A really excellent how-to guide for houseplants, possibly the best book on the topic I've ever seen. It's split into two halves, with "The Basics" offering general tips and "The Houseplants" giving specific guidance on 119 common species. How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is aimed towards newbies, but it also included tricks that were new to me, such as how to save an overwatered plant by wrapping its soil in newspaper. I particularly liked the troubleshooting offered in "The Houseplants"; it explains, for instance, that yellow leaves on one plant might mean it needs more water, while yellow leaves on another species might indicate that it's getting too much sunlight. It's easy to look up your specific plants and get tips on how to best care for them.

How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is available as both an ebook and a physical book, but I'd highly recommend the physical book. It's beautifully laid out, with a collage-like style that mixes photographs and abstract cutouts.

A great book for anyone who raises houseplants, 'horticulturally challenged' or not!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2400807770

How Not To Kill Your Houseplant is a beautifully photographed and illustrated practical guide for the horticulturally challenged. Author Veronica Peerless has a friendly, upbeat, non-threatening manner which is like a 150 page pep talk (with pictures).

The intro pages include a pictorial index list with 8 full pages of color photos of common houseplants. The first bit is 'find your plant' with a page listing of culture info for each one explaining in clear language the do's and don'ts of houseplant culture.

I appreciated that each of the listings provides both the common and Latin names for the plants to avoid confusion and regional differences.

There's a chapter on selecting plants and what to look for to find a healthy trouble free specimen. There's also a handy reference for transporting your new plant safely and where to site it after you get it home.

The next chapters deal with potting (and repotting), general culture tips, and how to deal with pests and diseases, along with troubleshooting advice.

This is a colorful well made book, and definitely up to the usual quality for the publisher, DK press.

Four stars, lovely useful book.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

After a week and several emails to technical support, I was unable to access this book I'd look forward to reviewing it in the future.

Awesome, clear advice that will have you trasforming from a houseplant menace to a houseplant ace with a green thumb.

An alternative title for this book (for me) could be "All the Ways You Killed Your Houseplants in the Past But Won't Any More After You Read This Book" -- but that is WAY too long and wouldn't apply to readers who read this book BEFORE killing lots of houseplants! This is a very useful book for anyone who wants to grow, not kill, plants.

If you're like me and you're pretty sure you were born with a black thumb instead of a green one, How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is going to be your new best friend. While I love plants and flowers, dream of having a perfect garden, and being that woman who also has fresh herbs, I tend to be more the type who has the ability to kill a succulent.

How Not to Kill Your Houseplant provides tips and tricks so that the worst of us can figure out the best techniques and even figure out warning signs before the plant reaches the point of no return.

Until recently, I have never really paid attention to the individual needs of my house plants. I brought them home and tried to water them regularly. Their survival was more or less luck and I did not know why some of my plants thrived and others not. Over the past year I have become more interested in taking better care of my plants. This book gives me all the information I need in a cleverly organized and easy to understand way. I love the photo-index of all featured plants at the beginning of the book. This makes looking up a specific plant I already have very easy, even if I do not know its name. It is very helpful that care instructions for plants with almost identical needs are grouped together. I also like that the book names the top 5 plants for desks, sunny spots, bathrooms, low light areas, as well as the living room. I will use this information to group my plants better in different spaces of my house and to bring new plants into my office.

This was not in a format that I could open, so I couldn't review the book.

How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is just what it sounds like--a gorgeously illustrated guide to not killing houseplants. This is something I need, and I know I'm not alone in that. 

Veronica Peerless and DK Publishing have put together a beautiful, amazingly helpful primer on houseplants. From knowing which plants to buy to how to feed and water them to how to love them and help them thrive, this book includes so much information to help you get started that you'll be able to go straight to the nursery (the one for plants, not for infants) and pick out the best houseplants for your living space. 

Peerless took 119 of the most popular houseplants and showed illustrations of how they will look both healthy and ill, and if it's not healthy, she helps you diagnose just what's wrong and guides you through how best to save your plant. Each page includes care tips, the height and spread of the plant, and what diseases or bugs to watch for. And for many plants, she also includes "Share the Care," a couple of other houseplants that require the same care and ideal living conditions, making it easy to design a trio of plants that will make your space feel warm and comforting. 

Apparently most houseplants die from overwatering (yup, that's my hand in the air--I have done that way too many times), and there are lots of tips on how to prevent that, along with a host of other information to help your plants live their best lives. Use a paint brush to keep dust from gathering on feathery leaves. Your plants may not need as much food in the winter. Watch the humidity level--some plants are sensitive to air that's too dry. And hundreds more gems just like those. 

I love how there are specific illustrations to help you know what your plant is if you don't know its name or to help you pick out new plants that you want to add to your collection. There are also lists of the 5 best plants for offices, for living rooms, for low light, for the bathroom, and for sunny areas. Also included are detailed pages on the biggest pests and most frequent diseases to watch for and how to take care of any plants that are suffering from them. 

One thing that I was looking for in this but couldn't find is a list of which plants are dangerous to pets. We have a cat who loves to eat plants, and I wouldn't want to bring home anything that would be poisonous to him. I was hoping to find that information on the plant pages, but sadly, I'll have to look somewhere else for that. 

Other than that, I love this book. It's a brilliant guide for starting out with houseplants, with lots of helpful illustrations and so much information. It would make an amazing gift for that friend of yours who wants to develop a green thumb or who is just starting out in a new home. How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is an invaluable tool for picking the perfect plants for your space and keeping them healthy. 



Galleys for How Not to Kill Your Houseplant were provided by DK through Netgalley.com, with many thanks.

This profusely-illustrated DK book for the “horticulturally challenged” offers information on common houseplants, a picture index in the front, and a traditional index in the back. It’s a good book as far as it goes, but I would have expected it to list the easiest care plants for those new to houseplants.

As with every DK book I've read, this is perfectly presented: brief yet concise, easy to navigate, with plenty of pictures and a beautiful and very graphic presentation. As a reference for house plant care, this is exactly what you need.

The book has an introduction on general purchase, care, potting, diseases, and pests. The rest of the book has specific care for the most common houseplants - from african violets to christmas cactus. Each page is graphical in nature: photographs of the actual plants make them easy to identify as well as follow care tips. The book is friendly, not overly wordy, and gets to the point so you don't waste your time.

Each of the individual plan sections include: location, light, watering/feeding, care, bugs/diseases it is prone to, and signs there is a problem and how to fix it. These are specific to that plant, so they may include anything from leaves turning color to buds dropping. All of the tips are color coded and brightly presented but never overly busy. Each plant has a large photograph to make identification easy.

I couldn't find one issue with this book - it's really well done and I'm very happy to have it in my reference library. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

I have killed every houseplant I've ever owned. I currently have two succulents whose lives are hanging in the balance. This book is full of great little tips on how to care for your houseplants, and keep them alive! I wish I would've found it sooner!