Carnivorous Plants: Gardening with Extraordinary Botanicals

by Nigel Hewitt-Cooper

Once known only to collectors, adolescent boys, and fans of the cult film The Little Shop of Horrors, carnivorous plants are poised to be the next big trend in home gardening. They provide striking architectural style and can be grown indoors and outdoors. Carnivorous Plants is an accessible, smartly designed guide to growing this unusual group of plants. It offers a general introduction to the world of carnivorous plants, and growing and cultivation information for commonly available and easily grown varieties. Nigel Hewitt-Cooper also provides advice on where to grow the plants; year-round care, cultivation, and maintenance; and a directory of the best carnivorous plants for home gardeners. 

Genres: Gardening, Plants, Nonfiction, Nature

231 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2016

Reviews

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first thought among many generally positive thoughts upon reading this book was that I wonder why it was not more popular to see people growing carnivorous plants when I was growing up in Florida.  Many carnivorous plants thrive, after all, in boggy soils with plenty of open sunlight and the supply of a lot of bugs to eat, and Florida certainly has standing water, sunshine, and insects in abundance.  And yet I do not remember when I was growing up any interest in gardening for carnivorous plants despite the fact that gardening is a common interest there [1].  Indeed, from reading this book it appears that there is a real lack of books on carnivorous plants and how to take care of them, and judging from the excellence in this book, that is a trend that definitely needs to change.  This book is an enjoyable read about an often-neglected family of plants of whom the most famous is the Venus fly trap but which includes many other plants that diet on insects and other generally small animals, although apparently not earthworms.

 The contents of this book are notable for a work that seeks to plow new ground in gardening.  The author begins with an introduction and some basics on carnivorous plants (1) before talking about how to grow these plants in one's home, greenhouse, or garden (2).  After this the author gives some advice on where to grow plants of prey (3) and how to take care of and maintain these plants year round (4).  After looking at some common carnivore plants that can be raised rather easily like cobra lilies and venus fly traps and pitcher plants, which takes up about half the total size of the 200+ pages of the book as a whole (5), the author then looks at some more difficult plants to raise to take one's carnivorous plant growing to the next level (6).  I don't personally think I am a proficient enough gardener to ever move beyond fairly basic levels, but those plants are impressive enough.  Anyway, the author closes with a look at how to make growing carnivorous plants attractive to children and beginners, which doesn't appear to be a very difficult task given the curiosity many have about such plants (7) before providing some resources and recommended reading and acknowledgments and credits for the book's many amazing and colorful photos.

Overall, this is an impressive book that gives its readers some valuable information as well as encouragement to grow more carnivorous plants.  As these are plants that can handle poor soil, many of which are pretty easy to grow, and are plants with a certain intrinsic curiosity about them, there is a lot to make these plants worthwhile in growing.  Attractive plants that keep down nuisance insects are definitely worthwhile to have in some parts of the country and as many of them are quite able to handle freezes and frosts, they should be a lot more widespread as plants than they are at present.  Hopefully this volume will help to bring these plants and their growing conditions and quirks to a wider audience so that they have a solid place in gardening and are able to provide some useful work in getting rid of excessive insect populations while also providing some striking and beautiful scenes.  Anyway, I am not sure what kind of market is available for this book as I do not know how many are fans of this kind of plant, but as someone who greatly appreciates plants that eat vermin, I am sure I am not alone in being fond of such beings.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2016...

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2015...

[Петър Стойков · Rating 5 out of 5]

Книга относно отглеждането на хищни растения. Което било доста по-разпространено хоби, отлколкото съм си мислел и има доста повече видове такива растения, отколкото съм предполагал.

Авторът е определено експерт по темата (това му е страницата: https://www.facebook.com/pg/hccarnivo...) и е написал книгата разбираемо, подредено и с всички нужни съвети - както за начинаещи, така и за напреднали любители и дори за родители, които искат да запознаят децата си с хищните растения.

[Two Readers in Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book clears up the many of the half-truths about growing carnivorous plants, and then goes beyond basic care with in-depth examples of how to integrate these plants sustainably and responsibly into your home or garden. As the book jacket says, “fierce is the new beautiful!”

You will fall in love with these amazing plants, many of which are sun-loving North American natives. (If you are more interested in botany than horticulture -- knowing rather than growing -- I'd recommend the beautifully illustrated "Weird Plants" by Chris Thorogood.)

[Chocolategoddess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not as comprehensive as The Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato, but much more useful for a European reader with regards to cultivation information. I would definitely recommend this book for a European beginner with an interest in keeping carnivorous plants because it's concise and informative, while also instilling less fear in the novice. Hewitt-Cooper gives the impression that many of these plants, particularly the species he recommends here, are less picky and lets you know that he's happily grown them all in conditions that don't exactly match their native origins, whereas D'Amato seemed quite dogmatic about it and left me wondering if my pitcher plants were all about to die in my non-Californian winter (they have not).

The pictures in this book are great and nearly every species mentioned is accompanied by a stunning photo. This does mean that the number of plants discussed is limited, but it still contains a good range. An interesting and attractive read.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book--but does not stay at the level of plant porn by any means. Its best attributes are that it includes pictures of plants in various stages (not just huge specimens) and that it gently rates genera by difficulty level. Nice, detailed propagation instructions as well. [I read the hardcover edition, not the Kindle.]

[J.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very pleasantly surprised with this book. It seems almost like an updated version of Adrian Slack's excellent guide for growing carnivorous plants. Maybe that's because the author is also British and has that understated kind of humor. (Honestly, I think I'm a bit of an Anglophile anyway.) Hewitt-Cooper hits all the most commonly grown plants although his summaries of the different subspecies and varieties might be a bit thinner than Slack's, it's definitely better organized. It might not be as thorough as The Savage Garden, but for a beginner who's just interested in how to grow CPs it's very complete. And he offers very good growing advice. (I might disagree on a few minor points, but we all have different climates and microclimates which probably accounts for the differences.) His advice on propagating the different plants seems very complete. My only complaint is with the ePub format of the book (which I checked out from my library), where some of the photo captions appear on the wrong photos. But I think this might be one book I'll be looking for the hardcover to add to my collection.

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Personally I like the savage garden better.

[Stephen_Digital · Rating 5 out of 5]

Caught

As a beginner to carnivorous plants I found this book had plenty of detail and it was presented in a simple and interesting style.