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[Campo Girl]

Author: Diana Morgan

Succulents are clever plants -- they have altered their skin, leaves, roots, their very shapes, to retain water and reduce water loss. Alone in the plant world, they breathe at night when the air is cooler and thus lose the least moisture. The skins of some have a waxy surface to reduce water loss, others grow a powdery covering to deflect the sun. Some are covered in hairs which capture the smallest amount of mist or dew, and deflect the sun to make them glitter and shine. A succulent can be found with a 'look' to suit almost any garden brief: elemental and primitive, cheerful and colourful, modernistic and architectural. With increasing concern world-wide about diminishing water supplies, many foresee a gardening future in which low-water plants will be essential. They are combining low-water plants from all over the world into a new mix, creating intriguing new landscapes with plants that are both modest in their water needs and highly desirable garden denizens. Succulents fit that brief perfectly. The book gives tips for the successful cultivation of succulents, and information on those suitable for gardens large and small, hot, shady and frost prone, for courtyards and balconies, on types worth growing for flowers as well as shape, and suggestions for their use in parterres and patterns. The photographs illustrate many of the plants discussed both as individual specimens and as part of overall plantings.