Hardy Succulents: Tough Plants for Every Climate

245 Pages·2008·16.11 MB·English

by  Gwen Moore Kelaidis

HARDY SUCCULENTS
TOUGH PLANTS FOR EVERY CLIMATE
HARDY SUCCULENTS
GWEN MOORE KELAIDIS
SAXON HOLT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by publishing
practical information that encourages personal independence in harmony with
the environment.
Text © Gwen Moore Kelaidis
Photography © Saxon Holt/Photo Botanic, except for the following:
© Karen Bussolini, page 88; © Scott Calhoun/Zona Gardens, pages 39, 52, 61,
83,
121 bottom right, and page 140; © Randy Tatroe, page 124
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The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our
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Printed in China by R.R. Donnelley
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelaidis, Gwen Moore.
Hardy succulents : tough plants for every climate / Gwen Moore Kelaidis.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-58017700-9 (pbk. with flaps : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-58017-
701-6 (hardcover with jacket : alk. paper) 1. Succulent plants. I. Title.
SB438.K45 2008
635.9’525—dc22
2007039890
Edited by Carleen Madigan Perkins and Gwen Steege Art direction by Mary
Winkelman Velgos
Cover design by Mary Winkelman Velgos based on a design by Chen Design
Associates Text design by Mary Winkelman Velgos based on a design by
Chen Design Associates Text production by Kristy L. MacWilliams
Illustrations by © Beverly Duncan
Indexed by Christine R. Lindemer, Boston Road Communications Front cover:
Sempervivum ‘Faramir’
Front flap: Agave parryi, Opuntia basilaris, Sedum reflexum ‘Blue Spruce’
Back cover: Yucca thompsoniana, Sedum sieboldii ‘Mediovariegatum’,
Delosperma ‘Kelaidis’
Back flap: Escobaría missouriensis
Page 2–3: Agave neomexicana
Page 6–7, left to right: Orostachys spinosa, Sempervivum ‘Gold Bug’, Agave
parryi, Opuntia engelmannii
To all those who love plants simply for the beauty of their forms.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank all of the following people, without whom this book would
not have been possible: My parents, Ouida Agnes Johnston Moore and Jesse
Carl Moore, for teaching me to garden carefully and lovingly. My botany
professors, Dr. John Thomson and Dr. Hugh H. Iltis, and my teacher Dr.
Theodore S. Cochrane, all of the University of Wisconsin, for opening up to me
the natural world in all its devastating beauty and precious variety. My fellow
gardeners, especially Panayoti Kelaidis, Kelly Grummons, and Bill Adams, for
sharing freely their extensive knowledge of succulents and for their generous
sharing of plants. Also Lauren Springer Ogden, Barbara Cochrane, and many
more. That great plantsman and nurseryman Harlan Hamernik, of Bluebird
Nursery in Clarkson, Nebraska, and his wife, Shirley, for their outrageously
generous donations of plants for my gardens. My friends Sandy Snyder and
Marcia Tatroe and my sister, Carla Ann Young, for their continual support and
encouragement of this effort.
— GWEN MOORE KELAIDIS
In pursuit of photographs to illustrate this book, I must first thank my coauthor,
Gwen, who kept me focused on the hardiness factor, even when I suggested
hardiness issues in my Zone 9 garden prevented me from growing kalanchoe.
Acknowledgments to the gardeners, public gardens, and homeowners who so
graciously allowed me access to their gardens are on page 148, but here I want
to thank those who suggested locations and encouragement for this book:
Panayoti Kelaidis of the Denver Botanic Gardens; Dan Benarcik at
Chanticleer; Carlo Balistrieri; Ernesto Sandoval at the University of California,
Davis; Richard Turner atPacific Horticulture magazine; Carl Schoenfeld at
Yucca Do Nursery; and Gwen Steege at Storey Publishing.
Finally, thanks, Flora!
— SAXON HOLT
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