Book Picks: Flower Arranging Plus Four You Can’t Resist

We are book lovers here at Flower Power, and here are four books we love. One of them came out last fall, when our web site wasn’t up yet, but we love it so much we are including it.

Nina Campbell: Interior Decorating Elegance and Ease by Giles Kime with a foreword by Carolina Herrera. We love florals. She loves florals. Nina Campbell is not as well known in the US as she is on her home turf, so this is your chance to catch up. The book is a 50-year salute to her life and work as the doyenne of the English style: informal textiles, comfort, a little old-fashioned but never stuffy. These are rooms that welcome dogs, friends, even red wine and whiskey! It’s 240 pages with 200 color and black and white photos.

$60 from Rizzoli, but we think you will find it for less here.

The Art of Outdoor Living: Gardens for Entertaining Family and Friends by Scott Shrader. Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, Portia de Rossi, buy Hollywood homes and fix them up. They and other stars turn to the landscape architect Scott Shrader to design their patios, swimming pools, gardens and entire hillsides, what Shrader calls outdoor rooms. When you look through this book, you might decide you would rather live outdoors. The Art of Outdoor Living, $35, published this month by Rizzoli, is 240 pages, with gorgeous photos and short, to the point, essays. You can buy it here.

International Floral Art 2018 – 2019 by Katrien Van Moerbeke. Hardcover, published in Belgium, about $55. Since Jill Brooke has walked us through the International FTD judging of florists’ art, we know it’s not all wedding bouquets. These florists use flowers and plant materials to express themselves as artists. It is a breath-taking book, inspiring for designers and artists of every type.

Seasonal Flower Arranging: Fill Your Home with Blooms, Branches and Forages Materials All Year Round by Ariella Chezar and Julie Michaels. Ariella Chezar is the artistic director of Flower School New York and has designed flower arrangements for the White House.

This gorgeous book, 224 pages, with bountiful color photographs, shows that winter is not a barren season for artistic arrangements, and that her suggestions and your creativity (plus access to wild land or a good place to buy plant materials) will keep your mantel and dining table full of beauty and excitement year around. (Wait until you see what she does with just variegated geranium leaves.) Ten Speed Press has produced this hardcover book for $25. Buy here for less than that.

Because at Flower Power With Jill we always want to give more, here is an extra book:

Florals by Hand: How to Draw and Design Modern Floral Projects by Alli Koch. If you love flowers, you probably have doodled flowers. Why not learn how to draw them properly? Alli Koch is here to show you. Her previous book sold 40,000 copies, but people who bought that say beginners can start with this one. She’s got a zillion followers on Instagram. This book, $18 from Paige Tate Select, is 206 pages, with plenty of room for you to practice. Buy here for less.