The Unkillables
- The Drunken Botanist - $16.99
- Plantopedia: The Definitive Guide to Houseplants - $38.23
- Terrain: The Houseplant Book - $30.49
- Secrets of the Plant Whisperer - $4.99
The Unkillables could be a book about the flies that swarm my mama's house in the summer. All the cheaters in Fortnite. Certain - ahem - dictators and old-ass politicians. Or even just a new team of superheroes or antiheroes or...oh. I guess DC already went that way. But no.
Author Jo Lambell decided to go a different Unkillables route. A more positive one, especially for all ye black thumbs out there. This The Unkillables is a book detailing 40 Resilient Houseplants for New Plant Parents. Or, I would add, previous plant parents who have failed miserably raising them in the past, and know just how many more than 40 species fall into the killables category. Speaking from experience, I'm pretty sure you won't find Fiddle-Leaf Fig, Dracaena, or Elephant Ear plants flourishing within the pages of The Unkillables.
Examples of what you will find include the Snake, the Yucca, and the Areca Palm plants, all low-maintenance potted pals that will thrive in various home environments. Various, but not all, mind you, which is why Lambell begins The Unkillables with a Plant Parent Quiz, where you'll answer questions about what type of space you live in - its size, its typical temperatures and temperature fluctuations, its natural lighting conditions, and how much time you spend in it.
So your 40 choices of unkillables may be reduced to less than a dozen depending on the conditions the plant will be living in, but that's Lambell's other point. The primary reason people kill their plants is that they choose plants they like rather than choosing plants to fit the space they have, and the time they want to devote to caring for them.
In addition to the plant / plant-parent personality matching quiz and resultant plant suggestions, The Unkillables also has a First-Aid section covering common plant ailments, and tips on potting, watering, and fertilizing your chosen leafy greens so they thrive.
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