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How to Grow Fresh Air: 50 House Plants that Purify Your Home or Officex$10.15
 (38 reviews)
Best Price: $18.00 $10.15
Plants are the lungs of the earth. This revolutionary guide, based on 25 years of research by NASA, shows how common houseplants can combat sick building syndrome and cleanse the home or office of common pollutants. Color photos & llustrations. Online promo.
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Customer Reviews
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Beautifully designed and very informative.
By A37FQL3TLE9TKT on 2002-03-04
The book is laid out beautifully. The 50 plants are listed by rank based on removal of chemical vapors, ease of maintenance, resistance to insect infestation, and transpiration rate. Each plant gets a two-page spread; one page discusses the plant's ideal environment, sunlight conditions, care, and general information about the plant along with a full photo of it. The next page has a zoomed-in full-page photo of the leaves and/or flowers so the reader gets a feel for what the plant looks like and how it will fit with their decor.The book begins by discussing the research about the air purification qualities of houseplants. The initial chapters explain how air contaminates enter our homes, the adverse effects these toxins have on humans, and how plants remove the contaminates from the air. I was surprised to learn that common household items such as blankets, toys, gas stoves, computers, and carpets can lead to allergies, asthma, even cancer, and that they might contribute to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Once I read how certain plants can remove these dangerous microbes from the air, my husband and I immediately discussed adding these plants to our home. The author explains in great detail how to care for the plants, which I found very helpful as a novice indoor gardener. The author also details the specific toxins that different plants remove, and indicates whether the plants transpire at night (which is good for a bedroom) or during the day.
A lovely book with a unique view.
By A26NKV1D8T3IH0 on 2001-01-27
This is a beautifully put-together book focusing on a unique aspect of plant ownership. Entries include both a full-on picture of a healthy, attractively potted specimen, plus a close-up detail of leaves &/or flowers. Descriptions of plant care are concise, well organized and accompanied by a more generalized description of the plant and particulars. Each plant is rated on four characteristics (removal of chemical vapors, ease of growth & maintenance, resistance to insect infestation, & transpiration rate), using an easy to read bar chart which appears on the same page as the description & picture.This book is an excellent addition to an avid collector's plant library, both for its curiosity value & beautiful coverage of basic houseplants, and doubtless of interest to people concerned about air quality as well. It also provides enough basic information on each plant to be a useful reference for beginning enthusiast, but I would qualify that by saying that newbies will probably want a more broadly based work as their first home reference guide. For people looking for gift books, the pictures & layout are lovely.
A Wonderful Resource for Everyone!
By on 1999-08-25
We all live in houses/apts (at least most of us do!) & thus are all exposed to indoor pollutants. This book starts out w/ an overview of what NASA has found out about indoor air pollution & how to combat it... with plants. Plants not only beautify the home, & bring the outdoors in, but they can also provide a big plus to our health. My husband & I got some new windows installed last fall & have done some painting in a couple of the downstairs room. I have kept peace lilies in the kitchen ever since, as well as a spider plant and have had a rubber plant in the living room. All of which are good at absorbing toxins from the air & are good in low light (which is what we have in those rooms). In addition to being informative, this book has beautiful photos of all the plants & is very attractive. Makes great housewarming gift!
A beautiful book!
By A2BRT5ENE7CF5S on 2003-10-26
This book not only gives concise, quantitative data about which substances each plants removes from the air, but combines this data with other factors like ease of care and pest resistance to give one overall ranking to each plant. The introduction is fascinating, especially the part about his eco-house which uses plants to clean his water waste as well as the air. However, what I like best about the book is the gorgeous pictures. I have never seen a plant book with such large, glossy pictures of such perfect plants matched with the ideal pot. It's beautiful!
Clearly written jargon-free guide to growing helpful plants
By on 2003-10-03
I found this book well-written and easy to use. It helped me select the right plants and learn how to grow them. I currently have about 25 plants, and they are all low maintenance and problem-free. My indoor air quality has improved, and my house looks great with so many green plants of all shapes and sizes. This book is great!!!!
