I'm an experienced gardener but was looking to bring back more flowers into my yard. This beautiful book is just what I was looking for, with lots of photos, detailed growing information, and descriptions that make me want to plant them all. I like the groupings (bee friendly, bright, etc.) and am now sad that I have to wait so long to start most of my new flowers for next year since it's autumn. A great book.

Clare shares her experience about how to growth plants from seeds. The information is easy to read and it’s accompanied by colourful pictures from Sabrina Rüber’s collection.

#Garden #Summer #TheFlowerGardenBook #NetGalley

Unfortunately I couldn’t view this book in the format it should be downloaded in, so I’m unable to give my opinion.

This is a fantastic book for new flower growers from seed. It explains the basics: where to get the seeds, growing, planting out and cutting for vases. I could certainly take this information and apply it to my own garden.

The book is divided into three parts, starting with Choosing your Flowers, Sowing & Growing and finally How to use your Flowers.

The Choosing your Flowers is split down further into seven sections: Cottage Garden, Filigree Fillers, Bold & Beautiful, Sweetly Scented, Exotic, Edible Flowers & Herbs and Bee-Friendly. Each flower has it common and botanical name, along with where to grow, when it flowers, how high and with the varieties available of each flower. Each flower also has plenty of colour photography, well labelled to let you know which flower is which or which variety.

Sowing and Growing explains the plant groups; Hardy annuals, Biennials, Half-hardy annuals and Hardy perennials along with information on when to plant. It covers all the details of sowing indoors or direct, along with pests and diseases that may occur.

The final chapter, How to use your Flowers explains making a sweet pea arch, planting a mini meadow, using the flowers in borders, making a cutting garden, growing in containers, and arranging the flowers in vases.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

For the first time in my life, I have the opportunity to have a garden so I grabbed this book when I saw it.

The Flower Garden: How to Grow Flowers from Seed is truly a love letter to flowers. The eye candy in this book makes it even appealing to those who are not growing a garden. There are beautiful full page photos of flowers throughout the book as well as smaller photos of the different varieties available for each flower. Everything you need to know about growing flowers from seeds is in this book and it will be my sole guide to creating my first garden ever. I particularly appreciate that Foster points out the easiest flowers to grow for a newbie like me. In fact, there are many easy to grow flowers that I have never heard of before.

Foster divides the 56 different flowers covered in The Flower Garden into 7 sections:

Cottage Garden Favorites - ex. Hollyhock, Snapdragon, Carnation, Polly, etc.
Filigree Fillers - ex. Baby’s Breath, White Lace, Switchgrass, etc.
Bold and Beautiful - ex. Pot Marigold, Cosmos, Sunflowers, Zinnia, etc.
Sweetly Scented - ex. Sweet Pea, Stocks, Sweet Rocket, etc.
Exotic Beauties - ex. Dahila, Morning Glory, Cup and Saucer, etc.
Bee-Friendly Flowers - Corncockle, Cornflower, Sage, etc.

For each flower, Foster discusses the varieties and sowing/growing.

Part Two of the book delves more into general sowing and growing of flowers. First, she discusses Hardy Annuals, Half-Hardy Annuals, Biennials and Hardy Perennials, explaining which ones can survive frost in the winter and when to begin to sow them. Next is sowing under cover with a comprehensive presentation of the different strategies and steps and then a how-to for sowing direct. This part of the book ends with a section on pests and diseases.

Finally, in Part Three - How to Use Your Flowers, Foster recommends where to plant, complete with gorgeous photos — for example, annuals and biennials in borders, making a cutting garden and container planting, etc. plus arranging your flowers.

With The Flower Garden, I feel less like a complete newbie and more like a professional. I now know what to grow, where to grow it, how to start from seed, and when to expect flowers. I can’t wait to get started!

Thank you to Laurence King Publishing and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

I love gardening books and The Flower Garden is a really good one for gardeners willing to start their garden from seeds. As I like making my garden from start to finish, meaning starting from seeds and gathering seeds for years after, The Flower Garden was therefore really interesting to me. I liked the way it is organized in the book and therefore recommend it for every gardener wanting to know more about flower gardening.

