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Indoor Green: Living with Plants
For centuries, plants have transformed interiors. Today houseplants are once again experiencing a revival. Author Bree Claffey of Mr Kitly journeys into the worlds of fellow plant lovers to explore the enduring attraction of houseplants. From the ever-reliable Peace lily and beguiling Fiddle leaf fig to the elusive Chinese money plant, houseplants are showcased in all their weird and wonderful forms. More than good-looking props, plants are living growing things rooted in community and creativity and as this book celebrates, houseplants are a way of life.
208 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2015
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206 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 31, 2017
To see this review and others please visit www.readrantrockandroll.com
Indoor Green: Living with Plants by Bree Claffey is a book about plants and the people who keep them.
As soon as I opened the book I was instantly inspired. The book is full of fascinating photography of plants. I truly enjoy observing how people can take a room and transform it into a garden living space. It's so exhilarating.
The reader is taken to different homes to view the plants people keep and how they live with them. Interviews are conducted with each person. You learn where they live, what plants they own, what they do for a living, and their personal feelings about plants.
Many subjects are covered including different types of common houseplants, plant music, plant design, plant rooms and even plant care. Some plants discussed include: Devil's Ivy, Boston Fern, and Ponytail Palms to name a few. My absolute favorite is the hanging air plant. There is a section included for plant care, although it's not extensive and pertains mostly to the plant types discussed.
I personally loved this book and with the upcoming growing season underway, it's just what I needed to get in the mood. If you admire plants, you'll love this book.
5*****
Indoor Green: Living with Plants by Bree Claffey is a book about plants and the people who keep them.
As soon as I opened the book I was instantly inspired. The book is full of fascinating photography of plants. I truly enjoy observing how people can take a room and transform it into a garden living space. It's so exhilarating.
The reader is taken to different homes to view the plants people keep and how they live with them. Interviews are conducted with each person. You learn where they live, what plants they own, what they do for a living, and their personal feelings about plants.
Many subjects are covered including different types of common houseplants, plant music, plant design, plant rooms and even plant care. Some plants discussed include: Devil's Ivy, Boston Fern, and Ponytail Palms to name a few. My absolute favorite is the hanging air plant. There is a section included for plant care, although it's not extensive and pertains mostly to the plant types discussed.
I personally loved this book and with the upcoming growing season underway, it's just what I needed to get in the mood. If you admire plants, you'll love this book.
5*****
April 11, 2017
I saw Indoor Green: Living with Plants at my local library and didn’t hesitate to pick it up. I brought it home with me, fully expecting to fall in love, love, love…but it was actually kind of disappointing.
There are a ton of pictures of plants in this book, obviously, but the author’s main focus is actually the plant owners. Claffey devotes a lot of space to her interviews with each homeowner, most of them artists and designers living in Australia, Japan, and New York. The interviews are interesting enough, but 200 pages of small font question-answer–question-answer seems like overkill to me. I genuinely enjoy reading about how other people love their plants and feel more at peace and connected to the world because of them, but the book starts to drag around the halfway point. I just needed more variety.
It doesn’t help that the photography is lackluster, at best. I get the feeling that many of the spaces photographed for this book are probably stunning in real life, but the photos don’t do them justice. The pictures are dark and lifeless–and I can’t even believe how many are backlit! What’s the point of snapping a photo of a gorgeous plant…with a bright light source directly behind it? I don’t want to see a million pictures of shadowy leaves. It’s weird. And though there are definitely some better pics in the book, I just wasn’t feeling it. I couldn’t get past the coldness.
So. Not my favorite. But if you’re looking for a beautiful book featuring flowers and plants, I’d recommend:
The Indestructible Houseplant: 200 Beautiful Plants that Everyone Can Grow
Urban Jungle: Living and Styling with Plants
The Flower Workshop: Lessons in Arranging Blooms, Branches, Fruits, and Foraged Materials
Succulents: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Designing, and Growing 200 Easy Care Plants
See more of my book reviews at www.BugBugBooks.com!
There are a ton of pictures of plants in this book, obviously, but the author’s main focus is actually the plant owners. Claffey devotes a lot of space to her interviews with each homeowner, most of them artists and designers living in Australia, Japan, and New York. The interviews are interesting enough, but 200 pages of small font question-answer–question-answer seems like overkill to me. I genuinely enjoy reading about how other people love their plants and feel more at peace and connected to the world because of them, but the book starts to drag around the halfway point. I just needed more variety.
It doesn’t help that the photography is lackluster, at best. I get the feeling that many of the spaces photographed for this book are probably stunning in real life, but the photos don’t do them justice. The pictures are dark and lifeless–and I can’t even believe how many are backlit! What’s the point of snapping a photo of a gorgeous plant…with a bright light source directly behind it? I don’t want to see a million pictures of shadowy leaves. It’s weird. And though there are definitely some better pics in the book, I just wasn’t feeling it. I couldn’t get past the coldness.
So. Not my favorite. But if you’re looking for a beautiful book featuring flowers and plants, I’d recommend:
The Indestructible Houseplant: 200 Beautiful Plants that Everyone Can Grow
Urban Jungle: Living and Styling with Plants
The Flower Workshop: Lessons in Arranging Blooms, Branches, Fruits, and Foraged Materials
Succulents: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Designing, and Growing 200 Easy Care Plants
See more of my book reviews at www.BugBugBooks.com!
Read
January 3, 2018Wanted to start the year right by reading this book beginning to end - it's been on my shelves for quite a while and I would only occasionally flick through the photos or read some pages or use it for reference. It's definitely a good idea to give it your full attention - it consists of many interviews of people living with plants, most often artists or designers, some interesting plant stories, and practical tips at the end. Full of gorgeous photography all throughout. What an indulging holiday read.
