Hip Houseplants

This books is great. What a different take on indoor gardening! I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to make a statement with plants, both foliage and flowering, or the occasional gardener wanting a new perspective on houseplants and design. Very interesting book (and great pics too)!

This will be the 8th time I have started to write this review today! I can't quite sum up into words how much I am enjoying this book! I love plants-- unfortunately; I know nothing about caring for them and keeping them healthy. I bought this book because I recently moved into a new town home and thought I would really love to incorporate some plants into all the new space our new home has to offer, but in a tasteful way. The ideas in this book are spectacular!! The book opens with several gorgeous photographs. The way the chapters are organized is wonderful! There is a chapter for different theme rooms (i.e.: Bold and Contemporary, Asian Fusion Style, Modern Mediterranean), a chapter for color and scent (what plants give off a full fragrant scent and what gives off light fresh scents, full page layouts of different plants of the same color), a chapter for shape and texture, a chapter for different rooms in the house (plants best suited for bathrooms, bedrooms, etc.),a chapter for choosing pots and containers, a chapter for lighting, a chapter for plant care, a plant maintenance guide to use for quick reference, an address and directory listing to some of the products listed in the book and lastly, an index for all the plants listed in the book. I plan on giving several of these to friends as gifts this year! The best thing about this book is that it isn't one of those books that you can admire the products used and never replicate them due to hard to find materials. The pots are all fairly easy to find (lots of them look like they are from Ikea, which you can do a telephone order for, some are terracotta pots that were spray painted silver and they look like metal! and some are big ceramic pots that you can often pick up at flea markets, yard sales or even stores like garden ridge or home depot). This is a great book for anyone looking to incorporate plants into their home!

Some people are into 'hip.' Some people are not. Don't let this title throw you: This book is not your pass-card to the ranks of the coolest of the Cool. It's about plants. It's also about pots and light and color and space.Orlando Hamilton has put together a masterful beginner's guide to thinking about plants as design elements. Starting with the basics, he quickly reviews a variety of atmospheres, from Modern Chic to Retro to African Revival to Beach Comber, adroitly leading you into basic design concepts, then moving on to an element by element examination of how tone is set. Each style gets one page of commentary, one full page picture, and 3 inset sample shots to give a more in depth sense of the style. The result is a brisk introduction to the art that adroitly leads the reader into thinking about their own environment and the elements that define it.Moving into specific components, Orlando manages to zoom in on particulars, coherently covering a range of possibilities, without letting you lose sight of the larger picture. He talks about individual spaces (bathrooms, stairs, diningrooms, hallways), how they relate to the whole, & reels off possibilities, complete with lavish pictures to illustrate his ideas, and captions to explain how the particulars come together. He talks about forms, textures, sizes, and colors, each one addressed separately, and how they contribute to a room's overall presentation. He talks about pots, he talks about stands, he talks about lighting, he talks about materials... He talks about _details_, and all those little things that you might not think of as important until you see for yourself the stunning impact something as simple as a pot can contribute to the whole.I think the genius of this book is the brevity with which it is able to communicate ideas. The interplay between text, photograph, caption and title is such that the author is able to convey these ideas without bogging you down with text (unlike certain reviewers). The pictures are appropriately gorgeous, the text is brisk but friendly, the captions are tremendously useful in elaborating his points, and the section titles cut right to the heart of the matter. And yet he leaves plenty of room for you to disagree or improvise...he even has a small section on how to paint pots!In other words, this isn't a step-by-step primer, it's an introduction to concepts. Concepts that, having been grasped, will help you shape your own creative atmosphere.