Succulent Container Gardens

February 15, 2010
In her follow-up to Designing With Succulents (2007), Baldwin presents design ideas for container gardens of every stripe: elegant to traditional, miniature to bonsai, to a chic minimalism. She shows off to great advantage the architectural qualities and jewel-like colors of succulent species in head-turning groupings that illustrate such fundamental design elements as rhythm and repetition, and in arrangements showing simple yet striking marriages between single plants and glazed pots. Baldwin will surely ignite a fire under green thumbs who are already drawn to this realm of intriguingly textural plants, with abundant examples of gorgeous private and nursery gardens abetted by succulent displays of starkly upright and cascading forms, ruffled leaves, and rosettes. Regardless of skill level, gardeners will draw on Baldwins expert propagation advice for a cost-cutting way to expand ones garden. Further instructions for the care of these drought-tolerant, fleshy-leaved plants, from agaves to aloes to yuccas, include methods for overwintering, and a list of cold-hardy cacti and succulents.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)