Books focusing on flowers have become extremely popular in recent years. And for good reason: Who doesn’t want to flip through a book full of beautiful flowers? The latest addition to the genre, a new book by ceramisist Francis Palmer, Life with Flowers: Inspiration and Lessons from the Garden, may be the most soulful flower book ever.
Palmers grow flowers, arrange them, take photos, as well as handmade all the vases and ships on which they are displayed, drawing backgrounds that are often shot. In this book, beauty is layer and depth of layer, and this depth and intention shines on every page. It has become a cliché to describe something as “deeply personal” but when it comes to living with flowers, the description is a truly intimate book.
The book itself is as multi-hyphenate as its creator. In her text, Palmer talks about what she grew up and how she lets art history know her gardening and flower arrangements, how she can grow her favorite plants, and even provide recipes and craft projects that incorporate flowers from the garden. As the title suggests, it’s about life spent at the flower company.
Here are seven lessons we have taken from Palmer’s lovely new book:
Photos by Francis Palmer from Life with Flowers, unless otherwise stated.
Think of it as “waves” rather than months.
When planning a flower garden, Palmer didn’t build her book for months like most garden books. Instead, Palmer’s book is divided into six microgrowth seasons: leaf, spring, vernal, eStival, cor tea, autumn leaves and hibernation, as it is a more accurate portrait of how she thinks about creating successive blooms.
Plants for certain types.
In addition to aiming for “constant, uninterrupted flowers,” Palmer says she plans her cutting garden for “the constant flow of colour, height and shape to place in my pottery.” Palmer wrote in his book: “Inside each perennial flower family, there are a variety of colors, shapes and textures, which will allow the largest inventory of plant materials to work and give beautiful variety to your garden and arrangement,” he writes.
The flowers and containers must go together, but both can be guided.
Palmer flowers and ceramics are so intertwined that these two always inspire each other. She says she always thinks about how the flowers work alongside the ship before making arrangements. “Sometimes I choose flowers to suit the pot I have in mind. At other times it works the opposite,” she writes.
Make a room for the indigenous people in your flower garden.
