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.

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. It’s going to be an excellent reference book when we begin to experiment with different plant varieties at the top of our apartment building.

While from the title of the book it is known to be a source of information for green roof plants, it is still expected to find information on installation techniques, either very specifically or at least with a list of companies or other sources cited where the installation techniques could be found. Only a couple of companies are cited, but with no Sources section in the back of the book -- only nurseries. Many subjects directly connected to planting and building a green roof is only generally touched on with broad explanations. The plant selection pages are great, with lots of color photos and good description.