Customer Reviews

The Complete Book of House Plants: A Practical Guide to Selecting and Caring for Houseplants

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great reference book for all levels of houseplant lovers (I have about 30 houseplants spread throughout my small house). I think the most useful part of this book is how the author rates each of the 200+ plants referenced as "Very Easy, Easy, Difficult, Very Difficult." These ratings refer to the ease (or difficulty) in growing these plants indoors. I've already consulted the book probably a dozen times before buying a particular plant, i.e., if I know a plant is going to be "difficult" or "very difficult," I usually think twice about the amount of time and work that might be involved with sustaining the plant.

In addition to ranking the plants like I've described, the author lists common problems associated with each plant, the fixes for these problems, how to proprigate, the average life-span, where to place the plant, how big/small you can expect the plant to get, and much much more information.

I'm a plant lover and consider myself knowledgeable on houseplants, but I get this book out at least once a week to either reference something about my existing plants or plan my next purchase. I enjoyed this book so much, I recently purchased one as a gift for my mother, who is also a plant lover.

If Amazon has this book in stock (it frequently goes on backorder I've noticed), get it. You won't be disappointed.

Before this book, the few plants we had were just barely surviving. Plants received as gifts invaribly died. It was horrible.

Then we got this book. We have filled our house with a variety of planets and our plants are doing extremely well. We now give cuttings and detailed care instructions to other people who love plants. Evans' book is very easy to use, it is an extremely attractive book with a color photo of each plant, and we consult it all of the time both as a reference and as guide to which plants we would like to add to the house. It is a pleasure just leafing through this book!

This is the most easy to read & comprehend book about houseplants that I've ever seen. Each plant is shown in color and rated on an very easy - very difficult basis, which is extra important when deciding on which plants to purchase. The book tells you commom problems of each plant and tips & hints on how to care for them. I check with this book before I purchase ANY plant!

A must buy for the houseplant lover!

Equipped with beautiful color photographs and clearly written text. Specific care and problem info boxes are provided for each plant, each of which is listed by both Latin and common names.

This book has a short "introductory" section that goes over the basics. I've seen a number of books that have more general information than this one. However, I think this book does an outstanding job of giving very specific information on each plant in its listing of 100+ plants.

Each listing shows a color photo or drawing of a typical specimen. At the top of each listing is a rating from "Very Easy" to "Very Difficult" on the difficulty of caring for this plant. This can be very useful when selecting plants. (It also makes me feel better when I look up a plant that just croaked and found that other people don't have much luck with it either!) Another handy bit of information is the section on "Problems". Each plant listing has a "Problem" section that includes more than just pest problems, but issues like overwatering, light issues, etc. When I get a new plant I like to look it up here so I know what I'm getting into.

This is definitely a great book to have on hand if you have a number of houseplants.

I've been trying to find a good comprehensive book on indoor plants that is at least the equal of my old standby, Foliage Plants for Decorating Indoors by Mr. and Mrs. Elberts (1989, Timber Press)[q.v.]. That book gives info on each plant from the direct knowledge of the authors and as a result has proved to be the best tropical houseplant book bar none, thus far. They give personal observations, recommendations, etc.; whereas 19 out of 20 such books have the usual set of short paragraphs with pedestrian info (i.e. dimensions, temperatures, light requirements, etc.). The Elberts also cover a goodly number of varieties and cultivars one is likely to encounter.

This book, Complete Book of Houseplants (publishers really must try to find some more individualistic titles), by John Evans, is not too bad. I know that's a left-handed compliment, but I am still searching for what maybe does not exist, a worthy cohort for my Elberts book. Evans book does not spend as much space on "how-tos" as many of its ilk, thank God!, the photos are illustrative in the main and the text is very thorough. I do wish that this book was more comprehensive on species, cultivars of species, and that there were more illustrations of them. It's pretty inconsistent in this regard. Two whole pages devoted to kinds of peperomias (although it's wasted by having two large photos of P. caperata!), and only one page to cover the entire Philodendron genus! and there we see a tiny photo of P. melanochrysum, and only drawings of individual leaves of three other species. Same with Senecio rowleyanus - huge photo of it and a whole page devoted, when this is really a rather marginal plant for home folilage use - foliage? String of pearls doesn't even HAVE foliage!

This book could have been much more than it is. It really doesn't give me any info I can't get in several other similar books, some of which have better photos and are more comprehensive. 2 stars.