Natural selections: guidebooks provide inspiration for a scenic summer adventure.

Many Southern writers, including William Faulkner and Eudora Welty, relied on their natural surroundings to inspire symbolic landscapes and create a sense of place in their fiction. While Faulkner's descriptions of verbena and other Southern blossoms permeate his work, Welty also wrote about full-blooming gardens (much like her own) in her stories and novels. In passing on their literary legacies, both writers also left their personal sanctuaries intact, including their original gardens, which have been restored for public enjoyment.

The South is full of similar landmarks and other interesting hideaways if you know where to look. Whether you're a literary historian in search of the past, an artist in search of a muse, or a bird aficionado in search of a yellow-bellied sapsucker, two new books are must-have guides for planning the perfect nature getaway..

GARDENWALKS IN THE SOUTHEAST: BEAUTIFUL GARDENS FROM WASHINGTON, D.C., TO THE GULF COAST

By Marina Harrison and Lucy D. Rosenfeld. Paperback, $14.95. Insiders' Guide/The Globe Pequot Press, www.insidersguide.com.

Camellias and chrysanthemums abound in this comprehensive guide to garden-hopping in the South. Organized by state, Gardenwalks in the Southeast lists hundreds of garden spots while noting interesting features and flowers that can be found at each site.

Horticulturists and amateur enthusiasts alike will appreciate Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, Alabama, where the "ongoing progression of blooms includes a February and March extravaganza of hundreds of thousands of azaleas all flowering at once." In autumn, Bellingrath produces the largest chrysanthemum display in the world, exhibiting 60,000 plants with millions of blossoms.

For recreationally diverse groups, authors Marina Harrison and Lucy Rosenfeld recommend the more elaborate resorts. Busch Gardens in Tampa, Florida, is known for its captivating gardens but also features a monorail system, bird and dolphin shows, brewery tours, and a zoo. The Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, is another famous landmark whose grounds encompass 8,000 acres with a 250-room mansion and winery. The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and the Opryland Hotel in Nashville are also included for the extensive gardens decorating their properties.

Mississippi has its share of beautiful garden locales as well. Natchez is home to a slew of historic mansions and flowering estates, with enough to fill an extended garden getaway. Built in 1818 and owned by General John Anthony Quitman (who was considered the "richest man in Natchez"), Monmouth Plantation is as well-known for its elaborate gardens as for the impeccably maintained house. Harrison and Rosenfeld describe Quitman's antebellum paradise: "Great oaks dripping with Spanish moss surrounded the house. He imported 40 trees and vines from France and grew peaches, pears, nectarines, olives, figs, and many flowers in separate formal beds. Even one of his gardeners was imported--from England."

Perhaps the most unusual garden listed is in Lucedale. Situated on 20 acres, Palestine Gardens is a scale model of the Holy Land and features plants mentioned in the Bible as well as miniature replicas of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Capernaum, and Jericho.

Other unique gardens in the book include Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Florida, which houses thousands of butterflies; South Carolina's Swan Lake Iris Gardens, an artist's dreamscape bursting with 6 million irises; and the Mobile Botanical Gardens, which feature a fragrance and texture garden for the blind.

Gardenwalks of the Southeast can be used to plan an elaborate retreat or a quick "gardenwalk" on the way to your vacation destination. Lists of monthly garden shows and festivals for each state, as well as maps and contact information for each site, make this book essential in choosing a garden outing to remember.

A GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN STATES: FLORIDA, GEORGIA, ALABAMA, AND MISSISSIPPI

By John H. Rappole. Paperback, $24.95. University Press of Florida, www.upf.com.

"There is an old story about a bird-watching newspaper columnist who, when called and asked, 'What's this bird in my yard?' answered, 'House sparrow.' Good guess," John Rappole writes.

Those who genuinely ponder the difference between a barn owl and a barred owl (two similar owls commonly found in Mississippi) should look no further than Rappole's new book, A Guide to the Birds of the Southeastern States. Color photographs of each bird, as well as detailed descriptions of their qualities, habitats, and voices (a barn owl emits "eerie screeches and hisses" while a barred owl says, "Haw haw haw hahoo-aw"), make bird watching full of enjoyable mysteries solved.

Rappole, who is a senior research scientist in ornithology and author or co-author of 11 other birding books, lists 41 specific birding sites in Mississippi, including driving directions to each one. From John W. Kyle State Park near Sardis to Gulf Islands National Seashore off the state's southern coast, Mississippi is swarming with birds of many fascinating varieties.

Little brown sanderlings ("a chunky, feisty peep of the beaches") can be spotted year-round hunting for sand crabs along Mississippi's Gulf Coast. In summer, the unusual purple gallinule (a local oddity with "extremely long toes, iridescent green back, purple head and underparts, blue frontal shield of naked skin on forehead, red bill with yellow tip") likes to hang out around small bodies of water and can be seen at the Tallahatchie National Wildlife Refuge near Grenada. Along the Natchez Trace Parkway near Cypress Swamp, Mississippi kites (a distinctive bird resembling a small eagle) flourish in the summer months; they flee to central South America to ride out the winter.

Rappole has created a compact reference book that beginners and experts will both find useful. A comprehensive index and colored tabs signifying each species group make this guide as necessary as a pair of binoculars for every bird enthusiast.