Happy Plant: A Beginner's Guide to Cultivating Healthy Plant Care Habits

by Puneet Sabharwal, Morgan Doane (Foreword), Erin Harding (Foreword)

Foreword by Morgan Doane and Erin Harding, co-authors of How to Raise a Plant and Make it Love You Back and co-founders of @HouseplantClub.

This comprehensive visual guide to houseplant care is packed with illustrations and hand drawings, color photography, accessible infographics, and advice for first-time and experienced plant parents alike.

Build confidence in tending indoor plants through this guide to basic plant care, all while learning about the history of houseplants, how they communicate, and sustainable ways to troubleshoot houseplant parenting issues. Whether you're afraid to bring home a plant or have a healthy row of potted green pals on your windowsill, this book will walk you through the trials, errors, and joys of plant care.

Perfect for those who are new to gardening or who want to learn more about how plants enrich our lives, this how-to guide from Puneet Sabharwal, cofounder of popular plant subscription company Horti, is a verdant treasure trove of information on how to raise your very own houseplants.

Genres: Nonfiction, Adult, Gardening

192 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2022

Reviews

[Jeff Bennett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I appreciate the author’s progressive values and belief that plants and wellness are interconnected. It’s easy to see why this author has cultivated a social media following.

Unfortunately the book itself is relatively pointless. There’s very little information about diagnosing challenges you might be having with plants quickly. Pictures are poorly aligned to the text and it’s impossible to go back and reference challenges. Where photos could have explained a concept, crude watercolors are included. Where expert guidance might be helpful, social media influencers are given full page quotes. Where pragmatic tips could have been useful, pages and pages of the author’s personal story and a repeated refrain about how it’s ok if you’ve killed plants you’ll be fine are included.

It’s also a very repetitive book. Minimal utility. It reads like both a blog and among form ad for Horti, the author’s plant subscription company. I do not recommend purchasing this book in any circumstance. Pointless. But it does look pretty on a coffee table.

[Aeson Chappell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good premise for a book but poorly executed. The writing style felt like a heavily scripted podcast advertisement, promoting the author's business repeatedly. The promise of helping cultivate healthy plant care habits is misleading as the book only mentions this briefly. A lot of the pictures and diagrams were too dark or unclear to demonstrate what was trying to be shown. I can tell that the author cares about plants and has a lot of knowledge but the writing style and focal points made it hard to access the actual informative points in between random stories and anecdotes that are unrelated.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a little bit weird, and not as helpful as hoped. I've seen the meme that for Millennials and younger, pets are the new kids and plants are the new pets, and this book leaned real hard into ways to create that emotional connection with your substitute-pet: talking to plants, touch, and grieving a plant that has died. Maybe I'm not hip yet, this just seemed a little hippy-overboard.

The info on diagnosing problems is somewhat useful, but more info, examples, and especially photos would have been useful.

There is also a list of top plants for new "plant parents" but the info on each plant choice is very sparse, only about half a page.

A strictly optional purchase.

[Crystal webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was filled with beautiful colored images and had some great information. There was some plant vocabulary that was not explained well, so be prepared to pause and google a few terms in between chapters.
However, it felt a bit sales-y because the author mentions their personal plant company several times.

[Tonya · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine, nothing great nothing glowering. Unfortunately if you are at the point of picking up plant care books, you probably already know all the information here. Though it is a pleasant read - so I'd opt for checking it out at a local library.

[Salamah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good beginner's book for house plants. I wish there were more pictures and more descriptions of house plants as well as places to find such plants. However I think this is a great book for someone who is new to houseplants.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic and interesting read with helpful tips, tricks, and tools. Finally got my green thumb!

[Chronically Well Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite the guide I was looking for, but it had interesting information on the production of house plants.

[Flo Rouk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice little bit bout plant care - one more. However, I appreciated the small box next to each plant, as well as the part about pest control and list of potential health issues.

[Natalie Kowalka · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most helpful part were the profiles on different potted plants and whether or not they’re safe for children and pets….

[Jackie Ensley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of not helpful words and quotes from social media ‘experts’

[Lúcás de Hóra Ó Huaithnín · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the small bios for plant lovers, creators, influencers etc, but I felt like the book was a bit light on actual usable information.

I get that it's for beginners, and the inside of my house would suggest that I'm definitely beyond beginner, but I hoped to gain some useful tidbits at least.

Ultimately there is some good advice, especially for the most popular houseplants, but I would have liked some more info on problems with plants.

Still, a handy and short book for total newbies.