Rooted In Design: Sprout Home’s Guide To Creative Indoor Planting, by Tara Heibel & Tassy de Give

[Note: This book was provided free of charge by Blogging For Books/Ten Speed Press in exchange for an honest review.]

I must admit that as a notorious and at least second-generation plant killer I do not read many books on the use of indoor plants as an aspect of interior design in urban environments. What this particular book does is somewhat remarkable and worthwhile, if unusual, in providing some general guidance about handling plants indoors and in providing recipes and guidance that help others work their own creativity within the bounds of what is generally aesthetically pleasing. It should almost go without saying that this book is designed for an upscale audience, of the kind that would find nothing unusual about possessing vintage items that could be repurposed for holding plants, or for being able to purchase the materials necessary to make some of these masterworks of plant design. That said, a plant lover like my stepfather would probably also find much of interest in this book, given that he keeps some of the plants that are discussed here at least partially as indoor plants.

In terms of its contents, this book takes a topical approach to looking at various types of indoor planting. Rather than looking at plants in terms of groups by water, soil, or sunlight requirements, the book takes the approach of looking at the place where the plants would need to be and looks at the design decisions that would need to be made at that point. The first seven chapters all deal with places where an indoor plant may be kept: on the wall, on the ledge, on the floor, in the air, on the table, in the kitchen, and undercover (which speaks about homemade terrareums). Some of the discussion assumes that the owners have cats that can chew up ferns in only a few seconds, which I am guessing the authors know from painful personal experience. The books are full of pictures demonstrating different designs, many of which are breathtakingly beautiful, and each chapter usually has at least one detailed recipe on how to turn indoor plants into some kind of object d’art. The chapter about plants in the kitchen looks at edibles, which require a lot more care than the average indoor plants, even showing edibles that play well together, and some of the other materials included are dried plant materials that are no longer even alive and require minimal maintenance. The last chapter gives a chart form of various plants including their pictures, names, and the sunlight, water, and soil requirements of each, for the reader who wants to make their own indoor plantings.

In reading a book like this, there is much that one can learn. For one, this book is very good at learning from some experts at interior design with the use of plants, and the authors make many helpful comments about their design aesthetic that are useful to learn from if one has any involvement in dealing with plants indoors. A surprising aspect of this book, at least for me, was the way in which the authors spent a great deal of time seeking for the reader to examine themselves, and their own abilities to commit to taking care of plants. Much of the discussion was about context, about understand the whole environment one is dealing with, in terms of the person taking care of the plants, the environmental context of the home for the plants in terms of structural strength, material properties, and sunlight, as well as the overall goal of the plant in terms of providing grounding, providing a focal point of attention, creating the illusion of more space, softening hard edges, and so on. When we understand ourselves and we understand the purpose that we have for a particular design, we are much more likely to be successful in what we are doing, especially if we can communicate these purposes as well as the authors of this book do.