You know a book is good when you read it more than once. For the last few nights, The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual by Barbara Pleasant has been my bedside companion. Flipping through the pages, and stopping to read whenever I come up on a plant that I own, or want, I have went through the book at least three times. (In addition to doing a through reading of the book during the day). The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual is an asset to the bookshelf of every house plant enthusiast, and I am excited to share my thoughts on it!
This book is exactly what it says it is, a complete houseplant survival manual. It includes almost every type of common house plant, and has in depth care instructions that will allow anyone keeping their plants not only surviving, but also flourishing.
The first two thirds of the book are plant specific care instructions, and the last third is more general care. Sections 1 and 2 have detailed care instructions for almost every houseplant you can imagine. This includes light and watering requirements, but also harder to find information, such as common pests, temperature and humidity preferences, common issues that affect the species and how to fix them, and potential toxicity. The native range for each plant is also listed, which provides further information on the conditions the plant does best in. This section also included pronunciations of the scientific names of plants, which I love! I am constantly mispronouncing scientific names, and this book has helped me begin to fix that.
There is also a symbol throughout this section that makes plants that are easy to care for, which is great for people new to plants. I appreciated that this book far surpassed what a google search for plant care would come up with, and is formatted in a way that makes it easy to find exactly what you are looking for.
The last section of the book is encyclopedia style general care information. It includes everything from what pesticides are safe to use in the home, to propagation, to creating terrariums. There are clear steps and diagrams to help readers learn everything from air layering to the different parts of a plant. The illustrations really made this section an effective source of information. There is also a list of nursery that focus on houseplants, which I will be checking out for some online plant shopping for sure.
Even the introduction of this book was interesting and informative. I learned about the history of house plants, scientific studies on the benefits of houseplants, and interiorscaping. Scientific studies, when used correctly, make me feel like the author really did their homework, so seeing them mentioned was great. The other two topics were new to me, and I liked learning about the big picture that houseplants are part of.
Overall, I am a big fan of this book. It felt very well research, and not just a collection of google search results for “plant care”. There is a guide for identifying your plants, and converting from common to scientific names, making it easy to find one’s own houseplants in the book. I also loved having the pronunciation of the scientific names of the plants provided.
How I use the book: I flip through the pages, hunting out plants that I have or hope to have. There is a picture of each plant above its care instructions, making it easy to spot the specific plants that I am searching for, without even reading. I read about the plants I already have to see if there is anything I can do to improve their growth, and read about the plants I want to see if they will proper in the conditions that I can provide.
My grade: I give The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual by Barbara Pleasant an A+. It is a well curated collection of information that will help my plants grow, and allow me to become more well versed in the world of plants. The information is presented in a way that makes it fun to read, and accessible to house plant enthusiast of all levels. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, and can not wait to delve further into the works of Barbara Pleasant!
Aloe of the Plants 
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