This is the time of year when the coldest days of winter are offset by thoughts of spring. Inevitably, these turn to the garden. Planning is key, inspiration welcomed. Both can be found in the following books focusing on planting, arranging, displaying, and preserving flowers.
Make a fresh start with Life in the Studio: Inspiration and Lessons on Creativity (Artisan Press, 255 pages, $35.00) by Frances Palmer. A celebrated potter profiled in Jennifer Jewell's The Earth in her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants (Timber Press, 324 pages, $35.00), Palmer's artistry is expressed in multiple mediums, including gardening, photography, cooking, and beekeeping. While much of the book focuses on the process of working with clay, Palmer is a gifted gardener who realized early on that the way to give a sense of scale to her work was to place flowers in her vases. For documentation, she studied photography resulting in carefully composed images that capture the essence of her work.
As an artist, Palmer is a generous guide. While she gardens for herself with a particular passion for dahlias, she shares planting advice, recipes, tips on flower arranging, and photographic principles. Finding inspiration everywhere, Palmer believes that the goal is not perfection but instead an in-depth understanding of the creative process. She embraces the journey which she shares with remarkable generosity and candor. A perpetual student, Palmer's craft continues to evolve through discipline, perseverance, and daily practices that nurture her creative life
In Bloom: Growing, Harvesting, and Arranging Homegrown Flowers All Year Round (Companion House Books, 272 pages, $26.99) by Clare Nolan is a comprehensive guide through each step of creating a home garden focused on growing cut flowers. A stylist, editor and art director, Nolan's intent is to provide a guide to planning, planting, and utilizing plants that is beautiful yet practical, realistic and as close to the reader's experience as possible. Devoid of the glossy and stylized images produced by the usual teams of professionals involved in photographic shoots, In Bloom is designed to be accessible rather than precious. This is a book to be used and perhaps get a bit worn in the process.
The usual topics are covered, from choosing what you want to plant to how to get the job done. A section on planting ideas includes seasonal planting plans, an "ingredients calendarā and tips on when and how to plant. Sections on bulbs, annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, berries, hips, and edible fruits are included with individual plant profiles featured. With a focus on flower arranging, a section is devoted to foliage and fillers, the backbone to your arrangements, as well as practical tips for creating arrangements that are quick and easy.
In contrast, Flower Color Theory (Phaidon Press, 482 pages, $35.00) by Darroch and Michael Putnam, founders of the New York floristry studio, Putnam & Putnam, provides a formal approach to creating imaginative and beautiful floral arrangements, using 175 examples as a guide. Each arrangement is captioned to identify the primary color scheme, prominent colors, and the key elements that compose them such as flowers, foliage, or fruit. These are helpfully labeled with common names.
A section on color theory basics provides in-depth information on color schemes and terminology while a glossary and listing of flower categories is followed by useful tips for floral arranging. Vessel recommendations, suggested color palettes and information about the relationship between color and emotion are included. Detachable color swatches correlate to the arrangements in the book and are meant to be used by the reader on visits to their local flower market (not that you would want to detach them). The authors believe that flowers are the medium and color the message. In this beautifully photographed book, which is designed to appeal to "professional florists, event planners, artists, designers and any other enthusiast with passion for flowers, color and lush design," the power of color is a message unto itself.
You've planned, planted, picked, and created striking arrangements. But what about the future? Do you imagine creating a permanent collection of your efforts? In Herbarium: The Quest to Preserve & Classify the World's Plants (Timber Press, 279 pages, $40.00), Barbara M. Thiers, director of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium at the New York Botanical Garden, recounts the history of the preservation and documentation of the world's plants and fungi through the evolution of herbaria, collections of plant specimens preserved for scientific study.
With origins dating to the Italian Renaissance, the earliest herbaria were used as teaching tools in the off-season when access to living plant material was unavailable. Predating print, herbaria were used to develop plant study curriculums and were quickly followed by the first botanic gardens. During the age of exploration and discovery, plant collecting became an important discipline that continues today, when approximately 3,300 herbaria in 178 countries hold approximately 390 million specimens. With technological advances allowing for study both at the molecular and global scale, these specimens assist in solving some of the most pressing problems we face today, while serving their original functions to document, characterize, and identify the world's plants and fungi.
But back to your garden. There is a rich history of personal herbaria, notably that of poet Emily Dickinson, as chronicled in Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Iconic Poet (Timber Press, 267 pages, $24.95) by Marta McDowell. Sixty-six pages in length, Dickinson's collection contains more than four hundred plants pressed and dried between sheets of paper in large books. A visual plant list of flowers she grew and collected on wildflower expeditions. Dickinsonās herbarium, like that of Henry David Thoreau which is housed at the Harvard University Herbaria and Libraries, combines the poetic with the practical. Elements you, too, can employ in your gardening life.
Patrice Todisco writes about parks and gardens at the award-winning blog, Landscape Notes.
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