanist Booksellers in Chillicothe, Illinois; Laurie Hannah, a horticultural librarian at Santa Barbara Botanic Garden; Rommy Lopat of Richmond, Illinois, editor of weedpatch.com; Lucinda Mays of Chadron, Nebraska, a garden writer and former host of the Southern edition of PBS’s The Victory Garden; and Ray Rogers, an author and book editor from North Brunswick, New Jersey.

Books that have received the AHS annual award can be distinguished by a gold seal embossed with the Society’s name. Seek out these books in your local bookstore or order them through a link to amazon.com posted here on the AHS Web site

An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms
by Robert Lee Riffle and Paul Craft. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $49.95.
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“As a horticultural librarian, I am constantly looking for good books on palms,” said Laurie Hannah, “and I can tell you that this book is top of the list. Not only is it useful, accurate, and authoritative, but the authors’ poetic language brought life to the book.” Rommy Lopat agreed, noting, “For an encyclopedia, I found it very readable. The authors are opinionated and offer interesting stories and history along with the plant descriptions.”

The Passion for Gardening
by Ken Druse. Clarkson Potter, New York, New York.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $50.
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“Ken Druse continues to put out spectacular garden books,” said Ray Rogers. “Everything about this one is top notch.” Lucinda Mays praised it for offering such a wealth of inspirational ideas and photographs for gardeners at all levels of experience. “Books like this make gardening information accessible and encourage more gardeners to be successful,” she said. “It’s a splendid book,” added Dick Dunmire, “really informed by passion and from the heart.”

Time and the Gardener
by Elisabeth Sheldon. Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $25.
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“I consider this one in a distinguished line of classic American garden books,” said Keith Crotz. “Sheldon is one of those writers, like Elizabeth Lawrence, who takes you on a personal tour that is amazingly close to a garden stroll or armchair chat,” said Linda Askey. Lucinda Mays said she had trouble putting the book down. “It combines high-quality writing with good advice on how to think about plants and use them in particular settings,” she said.

Tropical Flowering Plants: A Guide to Identification and Cultivation
by Kirsten Albrecht Llamas. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $69.95.
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“This encyclopedic book covers a very large variety of plants that are becoming widely popular in this country,” said Dick Dunmire. “I was impressed with its authoritativeness,” said Laurie Hannah, “particularly that the author took so much time to update the nomenclature and went out and measured the plants herself.” Ray Rogers said the book is “top-shelf from a production standpoint and from an information standpoint—I like everything about it.”

Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design
by Gordon Hayward. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, New York.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $39.95.
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“I really liked that the voice of the book assumes you are a capable human being but might never have set a stone before,” said Lucinda Mays. “There are too few books that help us as gardeners put it all together to make it work.” Keith Crotz praised the illustrations, particularly the aerial plans of each garden. “The author provided examples from many different residences and discussed ideas that usually don’t get covered in design books, such as how to garden over a septic tank,” said Laurie Hannah.