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…