Plantopedia
The Definitive Guide to House Plants
Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan · Smith Street Books, 2020
The heavyweight directory, and the only book on this shelf with a toxicity line on every single profile.
What's actually in it
- An opening section on the core principles — light, water and soil, plus humidity and feeding — built on the idea of mimicking each plant's natural habitat.
- Part 1: Foliage plants — grouped by family: aroids and climbers (Monstera, Philodendron, Epipremnum), high-humidity plants (Calathea/Goeppertia), tough plants (Ficus, Dracaena), ferns.
- Part 2: Cacti and succulents, including trailing types.
- Every profile is a double-page spread with a standardised sidebar: care level, light, water, soil, humidity, propagation, growth habit, position, common and botanical names, and toxicity status.
- A rare-plants strand, a glossary, a visual index organised by care level (novice / green thumb / expert), and separate botanical and common-name indexes.
What it actually says
Specifics from inside the book — so you can judge whether it's telling you anything you don't already know.
- A specific, repeated watering threshold rather than a schedule: let the top 5cm of compost dry out before watering again — applied by name to monstera, Philodendron bipennifolium and others.
- A fixed feeding formula: liquid fertiliser at half strength — monthly for caladium, fortnightly through spring and summer for Goeppertia.
- Honest size expectations, which is rarer than it should be. Alocasia 'Black Velvet' can reach 60cm in perfect conditions, the book says, but will more likely stay a squat 20cm indoors.
- Every profile carries a toxicity line — rubber plant toxic, sap irritant on contact; Philodendron bipennifolium toxic, keep away from pets and small children; peperomia, maidenhair fern and Goeppertia marked pet friendly. This is the single biggest point of difference from every other house plant book on this shelf.
- One claim we would not repeat. The book credits snake plant with a NASA-recognised ability to strip household toxins. That study was done in sealed chambers and does not scale to a real room at household plant densities. Take the care advice; leave that bit.
Buy it if
You've got past the first few plants and want a proper reference you'll keep for years.
Don't buy it if
Anyone who wants to carry it around. It weighs about 1.8kg — a shelf reference, not a book you use at the plant.
Where it falls short
The Australian framing is the real issue: seasonality and watering advice needs translating for a British home. The toxicity labels, while better than anything else here, are a three-tier badge with no detail on which part of the plant, by what route, or how serious — useful as a cross-check, not as a safety authority. Sources also disagree on whether it's 400 or 416 pages, and on whether there are 130 or 150 profiles.
Who wrote it
Camilleri and Kaplan run Leaf Supply, a Sydney online plant retailer they founded in 2018. Camilleri is the art director, trained in interior architecture and graphic design; Kaplan studied communications plus horticulture and landscape design. Neither is a trained botanist or a professional grower, and it shows in the book's strengths — it is beautifully organised — as much as its limits. Two caveats that matter here more than usual: Sydney sits at about 34°S, with higher winter light and no real dormancy trigger, so the feeding and watering intervals are calibrated to conditions no British reader has. And Leaf Supply sells plants.
Where it was written
Sydney, ~34°S. Far higher year-round indoor light, no British central-heating season, reversed seasons and much higher ambient humidity. Do not lift its watering frequencies or seasonal advice directly — reframe them for a UK winter.
The facts
- AuthorLauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan
- PublisherSmith Street Books
- Published2020
- FormatHardback, 416 pages
- ISBN-13
9781925811773 - LevelBeginner to advanced
Checked against publisher listings, UK retailers and library records in August 2026. If any of this is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.
Where to get it
Buying secondhand? Match the ISBN above — several books on this shelf have editions that look identical but aren't.