Happy Houseplants: 30 Lovely Varieties to Brighten Up Your Home

by Angela Staehling

Enhance your home décor with this guide to choosing and caring for indoor plants, with information on thirty common, easy-to-grow varieties.   For anyone who has longed for a garden of their own—whether a city dweller or one with less-than-green thumbs—this is a handy little guide to growing and maintaining houseplants. Cheerful and informative, Happy Houseplants will guide any budding indoor botanist through a bevy of topics, from soil and water to light and fertilizer. With beautiful illustrations accompanying thirty different profiles of plants, from the easygoing Air Plant to the striking Zebra Cactus, this nifty book is the perfect gift for anyone looking to bring a piece of the outdoors inside.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Plants, Reference, Nature, Art, Horticulture

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 22, 2017

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations were adorable, and the cover is what drew me in but this was super informative and helpful. Time to add a new plant or two ;)

[Elise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute illustrations but not very informative. With a 5 minute google search I could have found much more info on each plant, and Staehling gives resources in the back for places that have complete homecare instructions that are way more in depth than the very basics she gives (soil, water, light, maybe fertilizer). So why read this book except for the drawings, or maybe plant ideas?
Also, PLEASE do not put gravel at the bottom of your pot "to increase drainage" because it actually makes the drainage worse!!! I don't know why people still believe that, and books like this that mention it surely are not helping people drop that mindset. If you place your plant in one pot and want to put it in a second more decorative pot then sure, add gravel to the second pot to raise the plant at the level you want, but please don't put gravel directly under your soil. Root rot is not fun.

[ally · Rating 5 out of 5]

woooowwwwwzies

Lately, I have been SLIGHTLY obsessed with plants...

lemme tell you, this book was SO FUN to read on the plane ride hehe
the drawings were so amazing and the book was so descriptive
even though I already forgot like everything, it was so interesting and I learned a lot in the moment

[PinkPanthress · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a person like me with a brown, almost black, thumb this was a nice read. I found the info in this 'guide' to care a bit lacking though, so only 4 Stars for this.
BUT I loved the art accompanying the text itself.
So if you are a visual person, this might very well be something for you. :)

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an adorable little book that I picked up from the library recently. The illustrations are beautiful and the varieties of houseplants chosen for this book are interesting. However, there's nothing in this book I couldn't find in a random blog post on the Internet. Some information that might have been very helpful would have been if the chosen varieties were safe around dogs and cats, where to buy plants from, and what to do if you don't have a sunny place for plants in your home. 

[Jennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always want to add plants to my home but find the process completely overwhelming. Not so here!

This brightly illustrated book gives you and easy step by step. It also has a variety of plants great to fit all tastes.

Worth a read. You can feel the love of gardening all through the book.


Check it out!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this Book as part of a Goodreads giveaway, thanks to Chronicle Books and Goodreads for the opportunity. This is a beautifully illustrated little book that is well organized and filled with specific information/tips for each plant. I really liked the variety of plants, especially since I only have one of them, leaving me plenty more to check out.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really cute book with lovely watercolor illustrations. There are useful tips and helpful stuff you need to know about 30 common houseplants as well as some basic tips for plant care. This really made me want to go out and buy a few more plants!

[Caitlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful guide for newbies to plants or people looking for more varieties. I will be referencing this for sure. It’s already helped me adjust the watering for my jade plant & left me dreaming of adding new plants. A lovely Christmas gift.

[Raynee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really cute little book of plants. It was organized nicely, and my only complaint is that there were only 30 plants! Would've loved to learn about more. Good for beginners to indoor gardening.

[darce vader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't understand plants at all so I enjoyed this wee insight into how to not suck at plants.

[Donna Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quick, fun and easy steps to having a green thumb with 30 different houseplants.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely and adorable.

[Madelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful little book on houseplants, it is informative and fun. The illustrations are dreamy!

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Handy and happy little guide, delightfully illustrated, about hearty houseplants and their care for readers interested in these two topics.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely little illustrations. Such a meditative read. I really enjoyed reading this all the way through.

[Annie Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is absolutely beautiful! Bonus--it's full of easy-to-understand, useful information! I'm adding this to my Amazon wishlist, and any of you who love your houseplants should do the same!

[Onaca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet but helpful for beginners.

[Trish · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book if you are just starting with house plants.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, but not comprehensive, very few types of plants and brief instructions, and no photos. While illustrations are charming, it makes it hard to identify plants for a novice.

[Angie Chadwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think photos of the plants would be more helpful than illustrations

[Ashton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly good ebook to read.

[Tracee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This certainly isn’t an in-depth guide into residential horticulture, but there were some basic growing tips provided for some common houseplants. The watercolours were adorable.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

lovely book of nice plants, it's alot of succulents and bulbs. I was hoping for more indoor air quality plants

[Kate]

This book is adorable! Full of succinct advice and plant recommendations, and enhanced immeasurably by delightful illustrations by the author, this is a great book for someone who is looking to add a few plants to their space, but isn’t sure which types, or how to take care of them. Hi

Edited to add: adding to my 2018 Popsugar Reading Challenge under “A book with alliteration in the title”

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute little book and a nice sampler of plants for the house-plant novice. While I probably wouldn't recommend this to the experienced "plant parent," I think it's a great little book for someone who is interested in finding their first plant friend.

Also recommended to anyone who is looking for a new plant, but isn't sure what they want. I have a nice space in my room that could benefit from some greenery (but doesn't have a ton of light), and this book helped me to find the perfect one: snake plant. I've heard a lot about it, but this was the first time I had stopped to really look into it. And I think that it would be a nice addition to my current collection.