The Complete Book of Ferns

The Complete book of Ferns is a superb book that you will go back to time and again for reference in your care of your ferns.

I really enjoyed reading this book as it covers so many aspects of ferns from their history to how to care for your plants both indoors and outside. There is a vast amount of information included and lots of fatastic photography.

I liked seeing the ideas near the end of the book for differnt ways to grow your ferns from Terraniums to Moss baskets.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quatro Publishing for the ARC Copy of the book. (My Review is my own opinion.)

Wow. This is the closest thing to complete guidebook on ferns I could ever imagine making. There is lore, history, scientific explanations of what makes a fern, how to reproduce a fern and how to care for a fern. There is even some fun projects included such as kokedama making, as well as a huge listing of different ferns and their unique care. I love looking at ferns, even though my house is far too dry for anything other than an asparagus fern (which I have learned through this book is not actually a fern at all!). Very interesting, and I wish more complete guides to other plants I loved existed to the same level as this book. I will definitely try to work in some fern history like the Victorian craze for them into my future plant conversations.

I love having indoor plants and am always looking for ways to enhance their life span. I love all the tips between taking care of my ferns and even decorating tips. I thoroughly enjoyed the tips for how to solve overwatering the ferns. Anyone who loves to have indoor plants, please check out this book!

As an avid houseplant collector, I was very excited when I sa w The Complete Book of Ferns. I’m always searching for more information about all of my plants to help me improve my knowledge and care of them, this book did not let me down. It starts out with a very in-depth history of ferns before moving on to talk about botany, indoor and outdoor varieties and finally DIY crafting with ferns. I particularly enjoyed the indoor section and the crafting section. I have no doubt I will refer back to this book again. I may even use ferns from my own collection to attempt some of the crafting projects.
Overall- a very well written book, great styling, beautiful photos and a must read for plant enthusiasts.

A lovely book. For the wannabe fern enthusiast, you'll find everything there is to know here - their history, how to decorate with them, and how to keep them alive & thriving both indoors & outdoors.
Although a little over-written sometimes in the introductory sections, the practical instructions are very useful and I trust the author's expertise that these will benefit my fern family. A family that will likely grow soon, because of the beautiful photography inspiring me to try new varieties, and my confidence that I'll find useful tips for whatever I bring home.

For whatever reason and for the life of me I cannot keep an indoor plant alive. I really like ferns. They are so green and lush and yet they struggle to survive for me. So, when I saw this book I immediately scooped it up in hopes that it can shed light for me on how to keep my last two ferns alive.

Thoughts:
You might think “It’s indoor, therefore it’s easy. It’s the outside ones that are difficult.” Nope – not for me, it’s actually the other way around. I’m good with outside plants. In fact, I have a good-sized vegetable gardening where this past year I grew purple sweet potatoes (Purple Molokai) and Jing Orange okra (yes – okra can be orange!) among other vegetables. But indoor plants of any kind tend to die with me. I haven’t really quite caught on to the watering frequency because each plant tends to dry out differently. The sun or indirect sun requirements confuses me too. But I really love ferns and the way they look so I am determined to figure them out so that they can live more than a few months.

The book is broken out into five main sections. These are not what they are called within the book, but terms I am just using to describe in general: History, Botany, Growing Indoors, Growing Outdoors, Crafting/Creativity

History: Includes evolution, Victorian fern craze, lore, uses, and lots of lush green pictures.

Botany: Includes plant parts and diversity based on climate. This section includes information on how ferns propagate as well as step-by-step instructions, with pictures, on how you can propagate them.

Growing Indoors: Includes information on light, temperature, potting mix (includes 3 soil recipes), watering, and humidity. Since I suspect my personal fern issue lies within the watering and humidity area, I paid specific attention to this part of the book. The book gave some ideas of how to increase humidity, which I immediately put into action. The picture below are of some mini ferns I went out and bought and how they are in a type of holder with pebbles and water. This section also includes a trouble-shooting guide. (pics on blog post of my just-purchased attempts at creating a more humid environment for my ferns. Next step is to get new containers and making sure they don’t dry out.)

A good portion of this section includes quite a few pictures of indoor ferns with specific information on each fern.

Growing Outdoors: Similar to the Growing Indoor section, this one includes information on light, soil, water, temperature, seasonal care, and a trouble shooting portion. At the end is also a lot of beautiful pictures of outdoor ferns.

Crafting/Creativity: This section includes information on crafting projects, such as terrariums, vertical gardening, kokedama, moss baskets, fern mount, and more. A lot of step-by-step instructions in this sections with pictures to go with them. My next fern goal is to tackle a terrarium with ferns, so it was good to have instructions here.

Overall, a lovely, informational book on ferns that came at the perfect time for me. Pictures of the ferns are beautiful and are mostly set against a white background allowing us to clearly see the stunning green foliage. Warning, if you don’t like green then this book may not be for you.

Rating: 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Press – Cool Spring Press for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

Ferns glorious ferns! Everything you've ever wanted to know about ferns and everything you didn't know you wanted to know. Exhaustive, holy moly!

The Complete Book of Ferns is a culture and tutorial guide for plants in the fern family by Mobee Weinstein. Due out 14th Jan 2020 from Quarto on their Cool Springs imprint, it's a comprehensive 256 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.

The first chapters introduce the botanic and biological diversity and history of ferns (some species have been around since over 100 million years -before- T. rex showed up). The author has a solid understanding of the botany and a deft ability to provide the scientific information in a digestible and understandable form for laypeople. The introduction and botany cover about 20% of the page content.

