Tropical Houseplants

Some time in early spring, a Swiss cheese plant unrolls a new leaf from a tight pale scroll, and if it is old enough and has had enough light, the leaf opens slashed and pierced with holes. It is a forest plant from Mexico and Central America getting on with its life beside the sofa. The surprise is not that these plants sometimes sulk indoors, but how many of them thrive.

This book explains why. Most of the plants in it grow wild in the dappled, humid lower layers of the forest, scrambling up trunks, perching on branches or spreading across the forest floor. Once you understand where a plant comes from, its needs make sense, and you can look after plants that aren’t in the book as well as those that are.

A look inside

• Where tropical houseplants come from, and how their wild habits shape what they need from you
• Current botanical names alongside the older names still found on shop labels, calatheas included
• Choosing a healthy plant, quarantining it and matching it to the rooms you have
• What the evidence actually says about houseplants cleaning the air
• Light explained with numbers, grow lights, humidity in proportion, temperature and watering
• Peat-free compost, repotting, feeding, moss poles, pruning and keeping leaves clean
• Monstera, philodendron, pothos, prayer plants, alocasias, anthuriums, peace lilies, ZZ plants, figs, dracaenas and more
• Ferns, peperomias, hoyas, begonias, nerve plants and bromeliads as smaller companions
• Variegation, rare plants and propagation, including the law on protected varieties
• Pests, diseases and disorders, a month-by-month calendar, troubleshooting tables and a glossary

Three things to get right first

Light, watering and humidity cause most of the grief, so the book tackles them early. "Bright, indirect light" is explained with practical rules for every aspect of window in both hemispheres. Watering is by the state of the compost rather than the calendar, since the instinct that a jungle plant must be wet all the time kills a great many monsteras. And humidity is kept in proportion: calatheas and nerve plants really do mind dry air, while philodendrons are perfectly happy in an ordinary home.

Made for real homes

Beginners will find reassurance, and experienced growers the detail behind each group’s quirks. Where reliable advice differs, on misting, pot sizes, calatheas and tap water or how far a grow light should hang, both sides are set out with the reasons, because a plant in a cool Edinburgh bathroom and one in a warm Sydney flat may genuinely need different treatment. Seasonal advice is written for the UK and similar climates, with a six-month shift for the Southern Hemisphere and notes for warmer places.

Safety is handled with care. Many aroids contain calcium oxalate crystals that cause pain and swelling if chewed, so the book sets out, plant by plant, what pet-poison services and health authorities say, and what to do if a pet or child eats some.

Learn to read a yellowing leaf or a stretching stem, and the jungle on your windowsill becomes far less mysterious.