Leaf Supply: A Guide to Keeping Happy House Plants

by Lauren Camilleri, Sophia Kaplan

A beautiful and practical book on choosing and caring for over 100 easy-to-find houseplants, as well as inspiring plant styling advice and much more.

Fresh flowers are great—everyone loves receiving them. But inevitably they’re already on the way out the door (and into the trash) by the time they arrive. Plants—living, breathing, life-sustaining plants—are where it’s at! Authors Lauren Camilleri and Sophia Kaplan really want you to love indoor gardening and growing as much as they do. Leaf Supply profiles and provides 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.

But much more than a plant guide, Leaf Supply also gives interior styling advice on choosing the right pots for your plants—both aesthetically and practically—as well as best utilizing your space, making the most of your indoor greenery, plus advice on pet-friendly (as well as harmful) plants for your home. This is a comprehensive guide for any budding green thumb interested in greening their apartment or inside their home.

Genres: Nonfiction, Plants, Gardening, Nature, Coffee Table Books, Reference, Guides

256 pages, Hardcover

First published April 17, 2018

Reviews

[Marion · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful book. The photography is stunning. But I find the title a bit misleading since does not give too much information on how to keep them houseplants happy. :) But the tips are there. And as are some good plant examples.

[Isabel Rohrlach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant! Well structured and fun little indent notes. Beautifully organised sections with captivating photography, insightful and enjoyable personal accounts. All round a brilliant sick day read. Only downside is I’ll be losing my savings because of this book!

[maigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really beautiful book, but I wish it just had a little bit more practical info about all the different plants included.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! Beautiful and simply written, the advice is clear and inspiration abundant if you want to add house plants to your life. (I have quite a few already, but now I want to buy ALL the plants...)

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visually appealing, while also being helpful.

[Vanessa Wetzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great for learning more about indoor plants and the various things to keep in mind as a new plant parent (me) - while giving a nice overview of different categories of plants, as well as care instructions for specific plants within each of those categories. Both of these reasons are why I bought this book.

4 stars, not 5 because:
The book also randomly showcases business owners who use plants in their business or in their home. That’s great, to highlight this and do interviews. However I feel like this should be a separate book as it’s an entirely different topic and idea.

I would have 100% preferred more pages on more plants examples and their respective care needs. Was annoyed when I saw only a couple plants were given as examples for a category, but so many pages were dedicated to random interviews of business owners.

Again - that concept is nice, getting to know humans who love plants and what they do with them. But that is definitely not the point of this book?

So: 4/5 due to that

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book for beginners. It touches on a lot of common tips, while also bringing up some things I've never heard of but seems like stuff that should be mentioned

My only real complaint is that the font was so small for such big pages. But the photos are amazing, such good plant inspo. There's also interviews with other plant people and thats a good way to get advice and find more plant people to follow on social media.

Also a note: This was written by Australian authors so some names of plants could be different in your area

ex. Chain of Hearts vs. String of Hearts or String of Beans vs. String of Bananas

[Tiina Kallio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haluaisin kotiini uusia viherkasveja.Selkeä kirja ja paljon tietoa .

[Jenni · Rating 2 out of 5]

Vehreä koti on upean näköinen kirja, jonka kuvia selailee mielellään. Se esittelee lyhyesti lukuisia eri kasveja. Kuitenkaan se ei aivan vastaa nimeään oppaana onnellisten huonekasvien hoitoon. Suuri osa kirjasta on erilaisten kasviharrastajien haastatteluja, eikä itseään toistava ja ylenpalttista hehkutusta sisältävä haastattelutyyli oikein iske. Odotin teokselta enemmän tietosisältöä, mutta se jää näiden haastattelujen kustannuksella kevyeksi. Valitettavasti myös suuri osa kasvien kuvauksista on omistettu hehkutukselle niiden ilmaa puhdistavasta ja "myrkkyjä poistavista" ominaisuuksista, jotka eivät ole kovinkaan kummoisia, jos huonekasveja ei ole asunnossa satamäärin. Huonekasvien hoidosta teos siis tarjoaa vain pintaraapaisun.