- . . . exactly what I wanted! . .
By A183SWQ9KYG84F on 2001-07-18
I have been looking for information on purifying plants for a while now. Through Amazon, I discovered this book and have added it to my library. As a country girl, living in a 30-yr. old apartment in an industrial city has caused my asthmatic/allergy-prone lungs to struggle a little. This book spells out the sources of dangerous chemical vapors, and specifies plants and plant species which not only reduce these toxins, but beautify your home. My apartment is small, so this book helped me tremendously in choosing plants that are purifying & humidifying, while advising me on ease-of-care and pest control. Strongly recommended for those with environmental concerns. Few Houseplant books refer to this element of indoor gardening.
- An amazing book; a must for asthma sufferers
By A1AHIPOYLKNHK5 on 2001-01-05
Superb easy to read book with lots of colorful photos. Written by a highly respected scientist who was in charge of keeping the air clean in space capsules for NASA until his retirement. Dr. Wolverton also is founder of Houseplants for clean air society. He explains in easy to read fashion the dangerous air polutants in your house: where they come from, and best yet, how to get rid of them. His many years research into the subject give the reader this easy to understand handbook on making the air in your house healthy. I, of course, have benefitted from the book; but so have many of my patients. Those benefitting the most are asthma patients and patients with chronic sinus problems. What a wonderful book!
- A must read for people with allergies
By A3VL8F40MAV8JK on 2003-08-08
I have been evaluated by a specialist in environmental issues.
He suggested that I buy a few houseplants and even gave me a list. However, as a person with absolutely NO indoor plants before this, I needed more info. This book is absolutely the one I needed. It gives more than enough data about taking care of wonderful houseplants - complete with pictures. I highly
suggest this book for anyone, especially those with environmental problems. BUY!!!
- Excellent, Simple - Easy Reading !
By on 1998-10-28
What a great book. The author writes with a style that is easy to read and easy to understand. It's hard to imagine the results he reports originated with space based research. I'm in the interior plantscape business, and this is a must have for all of my employees.
- A really great book.
By A3TLY2LWGRULDQ on 2007-06-17
The photos are simple, beautiful, and informative. The information for each plant is really helpful, and it's nice to have a chart of which toxins come from which sources. I really enjoyed seeing the different plants and picking a good one for our house (although it was hard for me to track one down and I actually ended up buying seeds for it--I hope they'll grow!). The book is organized pretty intuitively, although navigation might take a little longer if you want to find a particular plant (since they're in order of overall rating rather than alphabetical order, you'd have to either use the index or flip for a while).
The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is that I would make an addition to each individual page with a plant on it: I'd list information about whether the plant is poisonous to humans and their pets. For people who have young children, cats, dogs, and/or other animals in the house (or the clinic, or wherever the plants will be placed), this is an important consideration.
- A Wonderful addition to my houseplant library!
By A23U17GE7RM2RE on 2005-12-10
I LOVE my garden. During the cold winter months when the ground is frozen, I resort to my indoor garden - my houseplants! I initially got this book from the local library. Since then, I've checked it out three times. (I finally had to buy it) The pictures are beautiful - the advice priceless. For those who really try to make their home toxin-free, this book is for you. Or perhaps you just love houseplants and want to learn a bit more about why they're so good for our indoor environments? Either way, buy this book!
I was delighted to see that many of my houseplants were featured in this book, and I've since bought a few more to add to my jungle. Fresh air is easy to "grow!" Try it, you'll breathe a bit easier.
- Wonderful, simplistic lay-out!
