A book is a gift that always pleases. It’s so easy to shop for flower lovers. There are so many suitable titles. Start by looking at the titles featured under the Book Review links.

Other suitable titles include the following. “Bulbs” by Marco Leone, is a Firefly Guide from Firefly Books. This comprehensive color guide with over 400 color photos features over 300 varieties of flowering bulbs. With lots of charts and drawings, it gives valuable advice on growing each bulb. Under each one, he tells whether it is suitable for cut flowers.

For rose lovers, the perfect title is “Roses-Foolproof Guide to Growing” by Field Roebuck from Creative Homeowners Press. Roebuck gives comprehensive descriptions for all the different rose classes, and for 80 different varieties and cultivars. The book features over 260 color photos and 34 watercolors. He provides practical hints on choosing, growing, and caring for roses with step-by-step instructions.

Throughout history, cut flowers have meant so much to people. That is explored in a marvelous book from Palgrave Macmillan. "Flower Power-the Meaning of Flowers in Art" edited by Andrew Moore et al with an introduction by Anna Pavord is beautifully illustrated, conceived, and designed. It looks at the symbolic meanings and effects of cut flowers. Flowers in various kinds of art are interpreted, including ones on furniture, textiles, ceramics, paintings, silver, and paintings as well as books and manuscripts. This book was originally published as an accompaniment to a major art exhibition at the Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery and the Millenium Galleries in Sheffield. Among the chapters are ones on tulipomania, still lifes, flowers represented in religious art, and those used for romance and funerals. This is the definitive work on plants in art.


Help flower lovers create works of art with those dried and pressed flowers. The place to start is with the projects in “Grow Your Own Paper-Recipes for Creating Unique Handmade Papers” by Maureen Richardson from Martingale. This indispensable book has step-by-step instructions for making paper with flowers, herbs, and other plants. The projects include tulips, cornflowers, calendula and much more.

Dried blooms can also be turned into greeting cards and gift wraps. “Greeting Cards and Gift Wraps-Create Your Own” by Priscilla Hauser from North Light Books has many projects of interest to floral designers, such as pressed flower cards, collage cards, and ones printed and inked with floral motifs. There is also complete step-by-step instructions for making paper, which can be turned into greeting cards.

Hot Off the Press has various titles of interest to flower lovers. “How to Create Handmade Cards If You Think You Can’t” includes sheets of paper, illustrated step-by-step instructions for making 114 different cards, many of which feature flowers. The projects feature various techniques, such as fold-backs, tea bag folding, pop-ups, and others. When the goal is to make professional looking cards, this book is essential.

“Paper Cards” by Lisa Kerr from Walter Foster is part of the Make It With Paper series. It features papers, color-illustrated step-by-step instructions for various kinds of cards, including a dried flower collage and nature-printed ones. In addition, there are directions for making your own envelopes. At the end, there’s a section on how to make your own paper.

When it comes to picture books, there are many titles of interest to flower lovers. At the top of that list is an extraordinary title from Thames & Hudson called “Flora Photographica-Masterpieces of Flower Photography from 1835 to the Present” by William A. Ewing. This beautifully designed book features 215 illustrations with 56 of them in color. In the appendix he provides wonderful commentary on the photos and the photographers. The flowers include camellias, roses, orchids, irises, and many more. Some of these photos have become classics. These masterpieces are by photographers like Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen. They are sure to appeal to the creative imagination. Among the individuals depicted with flowers are Marilyn Monroe and others.