Paradise Under Glass: An Amateur Creates a Conservatory Garden

by Ruth Kassinger

Paradise Under Glass is a witty and absorbing memoir about one woman’s unlikely desire to build, stock, and tend a small conservatory in her suburban Maryland home. Ruth Kassinger’s wonderful story of the unique way she chose to cope with the profound changes in her life—a book that will delight readers of Eat, Pray, Love and I Feel Bad About My Neck —is interwoven with the fascinating history of conservatories from the Renaissance orangeries to the glass palaces of Kew.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Memoir, Nature, Science, History, Historical

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Ruth Kassinger is the award-winning author of eight science and history books for young adults. In addition, her science and health writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, National Geographic Explorer, Health magazine, Science Weekly, and other publications.

Ruth Kassinger's most recent book—her first for an adult audience—is Paradise Under Glass: An Amateur Creates A Conservatory Garden. She chronicles her journey through a midlife crisis by creating a conservatory at her suburban home. Her adventures of her transformation from brown thumb to green, she weaves the history of conservatories from Renaissance orangeries to glass palaces like Kew to today's high-tech plant nurseries in Florida.

Ruth Kassinger lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband, a West Highland terrier, and dozens of tropical plants and trees.

Reviews

[Jaylia3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently $1.99 on Kindle in the US, Paradise Under Glass is part how-to guide, part memoir, part plant and science focused history, and fully fascinating. And now I want to add an attached greenhouse room to my home.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I did like this but it seemed to have too many tangets. I would have preferred a more focused look at her experience with the conservatory and the related outlets. For a while it was a nice to have the historical background but then it was just too much and you lost connection with the current work. It also brought in about 5 other themes and was too scattered. I also think people that don't have a strong interest in plants or botanical gardens will just get frustrated or bored.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some 4 star information content here, especially at the beginning, but I don't think that it was linked well to the memoir content. And sometimes it just felt like it was just a bunch of info dumps, connected loosely or not at all. I actually would have liked a bit more memoir content. And I want to read a book by Edie, this woman's garden/plants guru. She must have a lot of great stories.

That said, I thought there was a lot of interesting and useful practical info, and I liked the bits about the history of conservatories, and finding out why the room in my local conservatory that has the butterflies in season is called the stove room.

[Colette · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a hard one for me because I really thought I would love it. Plants, conservatories, greenhouses, historical rabbit trails. These are all things I enjoy reading about. There was something in the tone that I couldn’t quite click with. The information was good, and I liked how the chapters flowed with the history and with each other. For some reason I spent the whole book thinking it would get better, but it stayed a fairly steady “okay.” Kassinger shines in the more personal sections. Maybe if this book had been more memoir and less travelogue I would have connected more.

[Amy Poulter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️ Part memoir, part text book, part how-to; an interesting mix. I admit I did skim through the science bits, but I loved the history and got really into her traveling and research for the plants she was trying out in her new conservatory. Does it make me want a conservatory? Indeed. Will I go to the lengths she did? Heavens no.

[Terri]

Hockessin Library Chick Lit Book Group - February 2025 - Longwood Gardens Community Read 2025

[Debbie Phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok. It took me almost the whole year to finish. I only finished it because I was counting it for my challenge and didn't want to find a different book for that category as I had already read a bunch of it for the book club meeting in March. It sure took me long enough. I kept putting if off and reading other things.

It is more fitting for someone who loves plants, has or is planning a greenhouse, or is deeply interested in plants. I am none of those. I admire plants, mostly ones that others grow and only manage to grow a few spindly things in our front garden. There were a few interesting parts, but most of it was boring, with lots of latin words mixed in.

Using this book for the The 52 Book Club 2025 Challenge prompt Genre chosen for me by someone else. Since the book and it's genre - Non-fiction (science with a bit of memoir/bio thrown in) was chose by Longwood Gardens as their Community Read for 2025.

[Stefanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Paradise Under Glass feels like having a great conversation with a close friend. It's wide ranging, engaging, personal, even educational, and inspiring. I found the parts about Victorian-era fern collecting and modern industrial houseplant growing particularly interesting. If you have even the most passing interest in plants, indoor gardening, or conservatories then give this one a try. But be prepared - you may be inspired to get your own small conservatory after finishing it.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring book.

In response to loss and adversity in her life, the author builds a conservatory onto her suburban home.

