Taking gardening advantage of last weekend’s summery Saturday, I planted 50 tulip bulbs, purchased in December at their bottom cut-rate prices. It wasn’t the ideal time to plant them, but what have I got to lose? At the least, or maybe the most, I got to scratch in the dirt in January.

When winter gets down to business and there’s absolutely no chance that dirt will accumulate under my fingernails, I find myself looking to the garden in words for my green buzz. It’s true; those who can’t do it, read about it.

In Annie Dillard’s "The Maytrees," the audio book entertaining me on my commute, one of the characters moves to the city when she grows too old to care for her gardens. She thinks they could do better than her. I’m charmed.

Another book, Cora Steyermark’s "Behind the Scenes," is responsible for my introduction to the NHBS Environment Bookstore, based in the U.K. Long on the lookout for this account of Julian Steyermark’s work on "Flora of Missouri" from the woman-behind-the-man’s point of view, NHBS delivered. I enjoy their ensuing occasional promotional e-mails and get lost wandering through their amazing inventory.

Last month, NHBS sent out their top titles of 2008 list, and I was delighted to find that two of the top 10 fell into the botany category. The third edition of "Sedges of the British Isles," a Botanical Society of the British Isles handbook, came in third overall, and "Lichens: An Illustrated Guide to the British and Irish Species" by Frank Dobson was seventh on the botany list. I’m intrigued at the prospect of paging through entire books on sedges and lichens.

The other botanical book in the top 10, "Mabberley’s Plant-Book" by D.J. Mabberley, is described as being "indispensable for anyone with a serious interest in plants." One review calls it a "comprehensive single volume for taxonomic inquiry." I’m thinking I might need a copy.

A recent work-related web search took me to the National Science Foundation’s Web site, where I came across a July 2008 article about research by Ohio State University crop scientists who have discovered a gene that controls the shape of tomatoes.

"We are trying to understand what kind of genes caused the enormous increase in fruit size and variation in fruit shape as tomatoes were domesticated," said lead researcher Esther van der Knaap.

On one hand, the prospect of delving into the secret lives of plants fascinates me - so many mysteries to unravel. But on the other hand, there’s that persistent little voice in the back of my head that says it might be best not to mess with Mother Nature’s genes.

Rather than concerning himself with the shapes of things, Chandler Burr, the fragrance critic for The New York Times Style Magazine, is a nose man. I came across an ad for a December 2008 talk on his new book, "The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York," in the Sunday New York Times.

"You will smell jasmine from Grasse, pink peppercorn absolutes and tuberose from Peru and India," said the ad, "and masterpieces of scent art both classic and new for men and women."

I was astonished to learn that such a professional niche even existed and will have to learn to live with the bitter disappointment that I was never pointed in this sublime vocational direction. Many times since reading the ad, I have found myself wondering just what it was that uniquely prepared Burr for such a divine career. I guess I need to read the book.

When it comes to owning books, reference materials are more my speed. An old friend sent me the centenary edition of "Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" for Christmas, which she had purchased at a used bookstore’s closing. Words with tales to tell can be appealing on so many levels, such as the following entry on the phrase "root and branch."

"The Puritans who supported the Root and Branch Bill of 1641 to abolish episcopacy were known as ‘Root-and-branch-men,’ or ‘Rooters,’ and the term has since been applied to other political factions who are anxious to go the whole hog."

As you read this, I hope to be root and branch in the ultimate winter word garden - seed catalogs - and upon my gardening word, I am happy as a clam at high tide.

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