Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care Plants
The perfect comeback to those who say succulents are boring.
Los Angeles Times
With their colorful leaves, sculptural shapes, and simple care, succulents are beautiful yet forgiving plants for pots. If grown in containers, these dry-climate jewels — which include but are not limited to cacti — can be brought indoors in winter and so can thrive anywhere in the world.
In this inspiring compendium, the popular author of Designing with Succulents provides everything beginners and experienced gardeners need to know to create stunning container displays of exceptionally waterwise plants. The extensive palette includes delicate sedums, frilly echeverias, cascading senecios, edgy agaves, and fat-trunked beaucarneas, to name just a few. Easy-to-follow, expert tips explain soil mixes, overwintering, propagation, and more.
Define your individual style as you effectively combine patterns, colors, textures, and forms. Discover how top designers interpret the dramatic options, in ideas ranging from exquisite plant-and-pot combinations to extraordinary topiaries and bonsai. Expand your repertoire with plump-leaved plants that resemble pebbles, stars, and undersea creatures. Short on space? Create vertical gardens and hanging baskets, and use daisylike rosettes in wall displays.
Each of the more than 300 photographs offers an inspiring idea. A-to-Z descriptions cover 350 of the best succulents, plus companion plants. Whether your goal is a gorgeous potted garden for a sunny windowsill or outdoor living area — or simply making great gifts — this is a comprehensive primer for creating vibrant, living works of art.
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 248 pp.
- Book dimensions: 7⅝ x 9¼ in. (235 x 195 mm.)
- Images: 320 color photos
- ISBN-10: 088192959X
- ISBN-13: 9780881929591
- Product code: 682959
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Media reviews
"There is plenty to inspire here, with lots of lovely photographs of plants spilling out of all manner of pots; and Baldwin's extensive information ... has the hallmark of personal experience."
—Elspeth Thompson, Gardens Illustrated
"Seeing how gardeners turned birdbaths and tiered water fountains into flowing arrangements of sedum, aeonium, echeveria and crassula struck me as the perfect comeback to those who say succulents are boring."
—Craig Nakano, Los Angeles Times
"As I paged through this book for the first time, I think I shouted some obscene expression of admiration every few pages."
—Mari Malcolm, Omnivoracious blog
"Planting succulents in containers opens the way for a hobby within a hobby."
—Dean Fosdick, Associated Press
"Baldwin will surely ignite a fire under green thumbs who are already drawn to this realm of intriguingly textural plants. ... Regardless of skill level, gardeners will draw on Baldwin's expert propagation advice for a cost-cutting way to expand one's garden."
—Alice Joyce, Booklist
"The information is presented clearly and simply and would be great for a novice but still in depth enough for a semi-seasoned succulent-er."
—Apartment Therapy
"Succulent Container Gardens lives up to all of my hopes and expectations for the book. ... If you're thinking that 2010 will be the year you give succulents a try, this book will help you create a unique and beautiful pot or two or ten. Not to mention give you enough information to keep your new plants alive for many years to come."
—Fern Richardson, Life on the Balcony blog
About the author
Debra Lee Baldwin
Debra Lee Baldwin gardens on "an inhospitable half acre" in the foothills of southern California, where temperatures range from below freezing to 110°F. As a garden photojournalist and scout for major magazines, she developed an appealing and sophisticated design aesthetic; as a hands-on gardener, she knows what works and what doesn't. In addition to writing and illustrating articles, books, and blog posts and giving presentations at major flower-and-garden shows, Debra shares her passion for plants that drink responsibly via seasonal newsletters, workshops, YouTube videos, and social media such as Facebook.
Read more about Debra Lee Baldwin
Designing with Succulents
Pots in the Garden