The Unexpected Houseplant: 220 Extraordinary Choices for Every Spot in Your Home

by Tovah Martin

Overview

It's time for plant lovers to dust off their houseplants, update their image, and discover just how exciting, trendy, and crucial plants can be in the home.

The Unexpected Houseplant, by renowned plant authority Tovah Martin, isn't your typical, old-fashioned, dowdy houseplant book. Martin's approach is revolutionary—picture brilliant spring bulbs by the bed, lush perennials brought in from the garden, quirky succulents in the kitchen, even flowering vines and small trees growing beside an easy chair. Martin brings an evangelist's zeal to the task of convincing homeowners that indoor plants aren't just a luxury—they're a necessity. In addition to design flair, houseplants clean indoor air, which can be up to ten times more polluted. Along with loads of visual inspiration, readers will learn how to make unusual selections, where to best position plants in the home, and valuable tips on watering, feeding, grooming, pruning, and troubleshooting, season by season.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604692433
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/28/2012
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	281,128
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Tovah Martin is a fanatical and passionate organic gardener and the author of The Indestructible Houseplant, The Unexpected Houseplant, The New Terrarium, and Tasha Tudor’s Garden, as well as many other gardening books. Visit her tovahmartin.com.

Read an Excerpt

Introduction
From the road, it looks like any other house. For anyone tooling through town, my home doesn’t really stand out, except perhaps for its preponderance of garden beds visible from the street and the fact that it’s a tad funkier than the neighboring New England architecture in the center of town. Especially in winter, you’d be prone to roll right on by without giving it so much as a second glance. But if you had reason to nose into the driveway, knock on the front door, and slip inside, it would be a whole different story.
 
Basically, if you don’t like plants, don’t bother to enter. Agoraphobics will be just as agri-challenged inside as they are in the field. Because within that unassuming exterior resides a wonderful world of roaming vines and hairy stems. Leaves of all shapes, sizes, textures, scents, and combinations of colors are given free rein. You must brush by them to deliver the FedEx box. It’s necessary to engage with the flower spike of the pregnant onion before gaining entry into the converted barn, where the comfy chair awaits. Watch how you angle the groceries around the kalanchoe, because clumsily maneuvered baggage will bring it down. Only dogs with short tails are allowed in.

Wherever it is possible to host plants, my house is wall-to-wall greenery. I didn’t bother doing much with decorator colors on the walls; I didn’t sweat the window treatments or the framed family portraits—the plants are my decor. At any given moment, I host hundreds of houseplants, give or take a couple of dozen. In autumn, the inventory might swell when I crowd more plants inside than the light venues can comfortably host. In winter, the amaryllis and other holiday cheerfuls hold forth. In spring, the accumulation swells with seedlings that are destined for outdoors. For a few brief months in the depths of summer, the head count decreases while the majority of my indoor plants sojourn outside. But I keep many succulents and all my terrariums close by because the home feels empty without their green presence. I can’t live without the jungle of leafy branches and groping vines that I call home.

And it’s not as though I don’t have green elsewhere in my life. I garden intensively and extensively outdoors in summer. Every weekend, I hop in the car and visit gardens. Then I spend the rest of the year with the enviable job of writing about summer gardens. But I still couldn’t live without plants sharing my abode. For me it’s all about the plants stretching their limbs, forming their buds, expanding new leaves, and responding to my nurturing (or neglect, if called for). And that sensation—that intimacy with nature—is what I strive to describe in this book. If nothing else, this is the chronicle of a romance between botany and a kid who craves green.

But under that thin veneer is an ill-concealed attempt to convert you. I’m hoping you’ll buy into this. I’m doing my best to demonstrate how plants can change your psyche when you welcome them into your life. It’s radical. It’s the difference between holding nature at arm’s length and embracing it into the heart of your home. But don’t take my word for it—give plants a chance. Live intimately with them. Let them connect. Experience their cycles and rhythms. Flow them into your agenda. Encourage those tendrils to meander into your everyday experience so they’re inextricably woven into your life. Do it with all the style, creativity, and devotion that you lavish on the other aspects of your life. Do it with the fervor you pour on your pets, for example, and you could end up starting a sweet relationship. Here, in the pages that follow, are the tools you’ll need to achieve your in-house botanical bond.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 8

