This is Adrian Slack's first publication, which originally appeared in 1979. It presents a fascinating insight into the World of Carnivorous plants. Although not as useful as Slack's second book "Insect Eating Plants & How To Grow Them" from the cultivating point of view, it is still an essential purchase.

A fairly recent publication that covers the growing techniques of the entire range of plants... Excellent in-depth advice, and nicely illustrated. Highly Recommended.

This is the third in a series of highly regarded books, by author Allen Lowrie. It covers the many varied species of carnivorous plants found in Australia.

This book covers the entire range of plants. Written by an author who has apparently courted controversy in the past, it is a reasonable publication.

An excellent and fascinating look at the wonderful secret world of plants. The section on Feeding & Growing naturally covers carnivorous plants. Nicely illustrated.

A beautifully filmed study of the secret world of plants. Contains excellent time lapse photography of growing and developing Nepenthes pitcher plants. But most other species are also shown, and a Sarracenia even graces the video box cover!

Now this beautiful series comes to DVD! New cover, but still interestingly a carnivorous plant. Special Features: Interview with David Attenborough from 'Blue Peter.' Making of featurette. Interactive menus & Scene selection.

If you are feeling particularly flush you can now get all the excellent David Attenborough series including "Private Life Of Plants" in one amazing box set!

This book covers most of the species and is a reasonable if a little lightweight publication. Some nice photos..

Highly regarded author's new book. Fuller review to follow.

This first publication by Charles Clarke covers in incredible detail the range of Nepenthes species and hybrids found in Borneo. Besides the scientific details it has many large and beautiful photos illustrating these fantastic plants! Essential reading for any Nepenthes enthusiast!

Another excellent publication by Charles Clarke. This covers the range of Nepenthes found in Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia. Packed full with excellent colour photos this publication features many of the recently discovered Nepenthes species. And unlike his other book does also have a useful chapter on cultivating these amazing plants.

Aimed at young children.

An interesting and nicely illustrated book covering in detail the Sarracenia range of species and hybrids. It looks at them in a somewhat different way to most CP books and covers for example how their pitchers are used in the cut flower trade. I found it an entertaining read with loads of beautiful photos.

Though not directly related to carnivorous plants, this book does explore the World of the Veitch family. The book starts in 1768 and tells the amazing story about this family who discovered and introduced many plants into cultivation through their famous nursery. Amongst these, many forms of Nepenthes.

Although not strictly a carnivorous plant book, it does feature a full page photo of a Nepenthes hybrid! Nevertheless this is a fascinating and interesting read about the origins and building of the Eden Project in Cornwall. Richly illustrated throughout with some amazing photos.

A look at the plants grown in the three biomes – Humid Tropics, Warm Temperate and Temperate at the Eden Project. No carnivorous plants featured though :(

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

A beautifully illustrated and highly informative striking publication. It covers Brochinia, Catopsis, Darlingtonia, Heliamphora & Sarracenia pitcher plants in great detail. For me, it is the coverage on Heliamphora that makes this book so valuable and essential. No other publication covers this amazing range of plants and is worth buying just for this! It also lists and in most cases illustrates through photos and line drawings all the species and that includes very recent discoveries. In addition there are some incredible and breathtaking photographs of the locations these plants are found in. There is a small section on cultivation but this mainly guides you to other publications, as this book is much more about these plants growing in the wild. It also takes you through the history of when these species were first discovered which makes for fascinating reading.. Carnivorous plant books don't get any better than this, and I look forward to Stewart's forthcoming works on Sundews, Nepenthes and an in-depth look at the "Lost World". Watch this space!!

Covering the family of Drosera ( Sundews ) in great detail and illustrated with some beautiful close up photography.

A recent publication from Stewart McPherson published May 2009. It covers in amazing and beautiful detail the pitchers plants from the Old World ( Nepenthes & Cephalotus. It is richly illustrated throughout with colour photographs and line drawings. Combined with the equally essential Volume 2 these two publications have the most complete list of all currently known Nepenthes. Simply breathtaking! These two publications must be the most comprehensive on the family of Nepenthes I have ever read. Absolutely essential for every Nepenthes lover!

Volume Two dovetails neatly from the first volume and continues the in depth look at these remarkable plants. In this volume there are some fascinating photos from behind the scenes at both Borneo Exotics nursery and Exotica Plants. It is interesting comparing the photos of Exotica Plants nursery to the original line drawings of the Veitch Nurseries taken from "The Gardeners Chronicle" 1872. My only advice I can give if you are hesitating over getting these books is- BUY THEM!!

Published in July 2010 these two new publications cover a whole range of different carnivorous plants in great detail. With rich and informative text and beautiful photographs another must buy!

An exciting new publication written by a very experienced grower and editor of the American CPS newsletter/magazine. Review to follow.

Further details here.

This is the long over due reprint and update to Adrian Slack's remarkable work that was originally published in 1986. As I said before, this book helped save my collection and started and maintained my interest in carnivorous plants to this very day! The updates mainly consist of a few new photographs to replace ones that went missing since the original publication. All the photographs are printed to a much higher quality in this reprint as well. All the text remains unchanged as Adrian Slack's poor health prevented any updates. However the bulk of his advice still remains true to this day and proves a useful guide to newcomers as well as established growers. Only the section on chemicals used for pests & disease is now completely out of date as all the ones listed are now withdrawn!! Check my growing advice section for the current ones available. Having seen how much this publication in its original form was fetching on Ebay this reprint is an absolute bargain!

To be reviewed.

To be reviewed.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Stewart's latest publication covering both Sarracenia & Darlingtonia. To be reviewed shortly.

Another excellent publication from Stewart. This includes the most up to date list of Heliamphora forms and includes changes to descriptions/names of 5 of these species. Once again the highly detailed text is accompanied by some breathtaking photos.To be fully reviewed shortly.

Adding to Stewarts other excellent books on Nepenthes is this new publication covering the range of plants found in the Philippines. It includes descriptions/photos of several new species found in just the last few years. To be reviewed shortly.

OUT OF PRINT PUBLICATIONS

I will be adding additional reviews of books currently out of print. Hopefully these titles will be reprinted in time. Or can possibly be obtained from second hand book stores or through sites such as Or they can sometimes be found on Amazon's E-shop. Use the search engine at the bottom of this page to see if any are currently on offer!

Insect-Eating Plants & How to grow them By Adrian Slack. Now reprinted and published again in September 2006. See above!!

Originally published in 1986, this is my all time favourite carnivorous plant book. I can honestly say that this publication single handily saved my plant collection! Although when the book was published a lot of the species were only just becoming available, it gives excellent straightforward advice on most species. And I still refer to this book the most often!