Kit Wertz of Flower Duet (left) and reknowned book author Debra Lee Baldwin

Kit Wertz of Flower Duet (left) and renowned book author Debra Lee Bald­win (right) in Palos Verdes in May 2018.

Many years ago, the Doyenne of Suc­cu­lents and Cac­ti, Debra Lee Bald­win, con­tact­ed Flower Duet to see if we’d be will­ing to col­lab­o­rate on a book she was writ­ing about Suc­cu­lents. We said, “Yes!” and shared a num­ber of our flo­ral designs which paired dif­fer­ent types of suc­cu­lents with flo­rals and one of them made it into the book Suc­cu­lents Sim­pli­fied. All of the work was done via email and phone calls and over the years, there have been a few times where our paths almost crossed but we missed each other.

This week, Kit was final­ly able to meet Debra at a won­der­ful lec­ture she gave to the Palos Verdes Gar­den Club (of which Kit has also been a guest speak­er on flo­ral design).

It was a great expe­ri­ences to meet a col­league and to chat in person!

We high­ly rec­om­mend all of Debra’s books and list them below includ­ing the one where we have a suc­cu­lent flo­ral bridal bou­quet featured.

DESIGNING WITH SUCCULENTS

Illus­trat­ed with 400 beau­ti­ful pho­tos, this is a com­plete­ly revised sec­ond edi­tion which includes the essen­tials of the first along with ten years of new ideas from the Doyenne of Suc­cu­lent Design!

SUCCULENTS SIMPLIFIED

Bald­win’s third book about suc­cu­lents is “a kind of pre­quel to the pre­vi­ous two.” It’s a guide for new enthu­si­asts, a ref­er­ence for any­one seek­ing a good overview and some cool design ideas includ­ing a bridal bou­quet by Flower Duet on Page 209!

SUCCULENT CONTAINER GARDENS

Shows how any­one regard­less of cli­mate or space con­straints can grow sculp­tur­al, low-water suc­cu­lents in a wide vari­ety of easy-care and beau­ti­ful pot­ted gardens.

— Best suc­cu­lents for pots
— Small-space solu­tions indoors and out
— Smart, sim­ple plant care techniques
— 300+ col­or­ful and cre­ative ideas

SENSATIONAL SUCCULENTS COLORING BOOK

Fea­tures 75 illus­tra­tions by renowned Euro­pean artist Lau­ra Ser­ra inspired by my pho­tographs (includ­ing many from my books). Sen­sa­tion­al Suc­cu­lents show­cas­es an exten­sive array of suc­cu­lents and empha­sizes their melod­ic geom­e­try and exquis­ite pat­terns. This beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed book offers hours of restora­tive, cre­ative fun and a fresh way to enjoy your favorite plants.