cover image FT-MR.Mthr Erth's Hsepl

FT-MR.Mthr Erth's Hsepl

Joel Rapp. Ballantine Books, $8.95 (182pp) ISBN 978-0-449-90355-1

This book features some good advice and bad jokes--just what you'd expect from a gardening expert who calls himself ``Mr. Mother Earth'' (after his first plant store). Rapp, author of five previous cooking and gardening titles, promises to explain how to raise ``exotic'' house plants, selected for ``the vitality, color, and beauty they can bring into an apartment or house.'' He offers brief profiles of more than 100 plants, with breezy introductory comments, succinct care requirements and black-and-white illustrations. Many of the plants are indeed exotic, and require ample attention (daily misting, frequent feeding, etc.). But others are rather ordinary, like the corn plant, a resident of virtually every mall and hotel lobby. Also, some may wonder about Rapp's taste when he trumpets the pedestrian coleus as an example of ``sheer spectacular colorful beauty'' and question his expertise when he confides, ``I've had absolutely no luck with the Boston Fern. But follow my care instructions and you will.'' (Mar.)