Succulents for the Contemporary Garden

Rating:
Summary: Pretty but not a good reference book
Review: This book is an extensive collection of nice pictures of over 350 different succulents. They are arranged in scientific name order. However the descriptions for each entry are just text describing the plant. There is not even basic information like the hardiness zone so you will know if the one you like will survive your winter. The text does not directly reference the picture location so you have to find the picture key somewhere on each page ("This page, left to right ..."). The index is really just a table of contents - common names are listed under the scientific name instead of having a separate entry ("Purple Emperor" is indexed as "Sedum, Purple Emperor"). Get this for the pictures then get The American Horticultural Society "A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants" for the reference data.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty but not a good reference book
Review: This book is an extensive collection of nice pictures of over 350 different succulents. They are arranged in scientific name order. However the descriptions for each entry are just text describing the plant. There is not even basic information like the hardiness zone so you will know if the one you like will survive your winter. The text does not directly reference the picture location so you have to find the picture key somewhere on each page ("This page, left to right ..."). The index is really just a table of contents - common names are listed under the scientific name instead of having a separate entry ("Purple Emperor" is indexed as "Sedum, Purple Emperor"). Get this for the pictures then get The American Horticultural Society "A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants" for the reference data.