The rose is the world's favorite flower: its beauty and scent make it the acknowledged queen of the garden. Roses have been used for thousands of years as perfume, as decoration, and even in the cuisine of many countries. The power and appeal of the rose can be seen in art, history, and in horticulture. "The Little Book of Roses" opens the door to the magical world of the rose from the flower's symbolic roles in legend to the secrets of today's top rose breeders (an industry itself worth millions of dollars). Besides fascinating rose facts, this Little Book is also sprinkled throughout with interesting rose trivia. For example, one fluid ounce of the world's most expensive perfume requires as many as 28 dozen roses! "The Little Book of Roses" offers a pleasing bouquet of rich illustrations, useful information, and interesting details affectionately dedicated to this voluptuous blossom.
Flammarion presents its series of informative, richly illustrated guides, covering lifestyle and cultural topics. Find out everything you want to know about your favorite subject in one handy volume.
- Unique thematic treatment with extensive use of key words and cross-referencing
- Over 70 alphabetically organized bite-sized entries in every title
- Attractive slimline format
- 100 color illustrations
- Summaries of key facts and dates in easy-reference tables
- Exclusive buyer's guide or list of useful addresses to find out more

Whether you love growing, love creating, or just want to liven up your outdoor space, a container garden is just the answer. So many of us nowadays are crammed into our homes and a garden is a luxury that few can afford. But there is always room for a bit of greenery; whether it's herbs and spices to add fresh flavour to your food, or putting a jungle on your windowsill, a container can enable growers to bring nature to the most inhospitable and smallest spaces. Frances Tophill covers the sustainable, crafty and culinary aspects of container gardening. From urns and troughs to chimney stacks and hanging baskets alongside what to grow inside them - bonsai to annuals, bulbs, grasses and bamboos, tumbling and creeping plants and flowers - there are also 40 ideas on how to pair plants and pots, including upcycling existing items and creating your own containers.

Orchids in South Africa - A gardener's guide shows new and existing growers how to care for their orchid plants. Learn how to treat your orchids (and most commercially available orchids are quite easy!), water and feed them, how much shade or light they need, and how you need to grow, maintain and propagate them to prosper and flower regularly. Many species are discussed in detail, and the accompanying photographs of the species and a selection of popular hybrids will help you identify the different kinds, and also show you what other species you may be able to grow in the conditions you are able to provide. Orchids in South Africa - A Gardener's Guide is an invaluable guide for orchid growers in South Africa. It contains chapters on Orchids and their history; Basic botanical information on orchids; General growing information, and Repotting and dividing of orchids. Growing orchids is a fascinating and satisfying hobby. However, be warned that when you obtain your first orchid you will be blessed with an instant, life-long addiction to orchids!

For beginning gardeners and homeowners, this handbook shows you exactly how to plan, build, and plant a simple raised bed. Fully illustrated step-by-step instructions make it easy and ensure success! In just a weekend, using a few basic materials and minimal building skills, you can set up a complete garden bed adapted for vegetables, flowers, or herbs.

On a seven-acre small holding in rural Northern Ireland, organic gardener Jo Facer and head chef Erin Bunting run fork-to-fork supper club, organic small-holding and fledgling cooking and growing school, The Edible Flower. In their first cookbook, learn to grow and cook edible flowers with Jo and Erin's delicious recipes inspired by the seasonal produce they grow in their kitchen garden and the wild food they forage from their local shores and hedgerows. Feast, celebrate and bring people together with over 50 recipes for small plates, mains, desserts, baking, snacks and drinks, at once fresh and flavourful and absolutely stunning to serve. Recipes include: Ribboned Courgette & Avocado Salad with Poppy Seeds & Calendula, Pot Marigold Soda Bread, Lilac Panna Cotta with Strawberries, Rice with Lemon Verbena, Cardamom & Edible Flower Petals, Marigold Petal Pasta, Courgette Flower Tacos, Carnation and Blackberry Cooler, Slow Roast Lamb with Lavender, Lemon & Apricots, Blackberry & Sweet Geranium Tart, Vietnamese Summer Rolls with Violas, Aubergine Katsu Curry with Pickled Magnolia and many more ...

Modern Dried Flowers is a contemporary guide to the sustainable art of preserving and styling stems. Versatile, chic, environmentally mindful, affordable and low maintenance - there are many reasons to love dried flowers. Whether for weddings and special events or simply to bring a touch of ethereal charm to your home, these timeless, reimagined arrangements can bring a room to life. Modern Dried Flowers offers nature-led inspiration and step-by-step instructions to gain all of the basic skills, tools and techniques necessary to grow, cut, dry and style your stems to perfection. Author and celebrated florist Angela Maynard is a founding leader of the classic craft's revival, and here she reveals her secrets and dispenses expert advice so that you too can master the art of everlasting beauty and wow-worthy decor, no matter what your style. In this practical and visually stunning guide, you will find: 20 beautifully photographed projects, from wearable keepsakes to majestic seasonal centrepieces; Tips to get creative with the leftover materials; A handy index of suitable flowers which outlines characteristics, symbols and best combinations. Play with texture and colour, discover unusual blooms and botanicals, and create something truly original that lasts a lifetime.

