Favorite Books for Simple Flower Gardens
Do you have a green thumb? Or are you like me and would prefer if plants watered themselves? Wherever you are in gardening skills, I’m sure everyone can appreciate those particular glories in nature that are both low-maintenance and beautiful to behold. Today I’d love to share with you my favorite books for simple flower gardens, i.e. the books that make gardening look easy. Personally, I’d rather my gardening adventures be more peaceful than stressful and these books give me that peace of mind.
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Flower Plant Resource
When I’m planning what I’d like to flower in a certain area of our yard, I simply must have a photo of the plant. There are so many names and varieties of florals, I have to be able to recognize what on earth it is. I found this book at the library years ago, and decided to buy it because it is such a perfect resource for that. Think of it as an encyclopedia of all flowers, broken into categories and including photos and zone/care information:
Cut Flowers
The next book I want to share is too gorgeous not to own. Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein. Have you SEEN the photos in this book? Every time I open it, I want to sell our house and buy a flower farm to produce cut flowers. But then I read the details of what’s involved in tending to a cut flower farm….and the practical side of me realizes it’s not for me!
Nevertheless, this book can provide some great inspiration and steps to care for your own small cut flower garden. A cut flower garden is on my ‘someday’ list of projects once our dog stops digging up our yard. In the meantime, I’ve been able to glean some great information about particular cut flowers from this book. For instance, I never knew how gorgeous and easy dahlias are to grow and harvest. Two years ago I planted Cafe Au Lait dahlia bulbs and had a constant harvest from them the entire fall. Take a look:
In addition to information on growing the cut flowers, Ms. Benzakein also provides the most inspirational bouquets and ways to display the flowers:
How-To Book for Flowers
The next book I want to share with you is a wonderful resource for the ‘how-to’ steps in flower gardening. The book is called “Annuals, Perennials, and Bulbs”.
It has the best instructional photos I’ve seen in a gardening book, which is imperative for someone like me who needs to be shown what to do. In addition to pretty photos of the flowers, there is an abundance of instructional photos on how to dead-head, collect seeds, test soil, and care for the flower plants. No more scratching my head thinking “what do they mean by…?”:
Here’s a sample page:
What Are Your Favorites?
Do you have a favorite flower gardening book? I’d love to hear what it is and any gardening tips you have, as well as your favorite cut flowers. My favorites are peonies, roses, lilacs, hydrangeas, dahlias, zinnias…
…and let’s not forget lavender!
