Product Description

Green roofs have gone from horticultural curiosity to booming growth industry in urban and suburban settings alike—primarily because their environmental benefits are now beyond dispute. Concise, accurate, and easy to use, this is the first reference devoted to the drought-tolerant plants most likely to succeed in this environment. The text covers moisture needs, heat tolerance, hardiness, bloom color, foliage characteristics, and height of 350 species and cultivars. Green Roof Plants is destined to become an indispensable practical reference guide for architects, landscape designers, engineers, and environmentally conscious home gardeners.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59351 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 220 pages

From Booklist
Although relatively commonplace in Japan and throughout Europe, green roof gardening is just a grassroots movement in the U.S. But ecological and economic concerns are pushing what was once a landscaping anomaly into the forefront of environmental design. It is, however, not as simple as merely re-creating a ground-level garden high atop a building. Green roof gardening must take into consideration structural engineering issues such as load bearing, waterproofing, insulation, drainage, and maintenance. These same concerns make selecting suitable plant material a challenge. The authors have compiled the first reference tool designed to help green roof gardeners determine the best drought-tolerant, low-maintenance, temperature-hardy plants. Supported by 300-plus color photographs and including cultural details on more than 200 species and cultivars, this is an essential resource for home gardeners and landscape architects and designers looking for environmentally friendly choices. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Edmund Snodgrass, a [green roof] pioneer...provides an overview of green roofs, from their benefits and challenges to their design and construction to their plant selection...this useful guide targeted to green-roof industry professionals will also interest a general audience." -- Library Journal, September 2006

"Supported by 300-plus color photographs and including cultural details on more than 200 species and cultivars, this is an essential resource for home gardeners, landscape architects, and designers looking for environmentally friendly choices."—Carol Haggas, Booklist, October 2006 (Carol Haggas Booklist )

Supported by 300-plus color photographs and including cultural details on more than 200 species and cultivars, this is an essential resource for home gardeners, landscape architects, and designers looking for environmentally friendly choices.Carol Haggas, Booklist, October 2006 (Booklist )

From the Publisher
Concise, accurate, and easy to use, Green Roof Plants is the first reference devoted to the drought-tolerant plants most likely to succeed in this fast-growing area of gardening. It is destined to become an indispensable practical reference guide.

Customer Reviews

This book is a must read on Greenroof plants
I am in the greenroof nursery business and found Ed Snodgrass' book informative, well organized and written. It is going to serve as one of the most useful reference books in my business library. It will be especially useful for greenroof planners when deciding on plant species to use.

The Definitive Guide by the Definitve Experts
I first must confess that have a green roof on my 2 car rear garage here in Washington, DC and worked directly with the author on choosing the proper plants to thrive in our little micro-climate. So I already know the Snodgrass' are the pre-eminent experts in the United States on the types of plants suitable for a given situation.

That being said, this book provides an invaluable resource for those interested in, or who may become interested in, having a green roof for their home. When we installed our roof 4 years ago, had we not met the authors we would have had great difficulty in even knowing where to begin. Now all of us have that starting point: by reading Green Roof Plants.

And don't think you must be an environmentalist to consider installing a green roof - many do so simply for the aesthetics. In fact, as city dwellers with limited space, we chose a green roof to have something beautiful to view from our kitchen. I suspect there are many of you who really never have thought of having a green roof and would be consigned to a lifetime of looking down or up at a plain shingled, painted or tarred roof. Don't be that homeowner! Installation of a green roof adds perhaps 10-20% to the cost of a painted roof, extend the roof's life and provides significant environmental benefits. Go for it, and buy this book first!

A basic overview of green roof plants
The book gives a basic introduction to Vegetated roofs and then provides the best comprehensive and well organized list of potential roof plants I've seen so far. Its going to be an excellent reference book when we begin to experiment with different plant varieties atop our manhattan apartment building.