The Indestructible Houseplant: 200 Beautiful Plants that Everyone Can Grow Kindle Edition

When I began buying houseplants, I thought it would be useful to have a houseplant encyclopedia to reference for lighting and watering requirements, plus I wanted to be able to read about all types of plants. This is not what I got in this book, but that's okay because what Tovah Martin does is go into depth about a few plants that she sees as valuable and worthy of taking care of over time. This book is really about building relationships with your plants, about choosing plants for their quality and housing them in a way that does justice to both their needs and their aesthetic. Houseplants are not always treated well; people make jokes about how bad they are at taking care of them, and few people do research on a plant before they buy it. What this book does is encourage its readers to be deliberate about plant purchases. It gives examples of several plants that are both hardy and attractive, and while it does provide useful information about lighting, watering, potential problems, etc., Martin's stories about each plant make this a more valuable read than a houseplant encyclopedia. If you are someone who cares about building a relationship with your plants, about treating them like a living thing, this book is for you. If you want a quick reference guide, go with something else. Or try this book anyway - as I said, I thought I wanted a quick reference book, but "The Indestructible Houseplant" turned out to be what I really needed. It has transformed my entire approach to growing plants indoors.

I would have loved Martin's way of writing, if this book were a novel. She's really good in describing something ordinary in an exquisite way. I see that aside of growing plants, Martin has the knack for growing words. Well, she has admitted she loves kinky (page 125) and has a constant quest to be kinky (page 250).Let me put it this way. I love coffee, and I love milk, too. Sometimes I drink latte, sometimes just a glass of fresh milk, and sometimes Americano. However, when I dine in a restaurant and put "coffee" on my order for drinks, I would expect to taste more, if not entirely, coffee than milk or anything else. Therefore, when I put "The Indestructible Houseplant: 200 beautiful bla bla bla..." on my order, I expected to be educated about houseplants rather than to be entertained. This book feels more like a compilation of blog posts about the author, her cat, her nephew, and her houseplants.Dracaena. There are lots of Dracaena species which don't all share same behavior. Nevertheless, the author told a lengthy story about her "Lemon Lime" in the whole chapter of Dracaena. In the middle part of the chapter, I thought she was already talking about Dracaena in general. But suddenly in the middle of the paragraph, she wrote "As far as light goes, ‘Lemon Lime’ shows good color at a respectful distance from an east- or west-facing window; there is no need to give it the best seat in the house." I was like: "Oh no. So is this still about Lemon Lime??"As vocabularies and expressions flower over the pages, it would be quite a task, I assume, to count all the plants recommended by the author in this book. About Dracaena, one. About Haworthia, one. About Euphorbia? Not only one, but how many? Some species mentioned are the failed ones. So the ones recommended? Ah. To find out if there are really "200" or not, it would be like trying to draw a story plot from a novel (of many sequels).I'm not saying that I have gotten nothing at all from this book. It's just not as I had expected, not even close. I'm shedding tears over the $9.99 on the Kindle version of this title. Now I have my homework pulling out the information from this kinky (= twisted) story.

... if you live in a small apartment with north facing windows and very little light but want/need some house plants that will survive. I thought I knew enough about types of plants to buy until I read this book. I took this book with me to the neighborhood plant store (The Sill -- they have lots of varieties) and I picked up plants that are "bullet-proof". So far every plant I bought is doing very well -- not easy when you have low lighting and only 2 small windows and it's winter time in NYC.

BOOK IS OK. NOT ALL PLANTS I WAS LOOKING FOWARD TO KNOWING ABOUT WERE IN THIS BOOK. AUTHOR WENT N LENGHTY EXPLANATION WITH HER OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH HER PLANTS. MANY OF MY PLANTS WHICH I WAS LOOKING FOWARD TO READING ABOUT ARE NOT IN THIS BOOK. BOOK WOULD OF BEEN BETTER INCLUDING MORE PLANTS AND NOT JUST PLANTS AUTHOR OWNED. OR WHO EVER WROTE THIS BOOK

I really love this book by Tovah Martin. She has a really warm and personable writing style. She has very good tips on various houseplants that are easy to grow for people who do not have the most ideal conditions in their homes. The book is filled with lovely photographs of plants throughout her home. Tovah gives good tips on how to water, repot and fertilize plants. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to grow indoor plants successfully.

Wonderful reference book that helped me immensely in cataloging the houseplants I already had and to know which new ones I did or did not want to start at home or purchase. It also helped me to determine which plants would make good gifts to anybody on my list. I still refer to it often. Thank you!!

I've been trying over the past few years to do a better job of keeping my house plants alive. It's been a guessing game for the most part as far as light, location, container, and water level goes. Using this book I've actually been able to care for my plants a lot better, and been able to select a few more the add some charm to my day room. I really appreciate the way Tovah Martin refers to her plants, feels more like they are her friends than just something that sit in the corner. Each plant in her book has its own special story.

Sooo many good pages of information! I enjoyed reading through this book, but it has been a great resource for me. Good tips on lighting and watering, and good info on plants that will live well together. Have gone back to look up plants many times, really helpful!

Can't recommend this book. Its confusingly laid out, and with arrangements that are rather uninspiring. I found the prolifically wordy writing style intensely annoying. I don't consider plants to be 'room mates' and 'humousy' is not a real word as far as I know. There is information here but you need to wade through a great deal of waffle to find it. It is sparsely photographed. For technical info you'd be better off with Hesssyon, for inspiration go to The Plant Recipe Book by Baylor Chapman.

Excellent. Full of info and good illustrations.

I ordered the kindle version of this book, not a good idea.A book on plants is organized in a very specific way so that the pictures are seen along with the name and description of each plant.Converted to an electronic (kindle) version just doesn't work. The pictures, which are important, don't come on the same page as the title of each plant.The descriptions are separated in a way that it makes for confusion.Aside from this, a lot of the pictures are taken too far at a distance so that it is not very clear what the leaves look like (important if you need the picture in order to know exactly what the plant looks like for buying purposes).Also a lot of the pictures are of a poor quality, as though the author or a friend took the picture, ex; some are taken in front of windows and thebrightness cast on the picture make the plant hard to see! (A professional photographer would have known how to adjust that). This book is also verrry wordy (kind of like me eh!!!) the author is kind of funny but does go on and on about their pet and their experiences........I give this book a 2 star!

Buenas ideas para colocar plantas de las de toda la vida de formas divertidas y originales. Mucha explicación, demasiada. Pero desde luego da ideas para que una no se rinda si no le sale a la primera....

I did not find the book an interesting read and found the pictures of the plants not much better than the state of my own plants. The article in the Citizen on which I a based my selection of the book and made the order via amazon.ca very misleading. I am sure there are better books out there, on houseplants.