BOOK REVIEWS

Conservatory & Houseplants

Editor: Robin Pridy
Distributed by Penguin
$NZ22.95

This A-Z will be a welcome addition to the shelves of those who enjoy the challenge of bringing their gardens indoors.

This useful pocketbook lists about 300 plants, illustrating them with bold, clear photographs. Each listing has a plant profile with details of its habit, preferred site and soil type, hardiness and flowering times. The susceptibility of each plant to pests is also discussed.

Conservatory and Houseplants lays out basic environmental and other conditions essential for nurturing indoor plants: their likes and dislikes; ventilation and humidity; when to repot; as well as composting and pruning.

The handy quick-reference layout, with the pages' alphabetical colour key clearly marked, make this a winner.

As with Urban Eden, this book will find favour with those whose garden horizons have become restricted.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH