Happy Cactus provides a good overview of basic propagation and care of select succulents. It covers basics such as how to choose a pot, repotting, how often to water, how to treat pests and root rot. While related plants are near each other in the book, I would like to have seen an overall higher-level taxonomic grouping. For example, rather than listing several types of Aloes, I would have learned more if the author went into greater depth on Aloes as a group and then differentiated the needs of the different plants. Just listing a few select Echevarias out of many didn’t really help me learn more about the specifics of Echeveria in general. Further, if a novice has a succulent that they want to identify and better learn its needs and it wasn’t included within these pages, they are out of luck with Happy Cactus. I also would like to have seen some scientific background included in Happy Cactus. Again, Happy Cactus provides a good overview on succulents and cacti, but does not provide depth about any topic it covers. This book could be good, easy to follow guide for children.

Thank you to NetGalley and DK Publishing for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Well designed reference book for cacti and succulent plant lovers - old and new.
Graphically pleasing pages are loaded with information for the novice and the experienced
gardener. Well done!

Succulents are everywhere! I was at Lowe's over the weekend and there was a huge section of them for $3-$8 each. They're so cute but I hesitated, not knowing proper steps for care. This new book, releasing May 15th, is an amazing resource to care for these adorable little plants. There are sections showing you how to propagate new plants from cuttings and seeds, how to choose the proper pot, how to water and feed, how to prevent and heal diseases and eliminate pests, and so much more. There's so many illustrations and I love the easy guide to identify your plants. Each plant covered in this book has a page and it will tell you how to properly care for it. This book is not only useful, but the style is adorable and I am looking forward to adding it to my bookshelf and growing my own tiny cacti garden!

I would give the 4.5 but that is based on the medium I used. I pulling this up on a PDF and viewed on my device. Some of the images were not as clear, and a little slow to change pages. Otherwise, a great book that shows a variety cacti and how to care for them. Great details and would be a useful book in your library. Would highly recommend.

"Happy Cactus" is a gardening book about growing cacti and succulents as houseplants. The book started by talking about choosing a pot and soil, how much sunlight, fertilizer, and water they need, how to repot or propagate them, and dealing with potential pests. Then they provided specific details for about 46 types of cacti and succulents (with sidebars on related plants). These in-depth pages talked about characteristics of the plants (like height, potential pests, how fast it grows, and spines) and care instructions (how much sunlight it needs, when to fertilize and water, plus repotting, propagating, and flowering tips).

They talked about cacti that are only a few inches tall to those that can grow several feet tall. They talked about plants that have spines and those that don't. They even talked about cacti that are grown in a hanging pot. This book is a fun way to learn more about these plants and potentially find some that would suit your house. The only thing they don't really cover is how to find these plants, as some aren't going to be in your local stores.

Happy Cactus by DK This is a lovely informative book on cactus and succulents.  The knowledge shared is informative for those new lovers of cactus as well as the long time lovers of cactus. Thanks for letting me view an advanced copy.The graphics and photos are not very good but I am unsure of the reason.  I am viewing on a Samsung Galaxy tablet with Adobe Digital Editions.  The largest photo of a potted cactus in each section is very poor