Synopses & Reviews
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.
McCrearys 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 summers cycles of growth.
Review
"This goes far beyond conventional...displays of indoor plants...inspiration fills the pages of
Tabletop Gardens."
—HortIdeas Sandy Dunham - Seattle Times
Review
"Vases, cake plates, buckets and colanders are all put to imaginative use for displaying a little bit of Eden."
—Seattle Post-Intelligencer HortIdeas
Review
“If you’re looking to move beyond pothos vines, give these pages a turn.”—Randy Miranda, Minneapolis Star-Tribune Randy Miranda
Review
"Most garden books are pretty, but something about McCreary’s is truly inspiring."— Sandy Dunham, The Seattle Times, Sept. 23, 2006 Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Synopsis
TABLETOP GARDENS is a uniquely imaginative approach to gardening. Written by seasoned garden writer Rosemary McCreary and sumptuously photographed by William Holt, TABLETOP GARDENS stands apart - with exquisitely beautiful photographs of 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 - plants under glass, in bowls and trays, and even in water environments. Earthy, rich-green mosses in a glass globe. A burst of forced bulbs for spring. The textured foliage of a fern garden in an antique glass case. A living sculpture of twisted stems. A garden mosaic of creeping mint. It's the pleasure of creating a small Eden and enjoying it no matter what the season - in a cozy corner of a room, or on a windowsill splashed with sunlight. Each project includes complete advice on the materials needed and step-by-step information on how to create the garden. Along with providing design advice, TABLETOP GARDENS gives information on the culture and maintenance of each garden, how to place it where it will prosper, and how to keep it thriving. Popular, easy-to-grow herbs, grasses, bulbs, water plants, vines, and miniature trees are naturals for tabletop gardening. Color photographs show projects in a variety of room settings, with ideas for suitable containers and advice on how to group and style plants for the best effect.
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
William Holt has been a professional photographer for the past 12 years, based in both New York and San Francisco. He specializes in lifestyle, gardening, and travel topics and is particularly interested in exploring qualities of natural light in his photography. His work has appeared in magazines and books, including Flea Market Decorating. He lives in Seattle, Washington. Sarah Dawson is a freelance floral designer and stylist. Since receiving a degree in horticultural and floral design at City College of San Francisco, she has created floral arrangements for events, residences, and commercial accounts for the past 12 years. She also styles flower photography for catalogs, websites, advertisements, and books. She lives in Seattle, Washington.Rosemary McCreary lives north of San Francisco, where she tries to limit her ever-expanding garden to two acres. She shares her knowledge of botany and horticulture by volunteer teaching throughout northern California and in her weekly garden column in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.