Tabletop Gardens: 40 Stylish Plantscapes for Counters and Shelves, Desktops and Windowsills

Indoor plants bring living warmth to any interior décor. Arrange them in beautiful containers, root them creatively in varied textural beds, and enjoy the stunning results. Author Rosemary McCreary has designed 40 dazzling tabletop gardens to inspire the indoor green thumb year-round — gardens that enhance the home with more drama than potted houseplants and greater durability than cut flowers.

McCreary’s innovative designs include stylish gardens under glass; floating plants whose roots, visible in clear water, are part of the allure; and miniature landscapes that grow in every type of beautiful tray, container, and basket imaginable. Among the projects are a collection of succulents springing out of a colorful gravel bed; a basket of savory Mediterranean herbs to perk up winter meals; cascading ivy, trained to frame a north-facing window; and a charming miniature tea rose in a jar.

To ensure success, each project includes step-by-step design and planting instructions, a complete checklist of required materials, ongoing care advice, and full-color photography of materials and the completed garden. Exotic orchids, soft grasses, easy-to-grow herbs, and colorful bulbs are among the dozens of popular plants McCreary encourages gardeners to work with in her designs.

For every dedicated gardener who has spent dull winter months longing for the scent of dirt, tabletop gardens are the answer. Their elegance and vitality connect the housebound grower to summer’s cycles of growth.

Bring the beauty and allure of living plants indoors with 40 miniature gardens, designed to lend warmth and interest to a variety of surfaces. Through exquisite photography, a dazzling array of creative ideas, step-by-step instructions, and all the practical advice you need, you'll discover how simple it is to enhance your home and satisify your winter gardening urges at the same time.

Tabletop Gardens shows you how to integrate a project with your decor, choose plants and flowers that will thrive indoors, work with space limitations, manipulate light, and select creative containers. You'll learn all the basics that ensure success—watering, fertilizing, pruning, repotting, and propagating.

Innovative designs include plants and styling for all tastes, from delicate gardens under glass to Zenlike stone mosaics. Exotic orchids, soft grasses, easy-to-grow herbs, and colorful bulbs are among the plants that take center stage. And adding personality to every project are the containers—from clear glass jars to indoor fountains, shallow ceramic trays to wicker and wire baskets. Vitality and elegance—yours throughout the year.

Written by seasoned garden writer McCreary and sumptuously photographed by Holt, this volume has exquisitely beautiful miniature indoor gardens, each planted in simple containers and shot in natural light. The 40 designs offer many ideas for choosing a personal style and getting started. Illustrations.

Rosemary McCreary has written a number of gardening books, including Container Gardens; Water Gardens (co-author); Houseplants; Taylor's 50 Best Trees; and Taylor's 50 Best Shrubs. She has a regular garden column, "Homegrown," in the Santa Rosa PressDemocrat, and she has taught a variety of gardening workshops and classes in the California Master Gardening program. She lives in northern California.