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Zusatztext 87209229 Informationen zum Autor Debra Lee Baldwin, an award-winning photojournalist, is widely hailed as the “Queen of Succulents.” She helped launched the gardening world’s interest in succulents with her first book, Designing with Succulents , and with her two other books Succulent Container Gardens and Succulents Simplified . Baldwin’s own half-acre garden has been featured in Better Homes and Gardens , Sunset , San Diego Home and Garden , and other publications. Klappentext Everything you need to create a beautiful, waterwise garden Bursting with practical and appealing uses for succulents, this completely revised edition of a best-selling classic shows how low-water lovelies will enhance your garden. Debra Lee Baldwin, the acclaimed authority on all things succulent, reveals design and cultivation basics, offers hundreds of plant recommendations, and shares stunning, verdant gardens filled with these living sculptures. Vorwort With updated plant lists, new photography, and beautiful featured gardens, this 10th anniversary edition of Designing with Succulents is essential for anyone who wants to create a lush garden of waterwise plants. Introduction Succulent describes any plant that survives drought by storing water in its leaves, stems, or roots. These plants were far from my mind when I began gardening in my early thirties. Because I wanted big, bold, beautiful flowers, I planted cannas and rose bushes, despite the fact that in southern California (USDA zone 9) rain falls minimally and mostly in February, the soil lacks nutrients, and inland temperatures range from 25 to 105°F. From spring through fall, such plants continually need mulching, fertilizing, pruning, spraying, irrigating, and deadheading. As a garden photojournalist, I was influenced by editors, design professionals, colleagues, homeowners, and horticulturists who believed that gardening is an endeavor that ought to suit the region. It was my job to communicate via words and photos why certain residential outdoor environments were innovative and appealing—not only visually but also practically. As I strove to entertain and enlighten the gardening public, I became inspired myself. One midwinter, when my garden consisted of pruned and naked rose bushes, cannas with frost-burned leaves, and perennials that had been cut to the ground, I visited the garden of horticulturist Patrick Anderson midway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Despite its poor soil and lack of irrigation, his garden was lush and colorful. It was the first time I had seen large aloes in a garden setting. The ensuing article reflected my fascination: “Fleshy green monsters in Patrick Anderson’s Fallbrook garden look like they might snap him up if he turns his back,” it began. “They’re giant succulents, and Anderson’s half-acre hillside showcases hundreds of unusual ones.” I described aloes that “pierce the sky like exotic torchbearers, hot orange against cool blue,” and agaves that “sprawl like squids, or explode upward like fistfuls of knives.” I noticed how two or three varieties of succulents selected for shape, color, and texture create elegant and eye-catching vignettes. Succulents with curved or undulating leaves suggest motion, which makes any garden more interesting. Moreover, like seashells and snowflakes, succulent foliage forms patterns that illustrate nature’s innate geometry and that are mesmerizing when repeated. I soon learned firsthand that in a warm, dry climate, succulents and similarly low-water perennials make sense economically, aesthetically, and ecologically. Aeonium arboreum and A. haworthii, Agave americana ‘Marginata’, and Bulbine frutescens proved trouble-free—as did the aloes, sedums, senecios, kalanchoes, and graptopetalums that followed. I found succule...
