Handmade Houseplants

Starred review from May 15, 2018
Dead greenery, gnawed-on indoor ivies and trees: the sad truths of houseplants subject to black thumbs and household pets. Designer Hogg's solution is less costly than constantly replacing plants yet still geared to an interior aesthetic: craft your own philodendron or caladium from top-quality paper, paints, adhesives, and a few other materials. From a distance, her 30 plant replicas?including both the familiar and the rare?are surprisingly realistic. Even better are the very thorough step-by-step photographs for each variety, along with 36 pages of templates and painting patterns in the appendix. Only one flowering species is included (the Christmas cactus); the rest, though, are selected with an excellent eye for colorations and shapes. How else to display and use? Her bonus section features ideas for place cards and centerpieces, garlands, mixed planters, a trellis, and cloches (also known as bell jars). Fake plants were never so appealing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)