This practical guide shows how to grow decorative flowers and foliage and use them to create floral arrangements, plans, plant and maintain a well-stocked cutting garden, and demonstrates how to create arrangements ranging from simple bunches to romantic hanging globes, swags and medallions.

Here are 100 beautiful orchids that you can grow in Florida.

These orchids were chosen for their beauty, ease of cultivation, and suitability to Florida's climate. Whether you are an old hand at growing orchids or are a beginner anxious to try it, you will find help here choosing the plants that will work for you, as well as help on how best to make them prosper.

First you will learn about the structure of orchids; how they are named; and how to pot, water, feed, ventilate, and protect them from weather and insects. You will find you can grow them inside and outside in Florida, and some even in the ground as part of the landscape. Then you will be introduced to 100 fabulous orchids that are well-suited to Florida. You'll find answers to commonly asked questions, lists of suppliers, and a handy reference chart to plant size, flower color, bloom size, bloom time, and exposure.

Snowdrops are one of the best loved, most popular and widely grown of all bulbous plants. This book celebrates their beauty and magical annual resurrection. This newly updated and expanded edition of this best-selling book introduces the twenty known species and has been updated to cover more than 2,400 named snowdrops. Discover the vast range of shapes, sizes and markings of these beautiful flowers. With information on cultivation and planting, detailed descriptions, informative drawings and interesting anecdotes - this will be an invaluable companion for all gardeners, and will inform and delight both the aspiring and seasoned galanthophile.

Throughout history flowers have been an integral part of human survival and culture - as food, for medicine, to express feelings, as symbols, to commemorate and celebrate, and to decorate. Their shapes, colours, scents and textures have always attracted us, as they do animals and insects. Flowers are used as luxury spices (saffron), and as colouring and flavouring agents - marigolds fed to chickens make eggs more yellow and lavender was Elizabeth I's favourite flavour of jam. Flowers are full of symbolic meaning: violets represent modesty, daises purity and daffodils unrequited love. And they have always played an important role in culture through myths and legends, literature and the decorative arts. This delightful new book brings together 100 of the world's flowers to tell their remarkable stories. Each flower is richly illustrated in colour and accompanied by facts about each species and what role it has played in our culture and history.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE GARDEN MEDIA AWARDS, INSPIRATIONAL BOOK OF THE YEAR** The lotus, lily, sunflower, opium poppy, rose, tulip and orchid: seven flowers, each with its own story full of surprises and secrets, each affecting the world around us in subtle yet powerful ways. But what is the nature of their power and how did it develop? Why have these particular plants become the focus of gardens, literature and art? In order to find the answers, author and horticultural historian Jennifer Potter tracks this septet of flowers across the globe as she examines the influence they have had on civilizations through the ages. These are both histories and detective stories, full of incident and unexpected revelations. Here are the flowers of life and death; of purity and passion; of greed, envy and virtue; of hope and consolation; of the beauty that drives men wild. All seven demonstrate the enduring ability of flowers to speak metaphorically - if we could only decode what they have to say.

Introductory and advanced techniques for gardening with bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers.

Growing flowers from seed is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to supplement your borders, bringing instant colour to tired gardens. Many of these flowers are also ideal for cutting, so within a single growing season you can produce armfuls of beautiful blooms to cut and bring inside the house. Author Clare Foster and photographer Sabina Ruber have been experimenting with growing flowers from seed for several years. In this book they pass on that invaluable experience, explaining how and when to sow and grow a huge range of flowers from Aquilegia to Zinnia.

This complete guide gives all the information you need to choose, grow, and appreciate the beardless iris-from basic planting information to help beginners, to the essential hybridizing details that horticulturists need. Beardless irises are cousins of the more familiar bearded irises, but are much more variable, with plants ranging from four-inch-tall dwarfs with tiny flowers to five-foot stalks with dinner-plate-size flowers. In addition, beardless irises of at least one type will grow in virtually every gardening situation from dry shade to standing water in full sun. No other group of perennials offers such versatility. Here, all five major groups are covered in detail: Siberian, Japanese, Pacific Coast Native, spuria, and Louisiana. The garden uses, development of the modern hybrids, and recommended cultures are given for each of the diverse groups of beardless irises. In addition, a separate chapter covers the techniques for creating your own beardless hybrids.

Bulletproof Flowers for the South illustrates how to plant, grow, and care for a large variety of hardy Southern flowers. Including an A-Z encyclopedia of Southern favorites and twenty comprehensive lists of favorite flowers from expert nurseries around the South, this beautifully illustrated book presents superior long-blooming, heat-resistant flowers.