Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Lisa Eldred Steinkopf, Cool Springs Press, $35.00.
It’s wonderful to have flowers blooming in your home all year-round. So, when The Houseplant Guru tells us there are plants out there that will bloom in your home without too much fuss, there’s a reason to cheer.
Foliage plants certainly have their place as the backbone of any houseplant display because they are the perfect foil for flowering plants. Green plants, pink plants, variegated plants, and black plants are all lovely, but if you are looking for something a bit more exciting and colourful, then it’s time to bring flowers into your life all year long with flowering houseplants.
Steinkopf says her mother always had her fern in the east window with an enormous spider plant hanging next to it. “I still have that fern today, now over sixty-four years old.”
One of the well-known flowering plants is the peace lily, or Spathiphyllum, but there are so many more plants that will bloom in your home, but don’t limit yourself. You are more likely to have blooms if you have several types of plants.
Providing a plant with the environment it needs to thrive makes all the difference. If you want a cactus to bloom, you should have an unimpeded south or west window or have it placed under grow lights. If you don’t have a southern window but do have an east window, you still will have many plants to choose from that don’t require full sun to bloom.
If you’ve ever struggled to get an orchid or African violet to rebloom, or if you’ve hesitated to add plants like hoya, anthurium, Madagascar jasmine or clivia to your windowsill, Lisa reveals the insider strategies you need to encourage these plants to ‘strut their stuff’. She introduces simple techniques you can use to encourage bloom alongside all the ins and outs of caring for these beautiful plants. Thriving, full-color photography accompanies each in-depth plant profile.