By A17XA5AW1WNLYO on 2003-05-26
B.C. Wolverton presents a wonderful lay-out even for all of the non-scientists out there to comprehend. Wolverton provides clarity with his houseplants test results and wonderful color photographs for ease of plant identification. I highly recommend this book to anyone that uses commercial paint in their home, has carpeting, uses paper napkins/towels, has particleboard cabinets. etc. This book is a MUST HAVE for anyone with a family with young children.
- Great book
By A16H21IMBNBL3V on 2006-02-27
This book is everything I expected... great pictures, plants for all conditions, and everything you need to know about keeping the plant in your house. It even touches on using hydro-culture to grow the plants which I'm trying out.
- Great Book--benefits of science
By A288ZT2GGNWM42 on 2006-08-23
This is a wonderful and charming book. The information about plants rated for travel to Mars AND for making our homes better places to live is the best and most usable I've seen. The ratings are very helpful and I find very believable given the research behind them. I am looking for the plants--some are available widely, others will take more hunting, but I've already acquired plants I would not have known to choose before this book. Don't miss this very practical guide to improving your indoor environment.
- No home should be without one!
By A1I3K6NPN7PIJQ on 2006-03-03
I love this little book! In fact, I've purchased a half-dozen copies for friends and relatives. Our small 1300 square-foot home is now populated with the perfect plant(s) for each room in the house. As a result of "How to Grow Fresh Air" I feel like each plant has a personality. And I treat them like members of the family. Great stuff. Get one!
- A breath of fresh air!
By A3A3P0WY6PFXZM on 2007-02-08
I love this book! My chiropractor recently opened a new office, with newly installed commercial grade carpet. It is next to impossible to find this grade of carpet without formaldehyde. I have serious allergies and remembered a friend of mine showing me this great book that details how to compensate for toxins in the air --- I bought TWO copies--one for each of us! His office is beautiful, with lots of the RIGHT plants to offset the formaldehyde in the carpet! We are ALL breathing easier and refer to the book regularly!
- Very Helpful.....
By A2FC58I5CEVXRL on 2007-06-09
I gave this book 5 stars because of the plant info....very precise about the benifits of the 50 top plants, helps you to narrow the field quite a bit. The basic text of the book is a too drawn out and boring for me....you read through a bit of yawn and then come upon a nugget of (in my opinion!) quality info....so you deal with the yawn parts so as not to miss anything! Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone with respiratory problems. I 'planted' my home, especially the family room and bedroom, and can say that I have seen dramatic improvement in my breathing (I have asthma). Hope it works as well for you!
- Fresh Air
By A2KPCB36QY5NEX on 2005-07-28
This was a good book. I'm trying some of the plants in my house and the air seems fresher.
- An Essential Reference Book
By ALUJ15UFI1422 on 2007-03-19
I used this invaluable book as a resource and reference in my book, Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify & Energize Your Life, Your Home & Your Planet because it proves that plants remove toxic chemicals in the home.
Bill Wolverton, Ph.D., of Wolverton Environmental Services in Mississippi, spent the past twenty-five years researching the healthful benefits of plants. He names fifty best houseplants to clean up your environment. They are listed in descending order, with the overall rating based on the plants ability to remove chemical vapors, ease of cultivation, susceptibility to insect infestation and transpiration rate. Dr. Wolverton provides details, advice and growing tips on all fifty plants.
Each of the fifty plants is shown in full color with an additional closeup photograph of each plant.
author of the award winning book,Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet
- More Questions than Answers
By A26F5B12T242LL on 2008-07-21
"How to Grow Fresh Air" is the best book I've found on the topic of using plants to improve air quality. It has easy-to-use recommendations, rating plants' ability to improve air quality and listing information that will help the reader decide if they can keep this plant alive.
