The Inspired Houseplant: Transform Your Home With Indoor Plants from Kokedama to Terrariums and Water Gardens to Edibles

by Jen Stearns

The ultimate indoor gardening book, this guide offers inspiration and instruction for creating vibrant in-home gardens and caring for your houseplants

With plentiful images and a distinctly modern and sophisticated feel, this book imparts both easy-to-follow advice and creative garden-design inspiration. Whether you are looking to pick a statement plant for your living room, create a terrarium centerpiece, or arrange an artful display of air plants, this book will provide the tools you need. You'll be tempted to thumb through it again and again—for both resource and relaxation. The Inspired Houseplant

• Plant beginner-friendly plant care info
•  Plant profiles of popular indoor plants
•  Plant fun, easy projects with major wow factor (including trending designs like terrariums, air plants, marimo and other underwater gardens, kokedama, mounted staghorn ferns, and edible herbs)
•  Plant ways to use plants in interior design for every style from Desert Boho to Midcentury Modern

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Plants, Adult, How To

192 pages, Hardcover

Published January 29, 2019

Reviews

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars.

Exactly what I was hoping for — a lot of pretty pictures of plants. Some helpful information for taking care of the many plants scattered around my home. Inspiration and ideas to get some more.

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a houseplant novice, and true to it’s promise, I am inspired and am slowly filling my house with plants, to my great enjoyment!

[Kelly Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

beautiful photos not as much information as i was hoping for. millenial af, y'all.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read in one sitting. Everything I need to know about getting some cool houseplants and hopefully not kill any of them. Also, some need ideas on placing them in certain rooms with my home decor.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is beautiful (very Of The Moment with it's color choice and writing style) but I didn't find it very helpful. The crafty section at the back was fun to look through but it held nothing which I would actually try.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lovely cover of this book caught my eye on a library display, and when I flipped through it to see some of the suggested indoor house plant crafts/settings, I knew I needed to take a closer look. This book is half really lovely photos, and half sort of beginner's how-to on houseplants. It functions best as primer/inspiration (apparently it's Very Easy to train indoor ivy to climb ...wherever...just using pushpins). Some of the closed system plant terrarium suggestions were also VERY promising.

[Jennifer Ladd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful but still to much for a houseplant-aphobe like me

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a couple of good ideas in this book, and the book itself is nicely designed, but there are also some projects that are a bit stale. If you can purchase a fake version of an air plant in “driftwood” or a copper diamond-shaped “planter” at Home Goods, the project has lost its freshness already.

[Lulu Cao · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the perfect book for me as a new plant enthusiast. I just had a crush on plants. Being an absolute beginner seeking advice, this book provides very practical step-by-step instructions. It is easy to read and has tons of pictures to supplement the content. It provides a great range of topics from basic plant care to different types of common houseplants to plant projects and design styles. The first two chapters gave me basic vocabulary and knowledge in order to read other less beginner-friendly plant books. It informs me, guides me, and inspires me. Some of the plant projects are so interesting and the edible plants are my favorite part.

Occasionally, some places feel a bit shallow or out of context for beginners to learn the topics in depth. For example, the last part of the book about design style could use more details and context. The last part also has smaller fonts, which makes it harder to read.

Overall, this is a great book for beginning plant lovers. I haven’t been eager to read for a long time, but I finished this book in just a few days after working long hours.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would call this book charming! Beautifully designed with gorgeous photographs, it’s a pleasure to hold and peruse. The author presents some popular, fashionable plants with easy-to-grasp details of selection and care. I especially appreciate her emphasis on plant, planet and people-friendly organics. If you’re day dreaming about plants for your new home like I am, this is an easy, inspirational guide. :)

[Jason Shorb · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of my plants from last year have gone to plant-heaven except for one small cactus which continues to hang on. So when I tell you that I need help keeping plants alive, I believe you will agree.

I found this book to be a helpful reference book on different kinds of plants and how to care for them. I borrowed this book from the library but this one is prob worth buying if it can help me keep at least one plant alive...

[Kailyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introductory plant basics book with some neat ideas and projects. If you struggle with keeping plants alive, this is a good book for you. She provides specifics on how to prune, pot and repot plants, and describes basic terms to help demystify houseplants and indoor gardening. After looking at other houseplant books, I realized how much of a gem this book really is. I wish she had a book written for more houseplant species/houseplants that are not for beginners!

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was really lovely and seemed pretty easy to follow for a beginner (like myself). While I was inspired, I also had to resign myself to the fact that I live in a townhouse and have very little natural light in my home. Therefore, these projects may have to wait until I have a different home lol.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a lovely book that would be best suited to an absolute beginner. There are only a handful of plant profiles; there are other books with dozens to hundreds. But the beginning chapters about overall plant care are clear and well-photographed.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I VERY rarely rate a book 5 stars, however, this one truly deserves it. Simple enough for an amateur to follow along and grow a skill set, yet not so juvenile that an experienced gardener wouldn’t be able to glean a few helpful hints from the text.

[Kim Veach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the pictures and diagrams. She has very detailed info regarding specifics of plant care which I appreciate. Some of the products she recommends (bacterial inoculant) only come from her store. She does have a list of resources for other items she recommends. Her arrangements are beautiful.

[Brigid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a book that delivers both as a coffee table browse but also offers great content. This is a well thought out book, set out to truly assist gardeners of all levels to add beauty to their home. I appreciate that this was not written in an intimidating master gardener tome.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got a few ideas but a lot of the planting instructions weren’t detailed enough. Likewise, so many different groups of plants were covered but very little time was spent going into detail, which, in my opinion, would’ve persuaded me much more.

I do like the thought of a living pothos wall....

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice introduction to houseplants, houseplant construction projects like kokedama, and plant styling. I appreciated the many pieces of advice and simple, modern format of this book. It is a beautiful book.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needs More Photos

I am reading the Kindle version and I would have loved links to photos of each plant mentioned as it was being mentioned.
That said, this was thorough, well-organized and actual links to different planty IG folks. Recommend.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This book was so aesthetically pleasing. There were tons of pictures of aesthetic-looking plants and cute tools of the trade. It did offer a general overview of each class of plant (desert plants, temperate plants, rainforest plants, etc.) and gave helpful care tips along with recommended starter plants. Jen Stearns also wrote several step-by-step tutorials on creating water gardens, kokedamas, and other plant-themed aesthetic displays. It was a very elementary introduction to plant care, but it did have some helpful tips. I would probably recommend checking this out before starting your houseplant journey.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very pretty, but much of the horticultural advice is out-of-date or mediocre. Really gorgeous, modern styling, though.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great inspiring ideas with a mix of basic needed info to create far more than basic indoor plant designs. Wonderful photos. Borrowed from the library, I'll be checking it out again and again.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful, helpful book. I know I’m going to reference it often and our houseplants will be grateful I’m no longer just winging their care.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great layout with beautiful pictures. Not a lot of information I didn't already know, though.

[Chandria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple plant info for a beginner or novice wanting to learning more.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's another book I may buy in the near future.

I came for the kokedama, but I left with the water gardens!

[Emilie D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very inspirational has amazing ideas and plant descriptions.

[Jules Tjomsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful photos and fun to look at but not a lot of information.

[Reagan Kapasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked: photography, "plant projects" and watering/cutting guide. Disliked: too many desert plants