Seven Flowers: And How They Shaped Our World

by Jennifer Potter

The lotus, lily, sunflower, opium poppy, rose, tulip and orchid. Seven flowers: seven stories full of surprise and secrets.
Where and when did these flowers originate? What is the nature of their power and how was it acquired? What use has been made of them in gardens, literature and art? These are both histories and detective stories, full of incident, unexpected revelations, and irony. The opium poppy, for example, returned to haunt its progenitors in the West; and while Confucius saw virtue and modesty in his native orchids, the ancient Greeks saw only sex.
These are 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science, Nature, Gardening, Historical, Plants

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2013

About the author

Jennifer Potter, born in 1949, writes about the history and culture of plants, plantsmen and gardens. She reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, and has been variously a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, a Hawthornden Fellow and an Honorary Teaching Fellow on the Warwick Writing Programme.

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.”
William Blake 'Auguries of Innocence'

Seven absorbing chapters on: the lotus, lily, sunflower, opium poppy, rose, tulip and orchid. Gives the evolutionary history of when the different flowers were first used up to present day. Beautiful color illustrations as well. Green thumbs will love this book. Highly recommend.

[Els · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went from loving this to loathing this to being fine with it, but I honestly think anyone with less interest in botany or history would have died.

Like friends.

I’ve considered getting my PhD in botany.

And at some point this still felt like eating mud.

I’d still recommend it for ... I dunno, atmospheric reading or something. But it needs to be savored over the course of a year, not choked down. Too much perfume is worse than none. This is a nice perfume-y read. And that’s all I’ve got for today, folks.

*now knows way too much about the sexual connotations of flowers in art*

[Cheryl Gatling]

The seven flowers are the lotus, the lily, the sunflower, the opium poppy, the rose, the tulip, and the orchid. The subtitle of the book is "How They Shaped Our World." Sometimes these flowers did indeed influence world history, as with the Chinese opium wars, or the Dutch tulip mania. More often, the meanings attached to different flowers are a reflection of what society valued at the time. Potter's real emphasis in the book is that everything about these flowers is fascinating: their origins in various countries, how they were "discovered," the men who wrote books about them, their medicinal properties, their depictions in art, and literature. Sometimes her fascination with the minutiae of the different varieties and the pioneering flower breeders exceeded my own. There were some dry parts.

But there were lots of fascinating tidbits. Here are a few. When the Republicans were in the White House, they dug up all the roses in the White House Rose Garden that were named after Democrats. (It is unknown whether the Democrats did the same in return.) The Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III had luxurious tulip festivals which included tortoises wandering through the gardens with candles on their backs. The obsession with collecting orchids from the wild has driven many of them nearly to extinction, and one of the last Lady's slipper orchids in England was given an armed police guard to protect it from thieves.

My biggest complaint is that the book needed a lot more pictures. Every time she described a flower, or a work of art, I wanted to see that flower or work of art.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conversational and interesting essays on seven flowers in history and culture (lotus, lily, sunflower, rose, poppy, tulip and orchid. Very nicely illustrated in black and white and colour.

[Sarah Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I was expecting a fairly standard horticultural discussion on flora (which I would have liked regardless) but this offered so much more. It provides a really interesting review of the historical popularity and uses of seven wonderful flowers (Sunflower, Lotus, Rose, Lily, Opium poppy, Tulip and Orchid) in art, popular culture, medicine, science and even politics. The book is well research and easy to read and features some marvellous illustrations and colour plates. For any lover of flowers.

[❂ Murder by Death · Rating 3 out of 5]

An incredibly well-researched if rather verbose account of the role 7 different flowers played throughout history in art, literature, medicine, and society. Unfortunately it wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be: I think I was expecting a narrative more oriented towards botanical science or economics. Still I learned something about each of the 7 flowers and I'm not sorry I read it.

Full review: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/113752...

[Sonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love how wide Potter's reach is - ancient history, painting, medical and culinary uses, mythical and religious symbolism, commercial trends.
Has gorgeous pictures too.
Definitely a favourite author - loved her longer work on the Rose too.

[Breen · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 - 3 depending on the section. For some reason I found the opening section on the Lotus to be very dry and it almost made me want to stop reading the book. However subsequent sections were more readable, while still wordy and dense like extra foliage. This could have used some extra pruning (ie editing). Overall an interesting account of the origin and history of each individual flower over the ages. The tittle is a bit gradiose. Read this book if a particular section interests you, not as a whole.

[Marilyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

boring. and not actually about how they shaped our world. It is a history of their cultivation and discovery.

[Stefanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was shocked at how dry this book is. It's far less interesting than it sounds. It's hard to make history boring for me, but she's done it.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for the Library Book Café "your name" theme.

