CactiGuide.com

There are quite a few recommended books here, which is somewhat daunting for a complete beginner. It would be great if I someone could make some recommendations for a complete beginner up to the point of a not so complete beginner. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It really depends where you live what is available. There are really two types, identification or culture. How to grow or how to identify genera and species. Most combine a bit of both, but it needs to be reasonably comprehensive if for identification.

There is an online one here for an example you can read and you may find a copy of it on EBAY since it's out of print now I think. You may have to enlarge to read it but click on the arrows at the bottom to change pages.

https://archive.org/details/The_Illustr ... live_Innes

Beginners books on cacti are usually available from your local bookstore or library since they will seldom keep the more advanced works. Also you may find many if you put "Cactus Books" into your local EBAY site.

Ken Preston-Mafham did a similar book which deals more comprehensively with the smaller species more of us grow.

http://www.timberpress.com/books/cacti/ ... 0881924008

Just looked on UK EBAY and both the Innes and Preston-Mafham books are there along with many other beginners books. I picked up the Preston-Mafham book for £5 ($6.38, €5.64) last month from a bookseller, so they are being discounted if you look around.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from ... s&_sacat=0

Ill check both of those out. Do you have any recommending on the growing side of things? Or even on the biology of cacti?

Hi ihoptdk, although this book may not be exactly what you're looking for, you may find it interesting nonetheless. Cactus by Dan Torre covers basics about cactus in culture. It may not be the most scientific or in depth book, but it handsomely bound and printed in color, and I found it quite entertaining.
http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display. ... 1780237220
I bought a copy from Amazon at a cheaper price.

Thanks for the links.

Try this one
(Click the pict to download - it's from pdfdrive.com)

Years ago, I wrote about how much I loved A Cactus Odyssey and it has continued to age well. It's the perfect combination of well written narrative, like a journal written by specialists, rendered for the common reader. It alludes to the oddities of cacti and fascinating features that many will be surprised about such as anatomy, growing conditions, uses, etc. The habitat color photos alone are worth grabbing a copy (usually cheap used copies on eBay). Although there is no direct growing advice, the journal is helpful in becoming familiar with the broad categories of cacti, how they grow, and the habitat they come from. It should be noted of course, that this book is focused exclusively on South American cacti.

Today, I would recommend reading more and more online journals of people's growing experiences on sites like this. Not only are these free to read and have excellent photos, they give you the best opportunity to learn about the cacti you are interested in in cultivation. Learn from others mistakes and successes. Compare your experiences with theirs. For me, that is one of the greatest joys of the hobby.

ihoptdk wrote: ↑Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:57 pmOr even on the biology of cacti?

The book I usually recommend for beginners has a reasonable bit on the biology of cacti. The cultivation bit is only a couple of pages, though. It has a really good selection of genera covered, including some lesser-seen cacti. It's always available somewhere of a nominal cost plus postage. It's "The Cactus Handbook" by Erik Haustein ISBN-10: 060057251X ISBN-13: 978-0600572510

I agree with Pereskiopsis, there is a lot on the Web and it is free, whatever level you are at. For beginners just Google "How to grow cacti" (or "Other Succulents" if that's your thing). For more in depth biological treatment Mauseth's site is a good one. Just click on the "Introduction", "Epidermis", "Cortex" etc links in the left hand column of this link below:-

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/mauseth/researchoncacti/

From my experience , the problem with buying books online, if you haven’t been able to look trough in ‘the flesh’ so to speak, is that you don’t always get what you expected or hoped for. F.ex, an orchid book I ordered online for identification, was more of a coffeetable book in my opinion. Lots of great pics as promised , of the flowers only.. If you were lucky, you could get a glimpse of some of the leaves too.. Not very helpful if your plants wasn’t in bloom.

I have seen the same in some of the cactibooks too. Yes, I know that studying the flowers could be the only real clue to which species it is, but for a beginner , who often have a small cactus without flowers, that isn’t very helpful.

An older book about genus Matucana with descriptions.
https://www.cactuspro.com/biblio_fichie ... tucana.pdf