Mr. Mother Earth's Most Rewarding Houseplants

Shows how elegant, lush, tropical foliage can be grown indoors regardless of climate or geographical location and details plant needs including water, soil, light, humidity, and food

This book features some good advice and bad jokes--just what you'd expect from a gardening expert who calls himself "Mr. Mother Earth" (after his first plant store). Rapp, author of five previous cooking and gardening titles, promises to explain how to raise "exotic" house plants, selected for "the vitality, color, and beauty they can bring into an apartment or house." He offers brief profiles of more than 100 plants, with breezy introductory comments, succinct care requirements and black-and-white illustrations. Many of the plants are indeed exotic, and require ample attention (daily misting, frequent feeding, etc.). But others are rather ordinary, like the corn plant, a resident of virtually every mall and hotel lobby. Also, some may wonder about Rapp's taste when he trumpets the pedestrian coleus as an example of "sheer spectacular colorful beauty" and question his expertise when he confides, "I've had absolutely no luck with the Boston Fern. But follow my care instructions and you will."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is the sixth Mr. Mother Earth book by Rapp, gardening editor at Redbook and radio host. Rapp writes with humor for the ordinary person who needs common-sense advice on indoor plants. The 117 plants included in his "most rewarding" list were selected because of their vitality, color, and beauty. They require varying levels of care. Each plant is described in a few paragraphs, with care requirements for light, water, and temperature given in capsule form. General advice on buying, feeding, propagating, and caring for plants over a vacation is given. He also includes information on topiary, herbs, and growing plants from pits, such as avocado and coconut. He also warns against "unrewarding" plants like Persian violets. Recommended for public libraries.
- Peter C. Leonard, Mt. Lebanon Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.