Comments on: Floret’s Favorite Books

By: Celeste

Celeste — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 02:20:27 +0000

Please, Oh Please, compile and share a book list from all those contributed in these 3,000+ comments! It’s all I want for the rest of Christmas eternity…and my 2 front teeth ;) But seriously, what a list it would be!

By: Cynthia Boyd

Cynthia Boyd — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 17:27:11 +0000

Thank you Floret and Erin for your wonderful favourite book listing. I have enjoyed reading this as well as the many fascinating selections by your readers. I love anything by Elizabeth Lawrence, who wrote a whole host of gardening tomes mostly Southern gardening in nature (which is hard to follow given my northern climate in Newfoundland). Still, her works are fascinating. As well as anything by Allen Lacey. One of my favourite gardening books is Martha Stewart’s earliest one On Gardening (not sure if this is the title) and Smith & Hawken’s The Book of Outdoor Gardening. I also love Katherine S. White, whose Onward and Upward in the Garden is pretty wonderful material. Louise Rich’s quirky gardening books always mention herbs and flowers in addition to roses and vegetables; in addition, Thalassa Cruso was a special garden writer as well. Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden is a fabulous book, as is anything by Tovah Martin. Gertrude Jekyll always had an eye for flowers that work well in a sturdy ceramic vase, so her gardening books are particularly appropriate. Marion Cran, a little known garden writer, wrote extremely interesting gardening books that had quirky titles, such as The Garden of Ignorance and The Garden of Experience (she was heavily influenced by Jekyll and was near her, in Surrey), she was also near Vita Sackville-West, when Cran moved to her inter-war garden in Kent. Moving ahead sixty years, I love and have been influenced by the garden writing of C.Z. Guest in her book: First Garden; it’s an overlooked gem no matter if you are indeed a beginning gardener or an advanced die-hard gardener. Guest writes beautifully. Constance Spry was not only a floral arranger par excellence she also wrote beautiful treatises on gardening in general; sadly all out of print I suspect. I bought a massive collection of these books years ago from my public library’s discard sale. I think that Spry’s Flower Decoration; Flowers in House and Garden (in particular), as well as Garden Notebook, Summer & Autumn Flowers, Winter & Spring Flowers, and two cookery books she wrote all had a profound effect on me as a gardener. Significantly, Floret’s incredible books are all inspiring and will be enduring classics in the same vein as Sarah Raven’s works, and those of Martha Stewart. Enjoy all – and a Merry Christmas Erin and family and Floret Team.

By: Kristi Hein

Kristi Hein — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 16:51:04 +0000

Thank you for the glorious, enticing list. The Anacortes Library (in Skagit County, same as Floret Farm) has all three Floret books as ebooks, but are missing Discovering Dahlias as a hard copy! I shall speak to them about this. ;^) They have just one Monty Don title, “Down to Earth: Gardening Wisdom” — as an audio book! Wait, what? Surely this one needs to be seen! (Surprising, because the library has an extensive garden collection.) They do have Sarah Raven’s “The cutting garden: growing and arranging garden flowers,” so I’ve reserved it.

By: Sarah F.

Sarah F. — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:19:41 +0000

I also absolutely love the book Grow and Gather by Grace Alexander, it is definitely one of my favorites. She also sends out a weekly newsletter you can sign up for and a separate membership where she publishes beautiful seasonal guides and sells seeds for both the UK and the U.S. :)

By: Robin May

Robin May — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 14:19:19 +0000

The Dirty Life by Kristen Kimball is the gritty well written story of one’s couples life as they nurse a farm into life in upstate New York. This is no romantic romp about the life of a land owner but the unvarnished truth about what it really takes to create and sustain their lives.

By: Anna

Anna — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 20:54:58 +0000

Can’t forget to add “From Seed to Bloom” by Milli Proust! Loved your author interview with her, I immediately went out and bought it. It’s one of the most gorgeously assembled and photographed books.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 05:45:41 +0000

I love watching and learning from Monty Don on Gardener’s World! He has such a down to earth nature and his love for gardening really comes through. He is a true master of gardening and love everything he does!

I also have a number of great garden books on gardening for natives in the southeast and Doug Tallamy and his books and web info is extremely valuable as a resource for organic and native gardening, soil health, etc.

Mt. Cuba Center, not a book per se but their trails on plants free online resources are invaluable for everyone wanting for garden organically and sustainably. Highly recommend!

Lady Bird Johnson’s website is another invaluable tool for organic and native plants and has so much information on just about every plant imaginable.

By: Crystal Bailey

Crystal Bailey — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:41:30 +0000

I’m truly, The biggest fan of Gardeners World and Monty Don. I Love the gardens and love if gardening that the UK residents have.

By: Lauren Anne Richardson

Lauren Anne Richardson — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 14:08:16 +0000

Thank you for this wonderful treasure!

By: m

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 20:01:00 +0000

love this, you did it a few years ago and I added 5 from your list to my bookshelf. I tend to buy your books for gifting and also my favourite New Zealand gardner/writer. the date/month by month books I struggle with as we are 6months ahead/behind.