Taming the Potted Beast: The Strange and Sensational History of the Not-So-Humble Houseplant

The colorful, peculiar history of the houseplant from ancient Rome to Victorian England to Instagram: a botanical adventure full of histrionic highs, devastating lows, and sensational turning points along the way.

From the hanging gardens of Babylon to that fiddle-leaf fig in your living room, houseplants have been humanity's companions for millennia. Taming the Potted Beast explores the history of our air-purifying friends with an entertaining narrative of the peculiar, often dramatic story...