C&S book for beginners

[Eric Williams]

Hi all, my 16year old niece has developed a healthy interest in our plants. Can anyone recommend a suitable book. Cultivation and pictures would be very useful to her at this stage. After growing for over 40 years, all my books are for a slightly more adavanced grower. I agree the Internet is a great tool. but I think books are more useful in this instance. Thanks. Ps BCSS growing leaflets will be of interest too.

[juster]

Hi Eric, I think that two good books for beginners are 'How to care for your cacti' and 'How to care for your succulents' both by John Pilbeam. It is probably about 30 years since they were first published, but second hand copies are available, via the internet, for a few pounds. They are well set out and easy to read, with the common genera covered and bits of helpful advice about various pests and problems.

[MikeT]

Gordon Rowley's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents is out of print but easy and inexpensive to get hold of. It's an excellent general book for a beginner.

[ragamala]

A book I bought recently (because I can't resist an absolute bargain - at around £3 used from Amazon including postage) is The Cactus Handbook by Erik Haustein.

It is short on cultivation detail - but then of course the BCSS cultivation leaflets are a good starter.

But it has a wealth of excellent photos - about 120 pages of them with 3 or 4 pics per page, and a large number of cacti in flower, which would enthuse any beginner.

[Werewolf]

Cacti and Succulents: an illustrated guide to the plants and their cultivation by Graham Charles is very good and probably the most recent English general cultivation book.

[habanerocat]

The first book I owned was "The Prickly Plant Book" by Sue Tarsky. It's fully illustrated and geared towards children. Published in 1985 but a quick google shows its still available in Amazon and others.

[ralphrmartin]

Gordon Rowley's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents is out of print but easy and inexpensive to get hold of. It's an excellent general book for a beginner.

I'll second that opinion.

[Tony R]

Gordon Rowley's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents is out of print but easy and inexpensive to get hold of. It's an excellent general book for a beginner.

I'll second that opinion.

I have a couple of spare ones of this if anyone is interested ....

rowley.jpg (23.38 KiB) Viewed 2212 times

[Ospreywatcher]

Anything by Miles Anderson/Terry Hewitt, available on Amazon preferably in paperback as much cheaper than hardback. I got all my inspiration from one of their illustrated "encylopedias" on cacti and succulents.