The very talented Emma Sibley, founder of London Terrariums has written her latest book in the ‘little book’ series, and this one is all about growing big plants in your homes.
It’s definitely one we will turn to time and time again as we seek out plants for our homes and how best to care for them. It is packed with practical tips and inspiration. There are even a few familiar Green Rooms Market faces in there with tales of their oversized plants, illustrated beautifully by one of our favourite botanical artists, Rachel Hillis.
Little Book, Big Plants by Emma Sibley
We asked Emma a few questions about writing her latest book…
We love the way the book both inspires and informs. What was your inspiration for writing this book?
There was always going to be a series of these books and there are so many amazing books about the care for houseplants and propagating but nothing really that I had seen on dealing with plants in your home if a) they start getting a bit too big for your space or you were b) having trouble getting them to grow big. So we took a selection of the most popular houseplants and the focus was on explaining how to get a small plant that you may buy in a supermarket or garden centre to resemble the large beauties you may see on Pinterest or Instagram.
This is the third book of the series (huge congratulations) what is your favourite part about the writing process?
Because my day to day job is so hands on, making terrariums, tidying the studio I always actually really enjoy sitting down and focussing on something writing based. My favourite part I think is selecting the plants for the books (hardest parts sourcing all the lovely ones to photograph!) there were some plants that we wanted to include in the book but the samples of plants we were able to find just weren’t right for the shoot so we had to scrap those ones.
You are surrounded by plants in your working life, is there a specific plant or person that kickstarted your love of plants?
All three of these books with Quadrille are dedicated to my Grandparents Ben and Ethel, they were the people to start my love of gardening. I used to play for hours in their garden with an old seed tray making miniature gardens out of acorns, leaves and bits you could forage around for. I even have memories of visiting my Great-Grandfather’s garden when I was small which was full of veg growing - he would give us runner beans every year from his garden well into his nineties. It wasn’t until I stared making terrariums that I realised this love of gardening had always been with me, it just took a while to reappear.
Do you have a favourite snippet of the book you would like to share?
I have so many favourite bits of this book, but for me it’s the stories from all the pals we have included, Jemma’s Pilea, Joe’s String of Hearts and Jess’s Euphorbia to name a few, and the illustrations by Rachel Hillis are amazing.
You can purchase Emma’s ‘Little Book, Big Plants’ here
Inside pages: Little Book, Big Plants
Inside pages: Little Book, Big Plants
The other books in the series are ‘The Little Book of Cacti and other Succulents’ and ‘The Little Book of Houseplants and other Greenery’, both available here.