DIY Network

New Book on Succulents

Master gardener Maureen Gilmer, host of Weekend Gardening, gives a green thumbs up to a new gardening book.

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	Succulents offer a potent palette that requires no blossoms for high contrast color. (All photos courtesy of Maureen Gilmer)
	Bold architectural forms make succulents the darlings of garden designers.
	Lesser-known cacti and succulents combine to create vivid planting compositions.

A book on succulents for novices and pros alike

By Maureen Gilmer

Recently, when the new succulent book from Timber Press came across my desk, I dropped everything to peruse its pages. Would it be the one that finally defines the role of succulents as landscape plants? Perhaps the photography would show in-ground compositions instead of undersize hothouse specimens? I hoped it featured really great-looking contemporary landscapes instead of the same old botanical garden collection.

And, yes, author Debra Lee Baldwin hit the mark with her detailed work, Designing With Succulents (April 2007). This great book addresses the "use of the succulent kingdom in ground, in pot and in landscape. Her easy to understand writing style is user-friendly to the backyard gardener, yet the breadth of information is just as appealing to the expert. She manages to assemble a stellar set of photographs to show succulents as they exist out in the open air. Detailed captions give plenty of information to connect readers with these plants that are little known and less often understood.

This 255-page hardback begins with issues vital to designing a succulent garden or designing succulents into an existing mixed-plant landscape. However, this first chapter is perhaps the only weakness because of the lack of real design criteria, but this will only be a concern to professionals. For general readership, the details on soil, exposure, treatments for front and backyards will be more than adequate.

Baldwin has successfully divided this odd and diverse group into categories of interest to designers. Knowing which are best for colored foliage and which have outstanding flowers gives readers an instant palette to draw from for the hottest varieties in today's contemporary looks.

The chapter on specialty gardens is quite useful for its details on wildfire-resistant planting, eco-friendly green roof applications, coastal landscapes with salt and sand problems, as well as trying desert conditions. There's even a huge succulent labyrinth that alone is worth buying the book to see.

For those at the frost line, a chapter on the issues of colder climates brings the hardier members of this group further north. Sedums and sempervivums are well detailed and guaranteed to inspire anyone to grow these fascinating alpine species.

The combination of a whole chapter on pots, wreaths and container-grown succulents as well as fabulous container ideas throughout the entire text will turn anyone into a succulent lover. From troughs to terra cotta, these compositions are outstanding and packed with many fresh ideas.

The second part of the book features the plant palette. It divides succulents into three main categories, the very big tree-like forms, midsize and shrubby sorts and, finally, the low ground-huggers. This is a very general palette that glosses over large genera such as aloes with just a few named species, which makes this book excellent for beginners. Those more knowledgeable will not find the lexicon here that you may expect. However, the associated photographs do illustrate the plants in large mature specimens from outdoor gardens. This is a refreshing improvement over older books filled with miserable hothouse seedlings that offer little to guide readers in how they might appear in permanent outdoor landscapes.

Baldwin should be commended for what might be the best succulent landscaping book written to date. This is an immense undertaking with such a vast range of plants, many from significantly different climates of origin.

I'm thrilled to have this great book in my reference library and will recommend it to novice and pro alike. And for those more visually inclined and less likely to read the text, Debra's photography alone will make it a perfect gift.

(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of Weekend Gardening. E-mail her at mo@moplants.com. For more information, visit: www.moplants.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)

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