How would you like to have a house filled with mini tropical trees and plants? I love that idea, it offers so many benefits, from home grown produce to beautiful plants to accent your decor and freshen your air. Understanding what the book offers is not so difficult, since in large, colorful text, the cover of the book gives it’s full title: Growing Tasty Tropical Plants* (like lemons, limes, citrons, grapefruit, kumquats, sunquats, tahitian oranges, barbados … tea, black pepper, cinnamon, vanilla, and more…) *in any home, anywhere. Inside the book are dozens of exotic plants, flowers, fruits, and other delectable, beautiful and wonderfully exotic plants that normally grow in exotic climes. As it turns out, any sunny window in your home probably qualifies as an “exotic clime,” and the idea of coming home to discover the lovely aroma of some exotic tropical flowering fruit seems a little like heaven on earth.

Growing Tasty Tropical Plants includes lovely drawings of each kind of plant, along with many photos and a dynamic layout that clearly lays out pros, cons, intriguing facts, growing conditions, care and potential problems of each plant.

And that is what excited my children (and me) so much about Storey Publishing’s new book. It appears soon that our sunroom will soon be the new home of a Miracle Berry, which apparently “tricks your taste buds so that everything eaten after the berry tasts sweet, even sour lemons or limes. Be forewarned though” the book thoughtfully continues, “eating too much sour fruit, even if it tastes sweet at the time, may leave your belly feeling somewhat sour afterward.”

This kind of practical and knowledgeable advice that Laurelynn and Byron Martin offer really distinguishes the book throughout each entry, and in the books uniquely helpful plant care guide. The book includes chapters on “Enjoying an Indoor Edible Oasis,” “Citrus Fruits,” “The Rest of the Tropical Fruit Basket,” “Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate,” and “Sugar and Spices,” along with a helpful glossary for us not-green-thumbs-types.

If you’ve ever thought that it would be wonderful to be able to pick fresh lemons, or limes, or tangerines, or avocados — or find the idea of having your own tea, or guavas, or truly exotic plants like “peanut butter fruit” seems fun to you — then Growing Tasty Tropical Plants is a book your entire family will truly enjoy.