Grow your own monsters

Review by Booklist Review

Hoping to attract kids who find ordinary gardening too tame, this colorful, large-format book offers instructions for growing nine monster plants, including the squirting cucumber and voodoo lily. The authors offer information on growing plants from seeds, thinning seedlings, transplanting them, and creating mini greenhouses. A double-page spread introduces each species and offers step by-step instructions for planting and nurturing it. Photos and ink-and-watercolor pictures illustrate. Though the appended list of European and North American sources for seeds and plants is informative and clearly organized, only European seed distributors are listed for three species. Still, the book (first published in Great Britain) has its charms. What other gardening guide shows children how to grow a 20-foot giant echium stalk or a lily that looks like a snake, smells like a corpse and is . . . a flower?--Phelan, Caroly. Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-5-Fun and filled with unusual project ideas for plants referred to as monsters, this is not your usual science-fair book. And that's what makes it good and also what detracts from its usefulness. It is British in its terminology and spelling. The meanings of such terms as "tetrapax," "air closet," and "airing cupboard" are pretty much mysterious. Other words and instructions can be figured out, e.g., "dustbin liner," "polythene lid," and getting seeds "by post." Solid and helpful information about the growing cycle of plants and the logic of their bloom cycles is included. For example, the Voodoo Lily corm can be planted in a pot and placed on a windowsill without water where it will grow and bloom into a foul-smelling flower that will attract flies to its rotting-flesh fragrance. Colorful and comical drawings illustrate the project steps, and full-color photos of the plants, often with children, from such monsters as a Giant Echium towering over a boy to the tiny Venus Fly Trap, fill each two-page entry. Lighthearted and packed with information, the book includes a list of mostly U.K. suppliers and a brief glossary. This British focus makes it a marginal purchase.-Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

British-flavored step-by-step instructions, along with useful, sometimes humorous illustrations, encourage beginning gardeners to raise some rather bizarre plants.The authors open with a few pages of general advice on good locations for plants, pots, choices of soil, feeding and watering, sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings and constructing a variety of mini-greenhouses from household materials. Subsequent sections cover a variety of unusual plants: squirting cucumber, voodoo lily, Abyssinian banana, cardoon, walking stick cabbage, Venus fly trap, pitcher plant, giant echium and lychee. There are close-up color photographs of the plants, and attractive cartoon illustrations demonstrate some of the key gardening techniques. Unfortunately, the text fails to mention that the squirting cucumber is poisonous and the giant echium can cause skin reactions in those that touch it, particularly troublesome since the photo in that section shows a boy grabbing it. The cardoon is considered a "noxious weed" in California; the text merely cautions that in some places, cardoon "can spread their seeds around and grow all over the place," and should not be allowed to go to seed in those areas. Additionally, the described propagation difficulties of some of these plants may discourage many. A plant source follows, including nurseries in Europe and North America, as well as a glossary.Better plant books abound; the absence of key information in this gimmicky effort makes it an unnecessary purchase for beginning gardeners. (Nonfiction. 8-11)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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A death trap for flies The meat-like red of a Venus F ly Trap's trap tempts a f ly in with the promise of a meal. But as soon as the f ly touches the tiny trigger hairs on the red surface, once, then twice, the trap is sprung: the two halves snap shut, the spines on their edges overlap to make a cage and the f ly is caught. The more it struggles, the tighter the trap holds it. Soon it will be digested, then trap and prey will be absorbed back into the plant. Like pitcher plants these gruesome killers are bog plants, that like wet feet, plenty of light and protection from winds and storms. Venus fly traps live in bogs and marshes where there is no shade, so they need lots of light. It's pretty wet in bogs and marshes, so stand your plant pot in a container with a centimetre or so of water in it - always use the right kind of water. You don't need to water them if you keep this water round their feet topped up at all times VFTs need to eat flies, so in summer, put them where they can catch their own - outside in a sunny spot is best. VFTs don't like frost, but they like a cool rest in winter. Put them somewhere frost free, and out of wind and rain, but unheated and light, for the winter. Excerpted from Grow Your Own Monsters by Nicola Davies, Simon Hickmott All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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