There are a few problems. First, the book does not describe the 50 best plants -- it describes the only 50 plants tested. Second, this book doesn't indicate how many plants should be put in a room. An internet search of unknown accuracy indicated 1 to 3 plants (size medium to large) for 100 square feet of floor space (attributed to the author). Third, the book doesn't tell you about any patterns the authors observed in their research: does plant size matter? Leaf size? By how much? Growth rate? If there were a simple pattern (like large fast-growing plants are best; or that air-cleaning appears to be a characteristic of certain plant species), then this would be very good to know. Forth, the research is at least 12 years old, and there doesn't appear to be any new research on this subject. Fifth, I found two conflicting tables in the technical section. This doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the book's technical accuracy -- like Al Gore's "time goes backwards" Global Warming chart. The whole thing reads like an exploratory research project that wasn't funded further -- but should have been.
With that said, this book has useful advice, and seems to be worth the purchase price. I'm going to give buy a few of the highest rated plants for my office, and see if their gas-elimination properties (combined with my air filter) yields improved air quality.
- Well designed, informative, useful book
By A2OQA0CL16R2YD on 2007-03-12
I was extremely pleased with this book. It is well designed and provides a lot of useful information which is easy to find/use. I recommend this book to everyone!
- A Wonderful Resource for Everyone!
By on 1999-08-25
We all live in houses/apts (at least most of us do!) & thus are all exposed to indoor pollutants. This book starts out w/ an overview of what NASA has found out about indoor air pollution & how to combat it... with plants. Plants not only beautify the home, & bring the outdoors in, but they can also provide a big plus to our health. My husband & I got some new windows installed last fall & have done some painting in a couple of the downstairs room. I have kept peace lilies in the kitchen ever since, as well as a spider plant and have had a rubber plant in the living room. All of which are good at absorbing toxins from the air & are good in low light (which is what we have in those rooms). In addition to being informative, this book has beautiful photos of all the plants & is very attractive. Makes great housewarming gift!
- informative
By A1RT9ZSY96A4SU on 2007-05-12
Very informative on plant that clean the air in your house including their care.
- Fabulous
By A3M2VGWFJGRUOH on 2008-04-27
Not many products both clean the air and are beautiful. How to Grow Fresh Air explains how houseplants do just that. Beautiful book, well written with plenty of information, this book is wonderful.
- Gets the job done.
By A1NFCHJ8ZR4362 on 2008-02-15
When I first read the book I kept wanting more. More plants, more info on each plant - then I had to remind myself the title and objective of the book was to highlight 50 plants and it only has 144 pages. Well worth $12.24.
The pictures are amazing and the information on each plants needs such as water, light, and feeding allowed me to choose which would be suitable for my home.
- Growing Fresh Air
By A2S3ZK7QO9U4T8 on 2007-06-15
Great information in an easy to understand format. Readers learn what plants are best for home or office to remove toxins and provide clean and healthy air. Everyone wants to borrow it!
- Why buy an airpurifier when you can buy plants!
By AUXXVPVO3F4R9 on 2007-07-03
Research based information about the value of plants in our homes. Certain plants absorb toxic gases from our carpets, furniture, and other items that can make the air in our homes as bad or worse than outdoors.
- I'm growing fresh air!
By A27OF5EWWQTWIS on 2007-07-11
Love this book. Exactly what I needed to help me decide which houseplants to buy. This book has plants for different temps, situations, needs, etc. I'm buying a copy for several of my family members. Beautiful on the coffee table too!
- Wealth of information on houseplants
By A2P0O1OR2KE461 on 2007-11-18
Very clear and concise book that is also interesting to read and nice close-up pictures so you know you are buying the right plant. If you are concerned about your indoor environ and want cleaner air in your home, this should be your bible for choosing your indoor plants. With our dry Arizona indoor air, it's nice to know which plants transpire the most so we don't always have to run our humidifiers.
- Clever Idea
By A3U7KBR05IFHC8 on 2008-04-25
This is a clever book. It is well thought out. It has clear explanations of the plants chosen and where and how they can be grown indoors. I like the variety. Fifty plants is not an overly cumbersome number so it is a manageable read. If someone has allergies some of these plants or their fragrance may be problematic. Matt Cohen MD
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