Introduction 10

Autumn 20

Acalyphas 28

Calla Lilies 31

Cissus 34

Citrus 37

Coleus 42

Conifers 45

Gesneriads 50

Ivies 55

Marantas, Ctenanthes, and Calatheas 58

Ornamental Grasses 64

Oxalis 69

Plectranthus 74

Sansevierias 78

Sempervivums 81

Winter 84

Asparagus 92

Burbidgea 95

Camellia 98

Clivias 1011

Euphorbia 104

Ferns 108

Forced Spring Bulbs 114

Fragrant Plants 120

Herbs 127

Holiday Plants 132

Orchids 142

Pelargoniums 147

Peperomias 152

Selaginellas 156

South African Bulbs 160

Spring 168

Begonias 176

Carnivorous Plants 184

Ficus 189

Garden Preview 193

Jasmines 205

Kangaroo Paws 211

Primulas 214

Seeds 218

Summer 222

Bromeliads 232

Crotons 237

Eucomis 240

Fuchsia 244

Gardenias 249

Passion Flowers 254

Succulents and Cacti 260

Vines 266

Love Thwarted 275

Abutilons 278

Bougainvilleas 282

Heliotrope 286

Hibiscus 289

Basics 292

Making The Match 296

Care 302

Finale 316

Sources 318

Suggestions for Further Reading 319

Index 320

Editorial Reviews

For those who have tired of spider plants and cactus, garden writer Martin (The New Terrarium) suggests a year’s worth of new options. She begins her tour in autumn (the start of the indoor gardener’s year) and offers dozens of tempting suggestions. There are familiar bulbs and unexpected conifers, fruiting trees, and carnivorous plants. Each plant listing includes a photograph and an information box describing its flower, foliage, cultivation requirements, and potential problems. What really sets this apart from other reference guides are Martin’s imaginative choices. She dares readers to invite conifer trees and summer coleus inside for the winter and explains how to help the plants thrive there. She lures readers beyond the Christmas poinsettia to the whimsical, Dr. Seussian charm of a holiday Echeveria. She offers fruit, fragrance, foliage, and flower. Clineff’s full-color photographs provide plenty of inspiration for the home gardener and decorator. This is an imaginative guide to bringing the delights of the garden indoors. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

All indoor plant hobbyists in every geographic area will enjoy and learn from this book. Its fresh approach deserves a thumbs-up.

Booklist

"Will boost the confidence of even the most black-thumbed houseplant owner. Martin’s can-do enthusiasm is infectious, her creativity inspiring."

Design New England

"As the air gets crisper outside, it’s time to rethink what plants can do to enliven our interior spaces. Tips on how to care for ordinary and not-so-ordinary species are revealed, so non-green thumbers need not fear."

The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Refreshing in the world of garden books."

Traditional Home

"...informative, entertaining and really beautiful."

The Patriot-News

"[Martin] has a witty, creative voice that warms her new book."

Horticulture

"This isn’t just another book on houseplants; it’s an invitation to adventure."

Gardenista

This book engenders so much enthusiasm for indoor flora that you can find yourself outdoors with a shovel in your hand robbing your own garden of plants to bring inside.”

Winston-Salem Journal

Good choice for plant geeks and anyone tired of the same old peace lilies, ivies and Boston ferns.”

The Daily Hampshire Gazette

Martin’s book makes one look very differently at the whole houseplant phenomenon. It isn’t so much a practical guide…as a challenge to think outside the box when trying to bring the outside inside.”

The Amherst Bulletin

Provides an incredible array of unusual plants for growing indoors.

The Chronicle Herald

[Proves] there is a plant for pretty much every spot in a house.”

Pacific Horticulture

"A smart, stylish book on indoor gardening."

Country Gardens

"Tovah Martin’s newest book is no dry encyclopedic volume: Her personal, engaging writing style is as entertaining as it is informative."

The Seattle Times

Will boost the confidence of even the most black-thumbed houseplant owner. Martin’s can-do enthusiasm is infectious, her creativity inspiring.” —Booklist

“An imaginative guide to bringing the delights of the garden indoors.” —Publishers Weekly

“All indoor plant hobbyists in every geographic area will enjoy and learn from this book. Its fresh approach deserves a thumbs-up.” —Library Journal

“[Martin] has a witty, creative voice that warms her new book.” —Traditional Home

“Tovah Martin’s newest book is no dry encyclopedic volume: Her personal, engaging writing style is as entertaining as it is informative.” —Country Gardens

“As the air gets crisper outside, it’s time to rethink what plants can do to enliven our interior spaces. Tips on how to care for ordinary and not-so-ordinary species are revealed, so non-green-thumbers need not fear.” —Design New England

“This book engenders so much enthusiasm for indoor flora that you can find yourself outdoors with a shovel in your hand robbing your own garden of plants to bring inside.” —Gardenista

“This isn’t just another book on houseplants; it’s an invitation to adventure.” —Horticulture

“Martin writes in a captivatingly personal way…It’s Martin’s exuberance and deep knowledge that’ll keep you reading.” —Seattle Times

“Martin’s book makes one look very differently at the whole houseplant phenomenon. It isn’t so much a practical guide…as a challenge to think outside the box when trying to bring the outside inside.” —Daily Hampshire Gazette

“As the air gets crisper outside, it’s time to rethink what plants can do to enliven our interior spaces. Tips on how to care for ordinary and not-so-ordinary species are revealed, so non-green thumbers need not fear…Refreshing in the world of garden books.” —Philadelphia Inquire

“A good book for plant geeks and anyone tired of the same old peace lilies.” —Harrisburg Patriot-News

“A smart, stylish book on indoor gardening.” —Pacific Horticulture

From the Publisher

For her 15th book, garden writer and plant expert Martin seeks to encourage the indoor plant maven in each of us. With the help of Clineff's eye-catching photos, which depict how correctly chosen plants placed in creative containers can enhance indoor living space, Martin shows how imagination and use of fundamental ground rules for growing and proper placement should result in an indoor horticultural paradise year round. Martin covers over 220 plants, ranging from exotic to conventional, but her unusual plant-container pairings give all of them an artsy flavor. Her text is engaging and personable. Growth requirements, propagation advice, problems, and attributes of plants are outlined. While Martin provides a resource list, she encourages the use of even "lowly" grocery store specimens. She presents planning and work schedules within a framework of the four seasons. VERDICT As the title suggests, this is not a typical facts-only presentation of how to cultivate houseplants. All indoor plant hobbyists in every geographic area will enjoy and learn from this book. Its fresh approach deserves a thumbs-up.—Deborah Anne Broocker, Georgia Perimeter Coll. Lib., Dunwoody

Library Journal