Review by Booklist Review
Chapman provides a step-by-step guide to creating living plant combinations or centerpieces. First she discusses indoor gardening tools, containers, techniques, and maintenance, and then offers recipes that specify the ingredients needed by listing the type and quantity of plants. Chapman provides numbered instructions for arranging the plants, while 400 full-color photographs spark enthusiasm and provide guidance for the finished piece. The arrangement recipes are organized alphabetically by plant and use such mainstream favorites as violets and begonias. Each plant appears in multiple recipes, enabling indoor gardeners to creatively display a single variety of plant in diverse and exciting plantings. A single lily takes center stage in a fancy fruit bowl, for example, and can be mixed with rubber plants and star-of-Bethlehem. Chapman offers more complex arrangements, involving, in one recipe, primroses sharing space in a vintage metal toolbox with a potato vine and five other plants. Many plant lovers will enjoy these creative, skill-building, and pleasing recipes.--Scott, Whitney Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
For those who like their gardens small, contained, restrained, and delicate, Chapman's new book will be cause for celebration. Container gardening has gained an enthusiastic following, but this book takes it to a micro level: tabletop containers. The book's generous number of color photos (400) indicate in detail, right down to the roots, what horticultural ingredients combine effectively to create a sustainable and stunning tabletop display. The book also offers clear direction on where to position plants within the container for greatest effect. Beyond the plethora of plant choices that fill the pages, the grittier elements are also included in the "recipes," such as container dimensions and soil amendments. The horticulture is daring and innovative: for example, in Lichen Recipe 3, two types of orchid, a variety of air plants, and a large lichen-covered branch, are all displayed in a "container" of squares of sheet moss. This is a great addition to the library of any gardener; those whose tastes incline toward the small will find this book positively transformative. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Whether your botanic tastes run to formal with straight lines or wispy and loose with a woodland feel, there is something that will appeal to you in this groundbreaking collection. Chapman (founder, Lila B. Design) arranges the book in two sections-a general overview of living arrangements and "how-to": selecting containers, preparing vessels, and installing the plants. This latter section features 100 "recipes" with accompanying photographs by Green. A helpful ingredient chart will enable the novice to understand better the patterns behind the designs featured and allow for the development of individual designs. The book would have benefited from a resources section to help the beginner navigate the small-plant marketplace and have some clue as to how to find the materials that make the beautiful arrangements throughout. -VERDICT Recommended as an inspiration for both the gorgeous photographs and accompanying descriptions of these 100 floral combinations.-Kendra Auberry, Indian River State Coll. Lib., Port St. Lucie, FL (c) Copyright 2014. 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.
