Veronica Peerless’ book, How NOT to KILL Your Houseplant, is a guide to successfully growing houseplants. With a unique format, the book offers basic information on growing plants indoors, profiles of over 50 plants with specific care details, and suggestions for the best plants for specific places in the house. The information is thorough and easy to access, making it an ideal book for a beginner as well as a more experienced plant lover.
The book begins with essential information that prepares readers for more in depth guidance. A photo index consisting of four pages of illustrations featuring the plants in the book help readers quickly find specific information about a plant even if they don’t know the name of the plant. Each illustration is labeled with both common and botanic name, and accompanied with the page number where detailed information may be found. Subsequent pages are devoted to the basics of houseplant care from buying the plant and taking it home, to finding the place place for it and then watering, fertilizing, grooming, cleaning, repotting, and protecting it from the damage caused by pests and disease. Throughout the section, tips are provided to help the readers anticipate, identify, and solve potential problems.
The bulk of the book is devoted to plant profiles filled with specific, detailed information on individual plant. The profiles are arranged alphabetically by botanic name from Aechmea fasciata (urn plant) to Zamioculcas zamiifolia (zz plant) and include many favorites such as lipstick plant, elephant’s ear and cyclamen as well as some less well known ones such as queen’s tears, nerve plant, and crocodile fern. Each entry covers two pages and features a large picture of the plant, a brief description, requirements for temperature, light, water, and fertilizer, and tips about care, A “BUG ALERT” is shown in a red framed inset, and typical problems associated with the plant are shown in black framed insets with suggestions for saving it. A side bar, called “Share the Care”, shows and describes plants that thrive in the same place and with the same care as the featured plant.
Written in a simple casual style, the book provides a wealth of information about houseplant care in a very accessible way. The photo index and Share the Care side panels are especially helpful. The many illustrations accompanying the text are attractive and add greatly to the pleasure and ease of using the book. How NOT to KILL Your Houseplant is an excellent resource and a great model for a similar one for garden plants (hint).
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