The New Plant Parent: Develop Your Green Thumb and Care for Your House-Plant Family

by Darryl Cheng, Darryl Cheng (Photographer)

Overview

For indoor gardeners everywhere, Darryl Cheng’s New Plant Parent: Develop Your Green Thumb and Care for Your House-Plant Family offers a new way to grow healthy house plants.

“While this book does cover how to care for and propagate plants, its real value comes from helping readers understand the whys behind plant care. By learning to care for a plant holistically, and tapping into how each plant would grow in nature, you’ll be able to raise happier, healthier plants.” —Growfully

The creator of House Plant Journal teaches the art of understanding a plant’s needs and giving it a home with the right balance of light, water, and nutrients. After reading Cheng, the indoor gardener will be far less the passive follower of rules for the care of each species and much more the confident, active grower relying on observation and insight.

And in the process, the plant owner becomes a plant lover, bonded to these beautiful living things by a simple love and appreciation of nature. The New Plant Parent covers all the basics of growing house plants:

• Finding the right light
• Watering
• Fertilizing
• Containers
• Pruning and propagation
• Pests
• Helpful tools
• Recommended species
• And more!

Cheng writes, “My goal in writing this book is to empower you to understand your home’s growing conditions, to be observant, and to accept what nature has in store. . . . I want to help you break away from old habits and ways of thinking that hinder you from truly enjoying plant parenthood.”

Cheng’s friendly tone, personal stories, and accessible photographs fill his book with the same generous spirit that has made @houseplantjournal, his Instagram account, a popular source of advice and inspiration for thousands of indoor gardeners.

Includes Color Photographs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419732393
Publisher:	Abrams Image
Publication date:	03/19/2019
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	57,764
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Darryl Cheng is the author of The New Plant Parent: Develop Your Green Thumb and Care for Your House-Plant Family (2019), which has sold more than 85,000 copies. He is the creator of House Plant Journal, the leading source for advice about growing house plants on Instagram, with 630,000 followers. His technique, based on an understanding of the conditions different plants need to thrive, has helped thousands of home gardeners achieve satisfying results. He lives in Toronto.


Darryl Cheng is the author of The New Plant Parent: Develop Your Green Thumb and Care for Your House-Plant Family (2019), which has sold more than 85,000 copies. He is the creator of House Plant Journal, the leading source for advice about growing house plants on Instagram, with 630,000 followers. His technique, based on an understanding of the conditions different plants need to thrive, has helped thousands of home gardeners achieve satisfying results. He lives in Toronto.

Table of Contents

I Caring for Plants

1 The Plant Parenthood Mentality 6

2 A Home for Plants 14

3 Understanding House Plants 22

4 Holistic House-Plant Care 30

5 Light 34

8 Soil 46

7 Water 54

8 Pruning, Propagation, and Repotting 68

9 Pests 78

10 Acquiring House Plants 84

11 Helpful Tools 90

II House Plant Journal

Dracaena 96

Jade Plant 102

Kangaroo Paw Fern 108

Marimo Moss Ball 112

Money Tree 116

Monstera 122

Mother of Thousands (Kalanchoe) 128

Oxalis 132

Peace Lily 136

Philodendron Vines 142

Pilea 148

Ponytail Palm 154

Pothos 158

Prayer Plant 164

Rabbit's Foot Fern 170

Snake Plant 177

Staghorn Fern 184

String of Hearts 192

ZZ Plant 196

Acknowledgments 202

Index 204