Taking over the reins of running this very successful weekly event from Georgie Newbery (@theflowerfarmer on Twitter) was a daunting task but my co-host, Sara Willman (@myflowerpatch) and I found that when we asked the question ‘what flowery/floristry books would you recommend?’ we were inundated with replies, so many that to our delight we found #britishflowers trending! There are clearly many lovely books on all things floral out there – and now we’ve captured a list of the best of the best – just in time for making seasonal wishlists!
In the order that I noted them down, here are the books that were mentioned:
Arjen Huess: The Cut Flower Grower’s Handbook
Sarah Raven x 4: The Cutting Garden, The Bold & Brilliant Garden, Wildflowers, Grow Your Own Cut Flowers
Dr D G Hessayon x 2: The Flower Expert, The Bedside Book of the Garden
Christopher Lloyd: Garden Flowers from Seed
Lynn Byczynski: The Flower Farmer
Rosemary Verey: The Flower Arranger’s Garden
DK Prinzing x :Slow Gardening, The 50-mile Bouquet
Paula Pryke x 2: Flowers Everyday, Table Flowers
@wellywoman: The Cut Flower Patch (pre order)
Sybil Emberton: Shrub Gardening for Flower Arrangement
Alan Peck: Buying and Running a Florist Shop
Val Bourne: The Natural Gardener
Addison & Hillhouse: Treasury of Flower Lore
Anne Wareham: The Bad Tempered Gardener
James Fenton: A garden from 100 packets of seed
Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden (re-live your childhood!)
@StudioChoo: The Flower Recipe Book (florist)
Gertrude Jekyll: Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden
Vita Sackville West: all her garden writing is worth reading
Judith Blacklock: various floristry books
Lane Greer/John M Dole: Woody Cut Stems for Growers & Florists (‘foliage bible’)
Richard Sudell ed. : The New Illustrated Gardening Encyclopaedia (1948 edn)
Sally Page: The Little Flower Shop books
The Wildflower Key – and Wildflowers of Britain and Ireland (no authors given)
Roy Genders: The Polyanthus
Nancy J Ondra: Grasses
Vanessa Diffenbaugh: The Language of Flowers (nb a novel rather than textbook)
Linda Beutler: Garden to Vase
Vic Brotherston: Vintage Flowers
Flower Fairies books & Brambly Hedge: (for the young at heart!)
As you can see from this photo of my books I will enjoy adding to them from the list above! The good thing about having a quick rummage in my book case for the photo is that I’ve found a book I’d completely forgotten I had! I will be dipping into the Malcolm Hillier book, ‘Flowers’ over the next few days…
