Product Description

A recent NASA study proves that houseplants can significantly improve indoor air quality. The New Houseplant makes sense of the astounding variety of plants that can now be grown indoors, and it explains how to maximize their beauty in the home or office. Covers small and large plants, fragrant and flowering plants, even edible plants. 200 full-color photos.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2214625 in Books
• Published on: 1993-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
What is new about the new houseplant? Our era, McDonald writes, "is about breaking the sill habit and becoming a gardener indoors who seeks and experiences the benefits and rewards of gardening outdoors." This can be done, he explains, in many different ways--with conventional cachepots and trellises or, more intricately, with a "closet light garden" set up in a spare room with shelving and a few fluorescent tubes. In any case, the point is to maximize an opportunity that is not as small as it may once have seemed. And the motive for taking trouble to do all this? Limited outdoor space and a pining for something alive that will, with luck, stick around. And it's also true, as the author points out, that indoor spaces, where we spend most of our time, tend to be more polluted than the outdoor--unless plants bring aid. McDonald makes his case cogently in this long, explicit book, supplying lots of lists and suggestions for indoor gardening as a leisurely, secular redemption--although that idea might slightly shock him. Photos. Alternate selection of the Organic Book Club, the Nature Book Society and BOMC HomeStyle.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
McDonald, who has written more than 40 books on gardening, here takes the reader through basic care, propagation, training espaliers and bonsai, moving houseplants outdoors, and problems and pests. A third of his book--the most useful section--is devoted to the descriptions of over 500 plants and their specific care, with detailed information on the needs of popular plants like African violets plus many plants that are less well known. McDonald's text is anecdotal, personal, knowledgeable, and full of practical tips, such as storing bulbs for forcing in a vegetable crisper. However, the book could have used pruning: it's occasionally talky or confusing. In addition, coverage is uneven; for example, the section on miniature gardens covers only one person's work. Lists of mail order houses, including those selling houseplant seeds, and of specialized societies and magazines would have been useful. Consequently, this is recommended primarily as an enjoyable, informative additional purchase. (Illustrations not seen.)-- Sharon Levin, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Best houseplant book ever!
This is the definitive houseplant book. It is comprehensive, well-researched and based on many, many years of practical experience in growing plants in the home. On top of all that, it is a great pleasure to read as Mr. McDonald is a natural writer. His love for living greenery is combined with a scrupulous interest in learning about the ever-expanding world of houseplants and in sharing what he has learned with gardeners, amateur and professional alike. If you are longing for a houseplant book, this is the one to get: it will whet your appetite to acquire more plants that can be brought into bloom in any home. It will also teach you everything handy about plants best suited for indoor culture. And thanks to its unpretentious design, layout and beautiful photographs, this is a most handsome volume.