I liked the idea behind this book but it seemed to lack spark. It felt well-researched like homework rather than passionate interest, perhaps complicated by Potter's earlier work specifically on roses. I think I might have enjoyed it much more as one of the meatier sort of coffee table books, all the words but many more lavish illustrations and photographs and glossy paper. It lacked too what you so often get now in non-fiction (admittedly to the annoyance of many): much sense of a personal engagement, beyond knowing the types she likes best and those which unnerve her. It was interesting enough but eventually was a wee bit of a chore to finish.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot without being riveted. But I'll have a new eye when I look at things around me now.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible facts about seven specific flowers, where they originated, and how they influenced the world. What was most fascinating to me were their various meanings as they traveled around the world and crossed cultures. I admit, not the most page-turning book - it's a lot of history and facts to digest. But for what I've learned about these flowers, and how much research Potter put into it, I'll give it four stars.

[Dholsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give Potter credit for her meticulous research--however, I found myself just half-heartedly reading about each flower except for two of the seven: the poppy and the orchid because I did not know much about them. With the former, I wish more would have been revealed about the WWI connection and the image of the poppy in poetry/art; with the latter, I enjoyed the Chinese historical background.

[Cheralyn Darcey · Rating 5 out of 5]

WONDERFUL!
Such an interesting and informative book.
Well researched, gorgeous illustrations and a joy to read.
I particularly liked the historical notes along with modern connections in this work.
A keeper for my research library. Love it!

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two and a half stars. While it's incredibly well researched, its narrative is boring as hell. I don't mind a bit of academic reading, but it felt a bit like a long paper written by a college freshman at times.

[Schopflin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and entertaining. loved the way this book combined botany with history and culture for each of the flowers. The only thing I could have wished for was more pictures.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent so informative for the gardener and lover of flowers

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a "Flowers of History" than a history of flowers: Lotus, lily, sunflower, opium poppy,rose, tulip and orchid. I was especially taken with the lotus and the lily.

[Athena Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

lots and LOTS of historical facts tying these flowers into the "history of the world," but really hard to stay interested throughout the book

[Judith Cartisano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dry. Nevertheless this book is full of interesting information about seven flowers, including the lotus and the rose. Well worth reading.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Potter certainly researched her topic, but the results were not as engaging as I’d hoped. The prose dragged and I skimmed a bit.

This is a very niche thing to niggle over, but I was able to cross-reference her discussion of the cultural significance of roses in Persia with the Persian cookbook I read earlier this month. Potter didn’t seem to know that the rose is a major ingredient in Persian cooking—she didn’t mention it at all. She only discussed its medical uses—which is exactly what a Westerner would think to research, unless you happen to have been reading obscure cookbooks lately. So.

Also, I just didn’t love the things she did talk about. For instance, she finds sunflowers creepy and orchids highly sexualized. Okay then.

[Lar · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would probably have enjoyed this as a series of lectures with a good slideshow of the referenced art. As a book, I found the writing too (forgive me) flowery and the sense of narrative lacking. There were so many references across the global span of history that it was hard for me to get a sense of context for any anecdote.

The subtitle 'And How They Shaped Our World' is a stretch. Maybe if I had gone into it knowing that it's more an accounting of flower-related things through history I would've been less disappointed. This would be a great source of references for your flower-related essay, but it's not the fun pop-science exploration I hoped for.

[Amy Mery · Rating 1 out of 5]

Estaba buscando algún libro relacionado a flores, y ese título me llamó la atención. Busqué la sinopsis y me dije "debe estar bueno y al parecer contiene no solo historia sino también algo de narrativa", pero es un libro que aunque dice cosas interesantes acerca de toda la investigación tan profunda de la autora, es muy tedioso, lento y realmente no es disfrutable. Tal vez su forma de escribir tampoco suma, ya que es muy rígida. En fin, ni siquiera lo leí completo, leí fragmentos de algunas flores porque no pude terminarlo.

[Julie Engel]

Full disclosure…I only read about half of this library book. I choose the chapters on tulips, lillies, sunflowers, and orchids. A bit dry, which is why I eventually gave up. Couldn’t compete with all the summer fiction I’ve been waiting to read.

[Joanna Mawdsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lotus, lily, sunflower, poppy, rose, tulip, orchid - they all shaped the world in their own way influencing cultures, hearts and minds around the world.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I appreciate what the author was trying to do here, but ultimately felt this wasn’t for me. I felt some points were loose and not substantiated in a way that grabbed me.

[Anna Goldberg]

DNF. This book was so dry it was unreadable, and I was primed to be interested in the subject matter.

[Pat Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

I learned a few things about some of these flowers and their cultural influences, but I expected more of a story or thread that would link them together and give a larger, overall picture on these flowers. Many, many facts and interesting tidbits, but not as compelling as I thought it would be.

[April Sparrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some flowers more interesting than others. Sunflower and Poppy very interesting but rose quite uninspiring.Would not recommend it to others.