January 29, 2019
Dit is het leukste plantenboek dat ik in jaren gelezen heb.
December 15, 2019
Beautiful images and great planty advice!
March 4, 2019
2012 I acquire my first plant, a Dracaena.
2016 I learn the concept of propagation. I begin home experiments.
Present I sit here writing this review at home. My jungle home.
This is my confession. I am a plant hoarder.
I found Indoor Green while sifting through the shelves at my library. The summary on the back concludes, "houseplants are a way of life." Cringe-worthy for the plantless, maybe, but for me, the sweet tingle of resonance tickled my mind.
In Indoor Green, Claffey interviews plant enthusiasts, mostly artists and designers from Melbourne, Tokyo or New York. She interweaves interview questions with pictures of spaces filled with beautiful plants.
Some are striking. English ivies that climb through white, open rafters. Greenhouse-like homes with platforms hovering above inside gardens. A small, modest plant set in a pot, just suited for it in just the right place, somehow bringing the room together in just the right way. I savored these homes, ones that I'll daydream about, and the accompanying interviews of their owners, intentionality echoing through their answers.
Some strike out. The answers are hollow. If the point of these interviews is to illuminate some truth about the act of caring for and living with plants, these owners fail. It could be that Claffey, as an interviewer, failed to tease out these truths. Or maybe that these plant owners don't yet have the words to fully describe their relationship with their plant companions. Isn't it Claffey's role as a curator to curate these interviews out?
I suggest, if you were to read this book, thumb through it like a magazine or like the coffee-table book that it is, and find the pages and the phrases that take you and dive in.
I was looking for a mirror to see myself. Why do I enjoy plants so much? Through these conversations with other plant enthusiasts, Indoor Green helped me to see this side of me more clearly. Am I happy I found the book? Yes. Will I be adding it to my personal library? No.
Right now, my Dracaena is alive and well, reaching towards the window.
2016 I learn the concept of propagation. I begin home experiments.
Present I sit here writing this review at home. My jungle home.
This is my confession. I am a plant hoarder.
I found Indoor Green while sifting through the shelves at my library. The summary on the back concludes, "houseplants are a way of life." Cringe-worthy for the plantless, maybe, but for me, the sweet tingle of resonance tickled my mind.
In Indoor Green, Claffey interviews plant enthusiasts, mostly artists and designers from Melbourne, Tokyo or New York. She interweaves interview questions with pictures of spaces filled with beautiful plants.
Some are striking. English ivies that climb through white, open rafters. Greenhouse-like homes with platforms hovering above inside gardens. A small, modest plant set in a pot, just suited for it in just the right place, somehow bringing the room together in just the right way. I savored these homes, ones that I'll daydream about, and the accompanying interviews of their owners, intentionality echoing through their answers.
Some strike out. The answers are hollow. If the point of these interviews is to illuminate some truth about the act of caring for and living with plants, these owners fail. It could be that Claffey, as an interviewer, failed to tease out these truths. Or maybe that these plant owners don't yet have the words to fully describe their relationship with their plant companions. Isn't it Claffey's role as a curator to curate these interviews out?
I suggest, if you were to read this book, thumb through it like a magazine or like the coffee-table book that it is, and find the pages and the phrases that take you and dive in.
I was looking for a mirror to see myself. Why do I enjoy plants so much? Through these conversations with other plant enthusiasts, Indoor Green helped me to see this side of me more clearly. Am I happy I found the book? Yes. Will I be adding it to my personal library? No.
Right now, my Dracaena is alive and well, reaching towards the window.
March 17, 2019
Good for beginner indoor plant parents, this book is packed with useful care tips and descriptions to identify various species. Paired with insightful interviews with creatives who draw inspiration from plants, each sharing their personal philosophies on how natural greenery have informed their work and help create their own lush indoor spaces.
July 11, 2018
Enjoyed that this book featured more indoor plants than just the on-trend varieties, it was a bit text heavy though, and the photographs a bit too dark at times. In saying that, it was quite informative and an interesting read.
August 10, 2021
I loved this book. It wasn’t written by some Instagram famous influencer, superficially chatty with nice pictures. I felt it was written by someone who had carefully curated who would be featured and done extensive research on the subject of indoor plants. Obviously heavily skewed towards spaces in australia and Japan (as the author lived in both countries) the home/plant tours were so ‘real’. Not just people who had hoarded plants that were trending. There are also nice little sections linking plants to music, art, clean air…. Just an interesting read that I might keep coming back to.
April 26, 2020
The reading part of the book is good - it's great to have many snippets of info available - people's thoughts about their plants and design, and some quick tips about a variety of plant related topics. But make no mistake, you're here for the pictures, which are pretty great.
June 19, 2017
Amazing pictures, clear perennial information. Wonderful inspiration!
November 21, 2017
I really liked the plant portraits and wish there had have been more. However, the house plant tours were wonderfully photographed and very interesting also.
July 31, 2018
This book satisfies the plant info nerd, the voyeur (look into other people's houses!!!), and the creative side of plant lovers.
September 29, 2020
A look at people and their relationship with their plants and how they play into their lives, hobbies, and careers.
April 26, 2021
Very nice photos and international essays.
May 24, 2023
This is a good coffee table book!
February 19, 2017
28 intervijas ar domubiedriem par augiem cilvēku telpās Austrālijā, Japānā un Amerikā. Burvīga grāmata!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews