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GROWING JOY: The Plant Lover’s Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants)
by Maria Failla; Illustrations: Samantha Leung

GROWING JOY: The Plant Lover’s Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla; Illustrations: Samantha Leung

Discover the power of plants to help you disconnect from the stress and anxiety of modern life and grow more joy in your world. Filled with practices to help plant lovers step away from their screens and cultivate delight and peace of mind with plants, Growing Joy is your guide to transforming plant care into self-care.

In easy to read, light-hearted chapters, author Maria Failla, host of the beloved podcast Bloom and Grow Radio, explores the science behind our love of plants and shares how that humble aloe plant on your windowsill can unlock a world of wellness and delight. With ideas and tips both big and small—from simply making a habit of looking at a plant before looking at a screen in the morning to creating a plant-infused restorative retreat in your home—Growing Joy will help you create a meaningful wellness practice rooted in nature and connection. And of course, there’s some plant care tips in there too to make sure both you and your green friends thrive!

Whether you’re a plant parent pro or the anxious owner of a single, not-dead-yet succulent, Growing Joy will help you reconnect with yourself, bring more smiles to your face and peace in your heart, and inspire a lifelong relationship with plants that will keep you blooming and growing.

Plants and modern plant care have exploded in the book market, but this book takes a unique angle by blending this modern plant trend with self-care and wellness. The book is filled with approachable, actionable practices to help readers take their love plants from a fun hobby to a powerful wellness practice. It also includes a brief primer on plant care for readers who fear they are incurable plant-killers.

And the book has a terrific package. There will be 13 illustrations through the book, done by Samantha Leung a botanical artist behind HEMLEVA, which give the book a beautiful, modern feel. (The rights for these illustrations are cleared for use by foreign publishers, and I have attached a few samples here.) The book will have a two-color interior and a paper over board cover.

The author is the host of the successful plant podcast Bloom and Grow where she speaks to a devoted following of plant lovers across the country and internationally. Maria has been featured in The Washington Post, Refinery 29, TimeOut and more.

GROWING JOY will be published by St. Martin’s Essentials in June 2022.