A handy Q&A guide by the authors of the Prairie Gardener series, Staying Alive: The Go-To Guide for Houseplants provides expert advice to ensure your houseplants thrive, wherever you call home.

Whether you have one tiny succulent on your desk at work or a massive collection of tropical plants in your home, caring for houseplants can be a real source of joy ― and the occasional moment of wild frustration.

In this Q&A guide to happy, healthy houseplants, lifelong gardeners Sheryl Normandeau and Janet Melrose are here with the insight you need to take you from perusing the plant shop to the dreaded repotting to splitting your mama spider into little spidies to share with friends.

Learn:

How to choose the right plants for your space (from aloe to ZZ)
How to train vines
How to create and care for a terrarium
When to repot your plants
All about tap water, rainwater, distilled water, too much water, and not enough
Perfecting your potting soil
Dividing, repotting, and growing plants from seed
How to tackle problems like flies, fungus, spots, and even general malaise

Opening with a chapter on setting up a houseplant-friendly home, the pair talk containers, lighting, watering, soil and nutrients, propagation, pests, and other problems, and offer a final grab bag of tips to help you satisfy some of those trickier plant pals in your midst (calling all orchids).

Details:

Hardcover
144 pages
5.75 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches

Janet Melrose is the co-author of the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series. She is a garden educator and consultant, and an advocate for Calgary’s Sustainable Local Food System. She is a life-long gardener and holds a Prairie Horticulture Certificate and Home Farm Horticultural Therapy Certificate. She has a passion for Horticultural Therapy and facilitates numerous programs designed to integrate people marginalized by various disabilities into the larger community. She is a regular contributor to The Gardener for Canadian Climates magazine. She lives in Calgary where she runs her education and consulting company, Calgary’s Cottage Gardener.

Sheryl Normandeau is the co-author of the Guides for the Prairie Gardener series and author of The Little Prairie Book of Berries. A life-long gardener, she holds a Prairie Horticulture Certificate and a Sustainable Urban Agriculture Certificate and is a freelance writer specializing in gardening writing with hundreds of articles published. She is a regular contributor The Gardener for Canadian Climates, The Prairie Garden Annual, Herb Quarterly, and many more. She lives in Calgary.

Plant & Garden Books

Propagation Handbook

Staying Alive: The Go-To Guide for Houseplants

Succulents: An Illustrated Field Guide