The Houseplant Handbook: Basic Growing Techniques and a Directory of 300 Everyday Plants
Julie Bawden-DavisSeptember 19, 2022The Houseplant Handbook: Basic Growing Techniques and a Directory of 300 Everyday Plants
I love it when a book lives up to its name. The Houseplant Handbook: Basic Growing Techniques and a Directory of 300 Everyday Houseplants does. This 224-page book gives you everything you need to grow healthy, prolific houseplants and an amazing indoor garden.
The Houseplant Handbook features everything from the basics, like proper watering, feeding and pruning, to more advanced indoor gardening techniques. The author, David Squire, combines his horticultural training and indoor gardening experience to teach you a wide variety of indoor gardening methods.
The step-by-step instructions in The Houseplant Handbook are thorough, understandable and workable. Along with photos and clear explanations, you can learn how to repot a houseplant. There are also instructions on creating indoor topiaries, as well as grooming and supporting houseplants.
(Janet Peace, Hot Tomato Communications)
One of the most impressive sections of the book is the detailed instructions on propagating houseplants. You’ll get a great tutorial on every conceivable way of inexpensively increasing your houseplant collection.
Squire covers sowing seed for houseplant favorites like coleus. He also shows you how to take every type of cutting imaginable. These include stem-tip cuttings, leaf-stem cuttings, leaf-petiole cuttings, whole leaf cuttings, leaf-square cuttings, leaf-triangle cuttings, cross-leaf cuttings, horizontal cane cuttings, vertical cane cuttings, cactus cuttings and small-leaved succulent cuttings.
(Janet Peace, Hot Tomato Communications)
If you’re going on vacation, Squire has a section on caring for your houseplants while you’re not at home. These include ingenious ideas such as using capillary matting or wicking. These methods allow your houseplants to absorb moisture when you’re away. He also gives advice for where to place your plants before you leave home—such as away from drafty, drying areas and out of direct sunlight.
The Houseplant Handbook’s comprehensive 300-plant directory is thorough, yet to the point. Complete with color photos of each plant and their descriptions and growth habits, the guide also gives you important growing advice. You’ll learn the lighting needs of each plant in summer and winter and how to care for them throughout the year. Squire also shares the propagation technique for each plant.
All in all, a thorough houseplant guide.
