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Holiday Gift Guide: 7 Beautiful Books Every Houseplant Lover Needs

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Holiday Gift Guide: 7 Beautiful Books Every Houseplant Lover Needs

November 23, 2018

All houseplant lovers can use more inspiration and inside tips. For a beginner trying to nurture a first Monstera or a houseplant hoarder with hundreds of potted friends, the books on our holiday gift list offer visual inspiration as well as comforting words:

How to Raise a Plant

A copy of How to Raise a Plant and Make You Love It Back (also shown in the top photo) is \$\15.\29 at Amazon. The book is bound in a &#8\2\20;flexibound&#8\2\2\1; cover that falls somewhere between paperback and hardcover. Photograph via Slovart, where a copy is 390 Kč.
Above: A copy of How to Raise a Plant and Make You Love It Back (also shown in the top photo) is $15.29 at Amazon. The book is bound in a “flexibound” cover that falls somewhere between paperback and hardcover. Photograph via Slovart, where a copy is 390 Kč.

In this succinct, 112-page guide by Morgan Doane and Erin Harding of Instagram’s @houseplantclub, brief bits of advice and encouragement accompany the sorts of loving photos that have so far earned the duo more than 465,000 followers. The advice is for beginners (“Knowing when your space is brightest and shadiest, as well as how far back into a room the sunlight reaches, will guide you in determining where to place your plants”) and the detailed images are for everyone.

Root Nurture Grow

A \206-page hardcover copy of Root Nurture Grow is \$\25 at Pistils Nursery.
Above: A 206-page hardcover copy of Root Nurture Grow is $25 at Pistils Nursery.

Following up on the success of their bestselling House of Plants, authors Caro Langton and Rose Ray roll up their sleeves to offer hands-on tips for the three p’s of houseplants: propagating, pruning and planting. With discussions of rooting techniques, homemade compost, and the basics of how to take stem cuttings, the book is a particularly useful guide for houseplant collectors who like to share or swap specimens.

Leaf Supply

A hardcover copy of Leaf Supply: A Guide to Keeping Happy House Plants is \$35 at Urban Outfitters.
Above: A hardcover copy of Leaf Supply: A Guide to Keeping Happy House Plants is $35 at Urban Outfitters.

“A comprehensive (but easy to follow) care instructions for 100 houseplants—including tropical plants, palms, hanging plants, succulents, cacti, and more unusual varieties such as air plants and carnivorous plants—ensuring you learn and grow as your plant grows,” notes the publisher.

Hanging Kokedama

A hardcover copy of Hanging Kokedama: Creating Potless Plants for the Home is \$30 at Terrain.
Above: A hardcover copy of Hanging Kokedama: Creating Potless Plants for the Home is $30 at Terrain.

Author Coraleigh Parker wraps “ferns, succulents, herbs, orchids and even small trees” in moss balls and uses delicate string or fishing line to suspend them from the ceiling. With her step-by-step instructions (clearly illustrated in photographs by Larnie Nicolson), you can create similar floating plants for your own home.

Terrarium

Just when you thought there was nothing left to say on the topic, Terrarium: 33 Glass Gardens to Make Your Own by Anna Bauer and Noam Levy has simple, step-by-step instructions for 33 simple, sculptural projects. A hardcover copy is \$\24.95 at Terrain.
Above: Just when you thought there was nothing left to say on the topic, Terrarium: 33 Glass Gardens to Make Your Own by Anna Bauer and Noam Levy has simple, step-by-step instructions for 33 simple, sculptural projects. A hardcover copy is $24.95 at Terrain.

Plant Society

A hardcover copy of Plant Society: Create an Indoor Oasis for your Urban Space by Jason Chongue is \$\14.99 at Urban Outfitters.
Above: A hardcover copy of Plant Society: Create an Indoor Oasis for your Urban Space by Jason Chongue is $14.99 at Urban Outfitters.

Breathe easier, black thumbs. “Even if you’ve killed every house plant in the past, plant-cultivator and stylist Jason Chongue will show you that it’s really not that difficult,” notes the publisher.

Terrain

A hardcover copy of Terrain: Ideas and Inspiration for Decorating the Home and Garden is \$35 at Anthropologie.
Above: A hardcover copy of Terrain: Ideas and Inspiration for Decorating the Home and Garden is $35 at Anthropologie.

Like one of Terrain’s stores, this book is crammed full of so many shiny, bright ideas that you don’t know where to look first. With tips to force branches to flower in winter and ideas for making floral arrangements with blooming bulbs, the book crosses the threshold from outdoors to in.

Looking for more books for armchair gardeners? Browse our Required Reading archive and see more books we loved this year:

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