So, the other day you were creating compost for your new plant after watching some DIY videos from youtube and you completely wreaked havoc. Also, you ended up getting scolded by your mom for scattering all the kitchen waste here and there. And then you silently crawled in your reading corner to search for plant books, but your heart still feels that the little space in your balcony can be a hanging garden?
Or maybe that shed on the roof can be your plant house and photoshoot spot at the same time? Well, we have heard it all. And, when we say ‘heard’ we mean ‘heard’ and not just ‘listened.’ So, here is an article that has been consolidated to address all grievances that you can split across multiple sections under the subheading ‘plants.’
We have curated a list of best books on plants segregated under multiple sections: botany books, house plant books, plant physiology books, plant pathology books.
Some indoor gardening books will work as crash courses and help a plant parent cover all the required botany in a day. Then for the mysterious souls, we have brought books that will narrate stories about the secret life of plants.
Indoor plants, we understand, are a whole different domain. So, we have brought a separate section for that too.
Now, all you need to do is get a cool reading glass and think of the Instagram captions you will add to the posts where you will be flaunting your lush green velvety air plants.
Popular Books About Plants:
In this section, we will come across some best botany books. These plant books have been further classified on a certain basis.
Houseplants books:
Urban Jungle: Living and Styling with Plants by Igor Josifovic and Judith De Graaff
This book can actually work as a start if you are looking to drift by those yellow pages to get all that you can, from a houseplant book or say, any set of plant books. It can help you bring an indestructible houseplant into existence.
This amazing creation contains every detail that includes how to style your plants and how to make that old brick wall look alive again with the help of plants. This book will really take you to a new place even without moving.
Dr. Houseplant: An Indispensable Guide to Keeping Your Indoor Plants Healthy and Happy by Jane Bland and Jock Davidson
You may be a writer, an actor, an engineer, or pursuing some of the other professions. But guess what? This indoor plant book will make you something else. It is one of the best gardening books that can help you become a plant doctor. And you will learn about plant care effectively.
Now how awesome that is. Next time someone flaunts their extraordinary, offbeat profession, you know you are not far behind. These type of plant books helps you to become a plant doctor and write prescriptions for your greens.
Root, Nurture, Grow The Essential Guide to Propagating and Sharing Houseplants by Caro Langton and Rose Ray
As it is quite clear from the name, this indoor plant book will help you tenderly take care of those tiny shoots. It’s more like the first johnson’s baby kit for you little saplings.
This book makes you start from scratch and propagate to a large area from a tiny dot. This is surely a houseplant book that should be in your order cart.
The Unexpected Houseplant: 220 Extraordinary Choices for Every Spot in Your Home by Tovah Martin –
Now that we have spoken much about the care, precautions, and nurturing that you have to do with your plants, let’s know help you choose your plants. For example, maybe you want house plants based on the color of your balcony.
Or maybe, you are planning to create a green medical store at your house. Or maybe you want a cocktail of all the best colors from the palette. So, these type of indoor plant books basically helps you with choosing what you what to care for.
Plant Pathology Books:
The Handbook of Plant Biosecurity: Principles and Practices for the Identification, Containment, and Control of Organisms that Threaten Agriculture and the Environment Globally by Simon McKirdy and Gordon Gordh
This is a major book that covers extremely minute details about several common and rare plant diseases and helps diagnose those easily. Also, it talks about what practices can be a threat to agriculture and how to avoid these. Thus, this book is more like an encyclopedia for a plant doctor. Hence, it will help you excel in plant care.
Plant pathology and plant pathogens by C. H Dickinson
Plant pathogens can weaken the very roots of your green dreams and can spread to the latest green shoot that came up just yesterday morning. Therefore, care must be taken to limit the growth of such pathogens as soon as the slightest trace of these is detected.
This category of plant books helps you put on your magnifying glass for even a micro chance of those pathetic pathogens making their way up to your plants. So, trust me, as a plant parent you really want to keep this book close.
Detection and Diagnostics of Plant Pathogens by Peter J. M. Bonants and Maria Lodovica Gullino
This book has somewhat the same base as what I have spoken above. Just that, this is a bit crisper. It works like: you detect and diagnose, detect and diagnose. It’s quick. Rather than reading it like an encyclopedia, read it more like a manual.
Westcott’s Plant disease handbook by Cynthia Westcott
Buy this book and read about what health issues your indoor plants are suffering from. This book helps you feel the pain and how it is damaging your little green buds every day. Understand this book and find all the magical potions that will help you destroy the plant enemies.
Plant Physiology Books:
Plant Hormones: Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology by Peter J. Davies
To communicate, you need to start knowing the language. This stands very true in the case of your plants also. Next, you need to understand the reactions and the molecular processes that undergo in your blossoms.
It is one of the best plant books that can help you talk to your plants, understand plant behavior, be in sync with their moods, and a lot more. Physiology books basically tell you stories about the secret life of plants.
The physiology of flowering plants by Helgi Öpik
This book is likely to generate your interest in the botany of plants and the secret life of plants. You will understand what all your plants hide behind those beautiful flowers and fresh tendrils.
Several examples of common flowering plants have been taken to keep you hooked and some real experiments have been given to help you understand how do your favorite blossoms work and, more than that, what do they want?
Let’s take an example of a very common plant, i.e., Red azalea. Now you might have been awestruck by its beauty, but this book helps you understand where your Red azalea gets that beauty from.
Teaming with Nutrients: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to Optimizing Plant Nutrition by Jeff Lowenfels
Here is a book to help you make the perfect dinner for your plants. Also, this book takes care that your plants start their day with a healthy and nutritious breakfast.
This book helps you understand the wants of your plants. Then, it helps you in creating the right concoctions of vitamins and all that your plants want.
How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do by Linda Chalker-Scott
Now here is a category of plant books, that very clearly states the reasons for a certain plant behavior. This book helps you understand why plants are behaving the way they are behaving.
It helps you create a bond with those stems and understand every twist and turn of those fresh leaves.
What Else?
So, now that we have understood well and effectively about what all should be our major concerns while planning for a spread of plants, we also need to take down some last-minute checklist.
After studying the behavior, our precious greens’ reactions, we now need to relate all these with the planetary motions, the weather conditions. There is various farmers’ almanac for gardening that you might find.
Some of these like, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, help you to understand the effect of weather changes and other environmental factors on your plants. Moreover, this book does this through pictorial representations. This mainly focuses on vegetable gardening.
This was one thing. You can start by creating a list of the necessary books you need to purchase. Once that is done, you can start with shopping for types of equipment, chemicals, setup tools, and most importantly, the right plants.
Your list should have 2-3 houseplant books and books about indoor plants. Then there should be one encyclopedia kind of book that helps you cover your entire botany in a day. Apart from that, you can include one best plant physiology book and one plant pathology book.
How to Choose the Right Books?
Start with listing down your requirements. Then, go through the list of books in this read and select the best match. After reading these indoor gardening books, you can grow your air plants to keep their home environment clean.
Happy Reading, plant nerds!