[Breña · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gibt es eigentlich einen deutschen Begriff für Coffee Table Book? Dieses Buch ist eines, und zwar für Pflanzenliebhaber, kein Wunder also, dass ich es geschenkt bekommen habe. ;)

Keine Ahnung, ob es für "Anfänger" tatsächlich hilfreiche Tipps bereit hält, ich habe keine neuen Erkenntnisse gewonnen. Dafür sind die informativen Abschnitte meiner Meinung nach viel zu kurz. Schön gestaltet ist es allemal und man merkt, dass die Autorinnen gerne tun, was sie tun. Mit den Interviews der verschiedenen Menschen, die "irgendwas mit Pflanzen" machen, habe ich eher den Eindruck erhalten, dass die Inhalte eines Blogs optisch ansprechend in ein Buch übertragen wurden.

[Rev · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars even, if only because this book is much more focused on the interior decorating aspect of plant keeping than it is on actual care. The plants listed within the book are very basic rundowns of care and not exhaustive like some of the other books I've read recently. However, the pictures are soooo inspiring. One of my favorite aspects of these books is the pictures and seeing how people design their plant spaces.

I think this is still a solid book for an overview of plants and their care, though. Especially for a beginner like myself.

[Kenn Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is undeniably a visual feast. I enjoyed discovering other plant varieties outside my current knowledge and reading the stories of other plant parents, or "Plant People" as they prefer to call them in the book. I just wish they covered more plants and talked about each extensively, especially when it comes to caring for them. Other than that, I think Leaf Supply is a great resource for those who are particular with interior plant styling. There's an "inspo" every turn of the page.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for beginner houseplant enthusiasts. The information of care for each plant is minimal. The book is useful for a starting point since it's not in depth if you're still learning. The photography is absolutely phenomenal. I love the cover design and typography. Great book to show on a shelf or coffee table.

I would have enjoyed more focus on the plants, rather than the "plant people." The interviews were fine and not too obstructive; but that's not the reason why I bought the book.

[Kim Veach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is gorgeous. The photography is amazing. However, it's from Australia which means that most of the sources recommended are not available to US readers. And the plants go by the Australian common names (as well as the Latin ones) so unless you know the scientific name, you won't be able to find something like Pothos as it's known as Devil's ivy there.

[Kayla Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read! It’s visually beautiful on the outside and the inside as well as informative and educational. From an overview of supplies, basic care of indoor plants, details about specific types of plants, and interviews with plant people, this book has it all! I would recommend this for anyone interested in indoor gardening or plants in general.

[Ashley Kempkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly flipped through the pictures in this book, but really enjoyed doing so! My partner has one of the plants in here and realized it needed more drainage because it's susceptible to root rot. So it will be repotted soon now.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned a lot, book looks cute on my plant table, but most of the human interest stories were affluent white people (didn’t know there would be stories, thought it was all plants), wish they broadened their interviews more.

[Nikita · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is aesthetically pleasing and well written. I was hoping there would be more technical information regarding each plant, maintenance and problems that could potentially arise. Overall, great for a beginner but lacking technical information.

[Amberwench · Rating 3 out of 5]

A general collection of common houseplants and their needs, with small sections on basic care and maintenance. Has small interviews with 'plant people' (i.e. people who use plants in their career). Nicely illustrated but light on design and display of plants in the home.

[Marie-France · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photos are beautiful and make me want every single one of those plants. So the book definitely delivers on the “leaf supply” portion of its title. Unfortunately there is very little in terms of substance on the “keeping happy houseplants” part of the title.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A coffee table book in the truest sense of the word. The photography is amazing, the book offers many great styling hints, and displays a wide variety of plants. However the title is slightly misleading, it’s not overly instructive with only minor pieces of light how-to articles.

[Milou Van · Rating 5 out of 5]

Door dit boek, wat ook lichtelijk elitair is, heb ik stof tot nadenken gekregen. Op dit moment ben ik de gelukkige die een Pannenkoekplant en een Caladium in de huiskamer heeft staan. Door dit boek heb ik een gezellige en groene huiskamer gekregen, waarvoor dank!

[Miss M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent pictures and plant descriptions along with nice design and placement ideas.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a nice book about house plants. I like that there are pictures of people and the plants that they like.

[Brie Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in love with this book. Would love to purchase for my own personal collection. GAHHHH, I want all the plants!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fun book. I’m just starting out raising houseplants and this book offers beautiful pictures to inspire the addition of a plant or 10.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for beginners but all the information was very basic.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous book and the information at the beginning was helpful for a plant beginner, but it didn't have nearly enough actual information about each type of plant.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five stars for being gorgeously designed and photographed and inspirational, three stars for being useful and representative of what feels like only the most "in" of plants.

[Kialynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes my heart (and my houseplants) happy.