Intertwines her own story with interesting sections on the history of glasshouses, plant hunters, modern growers like Glasshouse Works and Logee's, and other subjects.

Worth reading more than once.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I devoured this book. Usually non-fiction takes me longer but the author has a lovely style and mixed in interesting histories both personal and non-personal that made it quite difficult to put the book down. It probably helped that it is December and I'm ready to plant! It definitely inspired me to go water my abused Christmas Cactus - and even repot! :)

[Terry Lackmeyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading the parts about author’s personal life. Did not enjoy the endless and detailed historical information covering the origin of citrus plants, ferns, greenhouses, gardening in the Victorian age, insecticides, and other aspects of plant history.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantasy, I swear it must be a fantasy
she did it! I got to watch the bumps and the glides
she is incredible

[Zuska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for book club.

I'm giving this 4 stars, but it was a hard call. I'd give it 3.5 if I could. It was an oddly frustrating read. The topic interested me, and I love historical surveys of gardening practices, and I love memoir. But somehow this didn't all quite fit together easily for me. Some chapters felt like information dumps. I found all the information fascinating, but the reading through of it was a slog at times. There were several side "characters" that this reader would love to have heard more from - Edie for sure; Ken and Tom. I googled Glasshouse Works and was saddened to learn that both Ken and Tom are now gone and Glasshouse Works is no more.
The memoir part just seemed to vanish for long stretches, after a strong start in the first chapter. Kassinger's says of her beloved sister Joanie that near the end of her life she "seemed to want deep revelations from me, the unmasking of essential truths. We needed, she said, to 'really talk.' But I had nothing to reveal. All I had was ordinary talk, which seemed - which was - inadequate." This very sad passage near the end of the book made my experience of reading the book clearer, in a way. This promising memoir used a lot of ordinary talk (historical summaries of gardening practices and technology development along the way to modern day conservatories and plant production; chatty descriptions of the physical appearances of every person she interviews) to avoid deep revelations and the unmasking of any truths, essential or otherwise. Maybe it's just not my kind of memoir. Or maybe it's not a memoir at all, just a bit of memoir used as scaffolding on which to make the green wall of greenhouse horticulture history. I found myself not satisfied with either the memoir or the history, though I certainly appreciate the comprehensive effort put into the history and the meaning and symbolism her personal conservatory brought to her life. All in all I'm glad I read it, but it felt like more work than it should have been for a book that should be right up my alley.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir about author Ruth Kassinger's creation of a conservatory at her home in suburban Maryland was fun to pick up, since I've just moved to Maryland where I've been admiring the many homes with beautiful sunrooms. The memoir sections of this book where delightful. There's something about reading about gardening and a family's daily life that I find so soothing. Mixed with the memoir, though, were elements of the history of conservatories and cultivation of various plant species. These were often only loosely connected to the main story. As someone with a high tolerance for tangents, I'd have been happy to overlook the weak connections had these sections been interesting. There were a few sections with great fun facts, but others devolved into lists of every famous person who ever owned an orange tree, for example. Overall, I did enjoy this peaceful read during a stressful week, but the plants + memoir thing has been done better (Lab Girl by Hope Jahren comes to mind).This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This came about through a library program called Beanstack. Beanstack offers reading challenges similar to book clubs with an added bonus of you obtain badges based on the challenge you sign up for.

Longwood Gardens in Kennet Square, PA in the month of May sponsored a community read for this book. By reading the book you could unlock badges based on the different chapters. You can also obatain badges by logging your reading minutes. It took a few tries to figure out the badge system but I figured it out and started to log my badges.

The book is about a woman creating a personal green space with trial and error. Embracing the ups and downs of fickle plants and sometimes their time consuming and particular needs. She goes to great lengths in her research of the perfect plant and the pitfalls and the cost of keeping her greenery going despite her own bout of cancer. And the death of her sister from cancer.

It drug at times and I tried not to skim through the parts that I felt were dull. I wanted to read the book and earn the badges, but also curious as to how she managed her small conservatory.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely escape over a long, cold winter! Nice prose, good storytelling, all highlighted with insights into how to grow plants indoors.
p.31: 'With less than 60% humidity, citrus trees are highly susceptible to spider mites."
p.72: "John Livingstone, an amateur plant collector and surgeon who worked in China in the early 1800s, estimated that only one in a thousand plants sent to England from Asia arrived safely." (By the 1840s, with Wardian cases, the survival rate goes way up--95% make it.)
81: bio/history of Joseph Banks
127-on: history of Loddiges; in the early 1800s, it had 84 species of orchids for sale.
133: Loudon bio
Lots of other great history and contemporary coverage of plant hunters and sellers.

