Potted History by Catherine Horwood
As Heard on The Daily Gardener Podcast:

Potted History by Catherine Horwood
This book came out in 2021.
It's one of my favorites. This is a revised edition, and the subtitle is: How Houseplants Took Over Our Homes.
This is a great little garden history book, and it's all about houseplants.
Now houseplants are crazy popular, and that's one of the reasons why Catherine revised this book. It was over a decade ago when the first edition came out, and so this is the second edition.
As Catherine mentions, a surprising amount has changed in the story of plants in the home since this book first appeared. Now, what has caused this massive expansion in popularity? Well, in addition to the pandemic, which turned so many people toward gardening and growing houseplants. That trend had already started but was definitely nudged along by the pandemic.
Catherine believes three factors have contributed to this overwhelming demand for houseplants. First, improved propagation techniques lead to increased availability and lower prices, which is fantastic.
Our local Hy-Vee grocery store has a beautiful floral section. I find it quite interesting that the houseplant area is right at the east entrance of my store—that's the side that I always like to go in, of course, because the houseplants are there.
But I am entirely fascinated that houseplants are impulse buys these days and are positioned at the front of the store. And while cut flowers are offered, they are not as close to the entrance as houseplants - they're a little further in the store.
Another factor behind the houseplant craze is changing lifestyles - particularly of millennials. Millennials are definitely into houseplants.
When I took my daughter to college this past fall, her roommate took up half of the windowsill with her houseplants, and then my daughter's houseplants took up the other half. But as a wise gardener - and knowing that my daughter's room was facing north plus knowing Emma would forget about plant care - 99.9% of the houseplants I sent along with Emma were permanent stems or fake. That said, I did have two super tough live plants in the mix. One of them was moss in a closed terrarium environment.
Yes, I am a gardener, and yes, I love houseplants — but I'm also a realist.
The other factor causing the phenomenal growth of houseplants is social media—just the other day. I saw someone post a picture of their living room on Twitter, and it was filled with houseplants. Somewhere in the back of this jungle, you could just see one lone chair, and the caption was, "Is this too many houseplants?" Even I was like, yes - that is too many houseplants. So crazy.
Social media has undoubtedly encouraged this trend of houseplants, bringing plants indoors and turning your home into a conservatory.
In the introduction, Catherine mentions Sir Hugh Platt, a garden writer who published one of the first books on gardening techniques. He was also the first person to write a section about having a garden within doors.
Sir Hugh Platt would have loved an idea house I saw several years ago.
Sponsored by one of our local nurseries, the home is updated in the spring and fall with all of these beautiful decor ideas.
One particular year, they took one of the upstairs bedrooms and turned it into an indoor potting shed. This was a fantastic idea.
The upstairs bath doubled as a place to wash your hands or water some plants.
The little potting bench in the middle of the room was so cute. They also repurposed a bookshelf to organize all their garden paraphernalia, books, and supplies. A beautiful display of different containers and pots—and tons of terracotta—made me go wild for this room idea.
So, if you love this craze of indoor houseplants, you will love Catherine's book of houseplant history and the fascinating stories behind some of our most beloved houseplants.
And what better time of year to read about houseplants than right now? This week, most gardeners are moving their houseplants back outside for summer, where they'll be deliriously happy before returning for the winter.
And if you are giving someone the gift of a houseplant, then, by all means, order a few copies of Catherine's book to include that along with the present. Talk about amping up a houseplant gift!
Sizewise, this is a little book. I love it by the chair in my garden library. And the cover is so pleasant. It's beautifully illustrated with just a single little houseplant.
It is just so stinking cute.
It's 176 pages of houseplant history. So who wouldn't love that?
SI HORTUM IN HORTORIA PODCASTA IN BIBLIOTEHCA HABES, NIHIL DEERIT.