This is a comprehensive book for the experienced gardener. A must read, for sure.

Thanks to #NetGalley, I had an advanced PDF to read and review.

*All opinions are my own and I was not required to post a positive review. *

An excellent book from beginner to expert gardeners. The pictures are so beautiful they inspire all by themselves. I have several flower beds that are in different stages of completion. The information in this book has definitely helped me decide which plants would be best suited to my zone and taste. I love growing from seeds, it gives you a sense of accomplishment when you see a mature plant you have grown from seed. Overall, this book is one I'll read often as my garden grows.

I do a great deal of gardening and must admit that I requested this title at Netgalley expecting a sort of refresher course in seeding and new annuals and perennials to add to my already pretty flower beds. Clare Foster has much more to offer, even to an old gardener. Not only are the pictures by Sabina Rüber spectacular, but there are also many suggested plantings I hadn't thought of in years and I will be much more comfortable tackling my seedlings than in the past both in the flower beds, herb garden, and the vegetable garden.

Our problem here is heat. We do have a few odd days of winter in Alamogordo, New Mexico, though for the most part, we visit winter in the Sacramento and Sierra Blanca mountains just up the road. But our summer comes on hot and windy and dry with the odd night of freezing tossed in for good measure, so seedlings are vulnerable at every stage until you get them hardened off and in the ground. I am much more confident that I will handle that better, this year. And I better get off the computer and out to my seedling tables... Thanks!

I received a free electronic copy of this self-help book from Netgalley, Clare Foster and Sabina Rüber, and Laurence King Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

The Flower Garden: How to grow flowers from seed is an excellent book full of the most beautiful photographs that would seduce any lover of flowers!
Apart from the superb photographs, the strength of the book lies in its consistent format, which makes it an excellent reference book for growing flowering plants.
The bulk of the book covers choosing your flowers and is divided into seven interesting chapters such as Cottage Garden Favourites, Bee Friendly Flowers , Edible Flowers and Herbs. The division makes the often overwhelming decision on which seeds/ flowers to choose a far less daunting task.
For each plant there is a table of basic information (annual/biennial/perennial, height, sowing requirements, sun/shade requirements, flowering period) then an introduction outlining the origins and highlighting interesting information. This is followed by suggested varieties, then excellent information on sowing and growing. Well labelled, beautiful photographs of selected varieties are included for each flower.
Part 2 covers sowing and growing and includes information on various methods, requirements and equipment for sowing, chitting and potting on. A short section deals with pests and diseases affecting seedlings
Part 3: How to use your flowers, includes using annuals and biennials in borders and offers suggestions for choosing plants for amongst other things, a cutting garden or a mini meadow. My only disappointment was the section on arranging flowers - one page covers picking and conditioning, choosing your vase and putting flowers together. I would have liked to see more on picking and conditioning as different flowers require different preparation for extending their picked life. It is a minor quibble and would certainly not stop me highly recommending the book for choosing and growing flowers from seed.

The Flower Garden: How to Grow Flowers from Seed by Clare Foster, photographs by Sabina Ruber

March 25, 2019
Crafts&Hobbies, Gardening
Lawrence King Publishing LTD
Rating:

I received this digital ARC book from NetGalley and Lawrence King Publishing in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a wonderful book filled with inspiration to start your own flower garden. The illustrations provide a beautiful depiction of some of the varieties of plant featured. It is well organized by plant listing important information to consider when growing by seed. The flowers are sorted into groups which help you determine where they might be best suited. There is a section about cottage flowers and another about exotic and edible flowers. Aside from providing sowing and growing instructions this book also gives suggestions on how to use your flowers.

It is true that once you attempt to grow a plant from seed it becomes an obsession. After so many failed attempts, there isn’t anything more exciting than seeing a sprout emerge from the soil! A wonderful addition to any gardener’s library.