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This humorous memoir is about how Kassinger accidentally fell in love with houseplants. I saw myself in her descriptions of trips to her local gardening store and in her quest to create ideal growing conditions in her historic Maryland house. I found the passages about her quest to build and stock a conservatory in her house delightful. Her personal narrative is interspersed with plant history, which I found sometimes interesting, sometimes a bit slow. I loved how she visited current plant businesses and gave their stories. I learned about Logee's, a wonderful historic business in New England that still sells online and about the businesses in Florida that supply most of the houseplants we find in big box stores. Highly recommended to new plant lovers.

[Katie The Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give this book somewhere between 3.5 - 4 stars .
My bookclub participates in the Longwood Gardens Reads program and I read this for the book club.
This title is part memoir of a woman building a conservatory on the back of her house and part history of greenhouses and cultivating domesticated houseplants.
I liked Ruth, the narrator, and her story. I found her personal journey as a brown thumb who wants to explore her interest in conservatories to be interesting. I enjoyed learning about the history of greenhouses and conservatories to a point. Occasionally, the history tangents got a little boring and excessive but ultimately I liked this book. I just skipped a few pages here and there.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book if you are a gardener. The author recounts her journey from having only a dying house plant of indeterminate provenance, to building a conservatory, starting with "basics" and going on to grow unique species and even build a "green wall." She hits the right level of detail and plant info as well as recounting failures and challenges of pests and die offs
Along the way of her personal story, she interjects the history of conservatories and plant gathering expeditions in late 1800's. Fascinating to learn some garden history
Very well written, easy read and great choice for gardeners.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longwood Gardens book - March 2024;
Process of building a conservatory attached to her house and stocking it with a variety of plants.
It helped her to cope with the changes in her life.
Ted, husband - Anna, oldest daughter - Anna and Austin;
Joanie sister who died of brain tumor;
History of conservatories, including the exotic plants and how they were transported and developed.
She has a science background.
Traveled all around the country for research and getting plants.
She lives in Maryland -

[Gia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I went into this book with an open mind. I am already a fan of gardening, flowers and plants, so I thought I would really like this book. It ended up just being so-so because from my perspective, it was a upper-class white woman taking on a midlife crisis project since her and her husband had the space in their yard. The history facts and details on how certain plants and variations have migrated across the world were great tidbits of information. But in my opinion, the core narrative was rather boring.

[Pamela S Inskeep · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually gave it a 3.5 rating. The author told the reader how she added a greenhouse or conservatory (orangerie?) onto her house. Along her journey to developing her green thumb, she told stories about her sister and other family members and her forays into plant research. The author is from Maryland and mentions Longwood Gardens of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, one of my favorite places, several times in her book.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Combination of author’s process of learning while creating a home conservatory, interspersed with historical information about conservatories, plants and people, and her journeys to educate herself on growing plants. Interesting in parts, although sometimes it seemed a bit random where this book was headed.

[Susan]

I started to read this book and quickly decided it wasn't for me. I am not a gardener and I only picked up the book because it was a book club selection for my book club. I was going to be traveling on meeting night so I wouldn't be attending the discussion, so I decided to return the ebook and move to something I wanted to read.

[Saimiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the parts about her conservatory, and where she visited all the nurseries and garden shops. I was less into the historical aspects (and got especially bored during the parts about Eden). But overall, it was great, and now I really want to build a living wall!

[Lynn Bingaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book club book. I was convinced the author was ADD. The parts she wrote about her conservatory were interesting, but the filler she added in was not. The book jumped round from orangeries to glass houses to foliage to wintergardens to Biomes.

[Joann · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting ~ history of gardening

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book for anyone who's window sill plants have gotten out of control.

[Elizabeth R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dangerously delightful; I now require a conservatory, and/or living wall, and/or a lot more indoor plants. And definitely an in ground mini swimming pool with flume.

[Tara Koup · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book a lot but it took me a very long time to finish. I read it because it's the Longwood Gardens book of the year.