The rest of the book is given over to comprehensive chapters on growing ferns indoors, outdoors, and DIY projects utilizing ferns for decor and more. The different culture chapters include good information on growing and (more importantly) troubleshooting. The book also includes a cross referenced index. Throughout, the book is spectacularly illustrated and photographed. It's no exaggeration to say it would make a lovely coffee table book for flipping through to admire the beautiful photos.

Five stars.

Thank you for sending me this ARC. Weinstein's book is gorgeous - beautifully laid-out pages with appealing photographs. I've learned so much about the delicate fern family (or I believe - Polypodiophyta?) . I haven't even finished the book because there is just so much information crammed into this book. Botanical informationl how-to-grow and troubleshoot issues; There are even easy to follow planting and crafting tips. I found the book just so appealing and am happy to have got my hands on this copy as I intend to buy it for myself and friends. The funniest thing is I didn't know I needed this book until I read it - now I can't wait to "grow" (sorry, pun was intended) my fern collection. Beautiful book and I hope to sell it to my customers as well. Thank you.

A wonderful and well scientifically researched guide about ferns.

The book is very detailed and the author presents various profiles of common ferns,with their characteristics and needs
Very exhaustive in terms of caring about them them, helpful tips and fixes, the book is a neverending source of knowledge.

Very informative and exhaustive, it can definitely be used as reference!

This book begins with simple description of the evolution of ferns, followed by some ethnobotany and a chapter on botany (i.e., structure and reproduction) of ferns. There are concise and nicely-illustrated instructions for propagating ferns by spores and by division, as well as instructions for growing ferns as houseplants. I also liked the table of symptoms and their causes/solutions.

The remainder of the "indoor" section of the book has profiles of common fern species. Each profile contains a brief cultural description, recommendations for propagation, and additional notes, along with a nice photo of the species. At times, I wished a more representative view were provided

The next portion of the book focuses on outdoor ferns, their growth requirements and representative profiles. And the final section contains several projects one could do with ferns, including terrariums and fern art. Instructions are detailed and nicely illustrated.

Overall, this is a great guide to growing ferns. The photography in this book is beautiful. At times, it seems a bit repetitive and could use more variety or be more representative of the species (e.g., show the rhizomes of the "paw" ferns).

My appreciation of ferns came from my mum who is so fond of them and grew when we purchased a home with a garden filled with them. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about their biology, history and variants.

The book gives botanical information in an easy-to-understand way on all the different kinds of beautiful ferns, several I’d like to add to my collection! It includes the interesting process of propagating ferns and a guide to fixing frequently encountered problems. In addition to the great educational content, there are several great projects to create art and display ideas which I look forward to trying out.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book from start to finish, it full of gorgeous photos, and if you love ferns this is one for you. It’s a five out of five enJOYment scale and highly recommended.

Once upon a time, I walked through my supermarket and as a special offer they had a tiny fern on display. So my newly born indoor plant lover's heart decided that I should buy it, love it, and treat it well. Things, however, turned out a bit different and it soon became a bit problematic. Thus, when my birthday arrived, I paraded around at work and proclaimed that I want a fern as the traditional "you'll get a plant for your birthday" gift. And thus, I got a fern, believing that this time things would be better. As it turned out, things were better but most of the credit goes to "The Complete Book Of Ferns" by Mobee Weinstein, which I was lucky enough to get as a review copy.

"The Complete Book Of Ferns" promises to be, well, a complete book of ferns and it really is extensive. After a short introduction on why we love ferns and their biological aspects explained in layman's terms, Weinstein digs right into the topic:

She describes all possible methods of cares, debunks some "old fern myths" - such as, that spraying your fern does little good in raising the humidity permanently - and offers tips. While other planting books only touch on these issues, Weinstein goes into great detail. There is a whole table explaining what could be wrong with your fern and what the sick leafs look like.

For example, I could never quite figure out if mine just suffered from being transported home or if I am doing something else wrong. Turns out that in fear of over-watering, I ended up not watering them enough. Not all hope was lost because Weinstein even explains how you can counteract any of these fern sicknesses. While "bath your fern in water" sounds simple, she goes a step further and explains in great detail how you can achieve the best result.

"The Complete Book Of Ferns" includes an extensive list on all types of ferns - both indoor and outdoor - explains what they look like, which temperatures they prefer, can they survive winter?, and even a little bit of history. Thus, you can easily browse through the book for inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, there are nine creative ideas included on what you can do with ferns indoors aside from keeping them in pots. Some of them require more work - moss balls - while others seem rather simple - terrarium.

Each of those ideas is accompanied with a detailed "how to" guide, photos, as well as alternative options you can choose, alongside some recommendations on which ferns are ideal.

While this book contains a lot of information, it is often broken up with beautiful fern pictures. These are in colour - note that my eReader only has black and white colours.

Thus, you can also leaf through the pages when you are "just browsing" your copy. However, I found it rather difficult to read on an eReader - which isn't much for "just browsing", so I recommend only getting a print version of this book.

In the end, I felt that Weinstein put a lot of effort and information in this book. It really is a complete book which spaces the information well and includes beautiful photos. For every fern lover or fern troubled person who wants their ferns to love them, this is the perfect book. It is one of the few, I wouldn't even hesitate to buy for myself now.

Sincerely helpful and thoroughly researched. I wasn’t expecting as much depth and detail as this one provided. I learned a lot!

It’s definitely a slower, nonfiction, science book because of these details.. so it’s just worth knowing that and then the right audience will enjoy this book I think!

Ferns are so cool. (And poisonous, I learned, don’t eat them!!)

This is a fantastic resource on growing ferns. It is very comprehensive and informative. Some of the care tips are adaptable to most indoor houseplants and I feel is a must have resource. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.