The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide is a well written and beautifully curated book of garden design inspiration by Jenny Rose Carey. Due out 5th July 2022 from Timber Press, it's a comprehensive 364 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
My paternal grandmother was my first, ardent, inspiration for a lifelong love of gardening. She was a flower gardener par excellence and just seemed to *know* everything about flower design and cultivation. I've struggled with my own garden design (we all know our gardens will never be "finished"), and this book gets a lot of things perfect. The vibe throughout is competently encouraging and upbuilding. The author's voice is always reassuring and professional, but never condescending or superior. She definitely knows the subject well. There's quite a lot of "showing" and very little "telling" in the book and the chapters are arranged more or less like a one-on-one masterclass with a good teacher. The flower list is comprehensive and something I really liked is that most plant entries also include multiple examples in color to show flower forms, shapes, sizes, and varieties.
The photography throughout is stunning and abundant. Photo captions list particular cultivars with botanical (Latin) and common names. The author has also included a fairly comprehensive links and
resources list for further reading. There are numerous specialty
retailers as well as lots of fun links for further reading. The index is cross referenced and comprehensive.
Five stars. This book would make a superlative selection for
library acquisition, home gardeners, smallholders/truck farmers, gardening groups, allotment gardeners, and other lifestyle
readers. This is a passionately written, eminently reasonable, usable
guide for garden design using blooming plants as a focus.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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