I'm really excited to check out the new book Cacti & Succulents For Cold Climates by Leo Chance, published by Timber Press. After falling under the spell of a cacti garden in San Diego in 1976 (happens to the best of us, happened to me here) Leo returned home to his Zone 5 garden in the Colorado Rockies and spent the next 30 years learning how to replicate the look in a wildly different climate.
His book has chapters on cold-hardi cacti varieties, how to site and water them in a cold (and/or wet) climate, and how to propagate them from seeds and cuttings (great!). I have a dry bed under my neighbor's eave that I hope to turn into a cacti garden over the next few years. Fellow Portlander Danger Garden has really given me the bug. Oh, and I've just clicked over to her blog and see that she wrote a wonderful review of Leo's new book just yesterday. Now I want to get my hands on a copy even more!
You can find a fun interview with Leo Chance of the Timber Press blog here.
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So jealous that you've been to the gardens at Balboa Park! I've only been to San Diego once and that stop just wasn't in the plans.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to watching your cactus garden progress!
I hope you get a chance to check out Balboa Park someday--it's one of my favorite places in the world, just steeped in art and history. You'll love the cacti garden. They have some really big specimens there and it's kind of off the beaten path so you often have the place to yourself.
ReplyDeleteI bought myself a tiny purple prickly pear cactus yesterday. It has begun!
Between you and Loree, I bet there will be a run on this book at the library. I'd better get onit.
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