Aloes of Southern Africa

A good general book on aloes and other members of the aloe family. The photos are great and many interesting aloes are described and briefly discussed. This isn't a "deep study" of the aloe family, but it is good enough for most folks. I especially liked that they were arranged by habitat, which is a good indication of the conditions they need to grow. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys aloes, for the pictures if nothing else. This is another Smith and van Wyk book.

I think this book hits the mark quite well with regards to giving a good overview of the aloes of southern Africa, the specific species in their habitat, and a short, but good, general cultivation guide. Now is this the book to buy to use as a resource in identifying the different aloes? No, but it does not set out to be that (regretfully the books that do are expensive and hard to come by). The other reviewer complains about the color palette of the pictures, I did not have the same problem, yes there is a lot of red in the pictures, but the landscape of southern Africa just has lot of red in it, as the soil is mostly red. Regardless in my copy the color difference between the different aloe flowers (also mostly shades of red) was evident, although some times subtle. For the price this is a good book to have as it is full of good information with regards to growing you own aloes indoors or outdoors.

Nice & informative book!

This guide is very well written, complete, with very good illustrations.Provides usefull informations.Strongly suggested!!

This was a great book except for the poor color printing. I bought this to see the subtle differences in the different aloes and their flowers, but the images were printed with too much red.

I grow African aloes from seed and this book is like a celebration of my favourite hobby. It is filled with beautiful photos and gives fascinating detail on Southern African aloes.I especially enjoyed the sections on how adult aloes nurture their seedlings and how they can even “anticipate” adverse weather conditions (“aloe intelligence”).

I loved it, it has a lot of info on Aloe's that I needed,Very informative