Plantfulness

Plants Matter explores how plants and people live together. This is not only a book about the importance of plants and how people use them, but it argues also that knowing the world is achieved-with plants. In addition to populating the landscape, plants alter human physiology in multiple material ways, through gatherings or through sensorial conversations using the chemistry of taste, perfume, colour, sound and textures. The chapters gathered in this volume offer a range of interdisciplinary perspectives that use ethnographic and ethnobotanical information to explore how the behaviours and capacities of certain plants around the world have enticed, excited and even seduced people to pay attention.

Discover the joys and health-giving benefits of nurturing a garden We have long been aware of the positive effects of spending time in nature and how it can be a powerful antidote to the stresses of modern life. Science now tells us that cultivating a green space of our own can be restorative and even transformative for our physical and mental well-being, with a proven ability to reduce depression and anxiety, boost our happiness levels and provide a feeling of balance and calm. Gardening for Mind, Body and Soul will help you: Explore which plants release scents to help uplift and soothe. Discover the ways gardening can boost physical and mental well-being, and promote feelings of balance and calm. Learn about birdsong and how it can boost happiness and creativity. Experience the wonders of growing plants from seeds, and how it teaches us to slow down and appreciate the simple things.

We all know that ice bears and penguins never meet (except in zoos), but what else do you know about the Arctic and the Antarctic (or polar) regions? Did you know that Antarctica is not just the coldest, but also the driest continent on Earth? Have you ever wondered how a polar bear stays warm in the Arctic? Sitting on the most extreme North and South Poles are two of our planet's most mysterious regions, but what similarities and differences do they share? Polar tales the incredible geography of both regions, how polar bears and penguins survive, and introduces the explorers who dared to travel into these unknown spots on Earth in the past. We go under their oceans and discuss the effects of climate change.

Nineteenth-century English nature was a place of experimentation, exoticism, and transgression, as site and emblem of the global exchanges of the British Empire. Popular attitudes toward the transplantation of exotic species—botanical and human—to Victorian greenhouses and cities found anxious expression in a number of fanciful genre texts, including mysteries, science fiction, and horror stories. Situated in a mid-Victorian moment of frenetic plant collecting from the far reaches of the British empire, Novel Cultivations recognizes plants as vital and sentient subjects that serve—often more so than people—as actors and narrative engines in the nineteenth-century novel. Conceptions of native and natural were decoupled by the revelation that nature was globally sourced, a disruption displayed in the plots of gardens as in those of novels. Elizabeth Chang examines here the agency asserted by plants with shrewd readings of a range of fictional works, from monstrous rhododendrons in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca and Mexican prickly pears in Olive Schreiner’s Story of an African Farm, to Algernon Blackwood’s hair-raising "The Man Whom the Trees Loved" and other obscure ecogothic tales. This provocative contribution to ecocriticism shows plants as buttonholes between fiction and reality, registering changes of form and content in both realms.

This copiously illustrated volume is the first systematic general work to do justice to the fruits of recent scholarship in the history of natural history. Public interest in this lively field has been stimulated by environmental concerns and through links with the histories of art, collecting and gardening. The centrality of the development of natural history for other branches of history - medical, colonial, gender, economic, ecological - is increasingly recognized. Twenty-four specially commissioned essays cover the period from the sixteenth century, when the first institutions of natural history were created, to its late nineteenth-century transformation by practitioners of the new biological sciences. An introduction discusses novel approaches that have made this a major focus for research in cultural history. The essays, which include suggestions for further reading, offer a coherent and accessible overview of a fascinating subject. An epilogue highlights the relevance of this wide-ranging survey for current debates on museum practice, the display of ecological diversity and concerns about the environment.

You had one job: watering your new plant. But it's been a week and it's already dying. Fear not! This helpful guide is here to show you how to rescue your plants. Follow the survival tips outlined in this book and you'll be on your way to having your home brimming with green life. It's absolutely possible not to assassinate your houseplant - all you need is this book! From identifying exactly what's in the pot to helping it flourish and grow, this is your guide to creating an oasis of happy, flourishing houseplants. With over 50 different types of popular houseplants, this book summarizes what type of care your plants do (or don't) need. Find out which types of plants will thrive in your living space. You'll also discover how to keep a cactus alive, where to hang air plants, and how to repot succulents. Understand how much light, water, heat, and humidity your plant needs. Whatever your horticulture woes, this book will explain and fix it. Yellowed leaves, drooping leaves, and dried leaves - learn to spot the danger signs and how to take the proper action to rescue your sick plant. Packed with helpful tips, pictures, and information panels, How Not to Kill Your Houseplant will equip you with the skills necessary to raise a healthy plant. Give Your Plants a Chance! If you're horticulturally challenged and can't keep a house plant alive to save your life, then this book is for you! This practical guide to raising indoor plants equips you with the know-how you need to care for your plants. Inside the pages of this comprehensive gardening book from, you'll discover: - Tips on watering and feeding plants. - Advice on how to choose the perfect house plants for your unique space and needs. - Helpful survival tips and simple ways not to kill your plants. - Everything you need to know about lighting for house plants, from natural to artificial lighting sources. - Learn to spot the danger signs in unhealthy indoor plants and the effective techniques on how to rescue them.