Living with Air Plants: A Beginner’s Guide to Growing and Displaying Tillandsia

Kashima, a botanist, and Matsuda, a garden writer, offer a helpful guide to ornamental air plants—species capable of drawing most of the nutrients they require from the air—that’s so beautifully photographed it’s nearly guaranteed to turn casual page-turners into rabid fanciers of the family Tillandsia. Especially appealing are the reference and source guides in the last of the book’s three sections, which picture 118 air plants—notably including the rare T. “Peru Inca Gold,” the aptly named T. ionantha “Fat Boy,” and the fine-leaved T. andreana. As the authors explain, Tillandsia come big or small, tiny or trailing, wispy or abundant, with only silver or green leaves. Most of all, they are easy to care for: just a spritz of water (absorbed through the leaves), ventilation (no closed terraria, please), and a splash of sunlight filtered through an obstruction like lace curtains (don’t burn those leaves). After laying out the characteristics and charm of air plants, Kashima and Matsuda delve into rooting, flowering, and displaying, explaining how to use air plants on a tablescape, as a welcome bouquet at the door, wired to a limb, or flying on a mobile. Tillandsia beginners and experts alike will be encouraged and delighted. (Mar.)