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Growing Heirloom Flowers: Bring the Vintage Beauty of Heritage Blooms to Your Modern Garden
Growing Heirloom Flowers explains in simple terms how to grow the fullest, richest, and most aromatic blooms possible.
Heirloom flowers have stood the test of time. Prized for their beauty, scent, hardiness, or other star qualities, these vintage varieties continue to capture our imaginations and decorate our gardens long after they first came to be. These flowers have experience, and now you can enjoy the experience of growing them.
In Growing Heirloom Flowers, author Chris McLaughlin takes you on a tour of these alluring blooms, covering the benefits, challenges, growing requirements, and everything else you need to know about more than forty heirloom flowers.
Along the way, she offers tips, tricks, and creative projects for making the most of your heirloom garden, from arranging and preserving to dyes, drinks, and more. With a wealth of information and stunning full-color photography, this book is the perfect guide to adding heirloom beauty to your life.
Heirloom flowers have stood the test of time. Prized for their beauty, scent, hardiness, or other star qualities, these vintage varieties continue to capture our imaginations and decorate our gardens long after they first came to be. These flowers have experience, and now you can enjoy the experience of growing them.
In Growing Heirloom Flowers, author Chris McLaughlin takes you on a tour of these alluring blooms, covering the benefits, challenges, growing requirements, and everything else you need to know about more than forty heirloom flowers.
Along the way, she offers tips, tricks, and creative projects for making the most of your heirloom garden, from arranging and preserving to dyes, drinks, and more. With a wealth of information and stunning full-color photography, this book is the perfect guide to adding heirloom beauty to your life.
- GenresGardeningNonfiction
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2018
8 people are currently reading
833 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 20, 2018
Growing Heirloom Flowers by Chris McLaughlin
Bring the Vintage Beauty of Heritage Blooms to Your Modern Garden
Quatro Publishing
Nonfiction, gardening
May 2018
I received this digital ARC from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for unbiased review.
A wonderful directory of the most common heirloom flowers suitable for your modern garden. The illustrations provide a colorful display of the blossoms described. The author provides some history regarding each species with advice on growing and cutting techniques. There are some suggestions for using the flowers in wreaths or bouquets.
Many of the plants may be familiar to the home gardener who may be unaware their amazing history. It’s fascinating how these plants have retained their original beauty and hardiness to have endured over 100 years. It’s no wonder that many have been useful in the advances of medical and culinary history.
Bring the Vintage Beauty of Heritage Blooms to Your Modern Garden
Quatro Publishing
Nonfiction, gardening
May 2018
I received this digital ARC from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for unbiased review.
A wonderful directory of the most common heirloom flowers suitable for your modern garden. The illustrations provide a colorful display of the blossoms described. The author provides some history regarding each species with advice on growing and cutting techniques. There are some suggestions for using the flowers in wreaths or bouquets.
Many of the plants may be familiar to the home gardener who may be unaware their amazing history. It’s fascinating how these plants have retained their original beauty and hardiness to have endured over 100 years. It’s no wonder that many have been useful in the advances of medical and culinary history.
June 2, 2018
This is a beautiful book on flowers that you can grow in your garden and then cut for your home. The book is split into 4 main chapters, Bold Blooms for the Cutting Garden, Flowers for Fragrance, The Handcrafter's Heirloom and Cottage Classics plus an Introduction into what heirloom flowers are.
Each chapter provides details on the individual flower and its history. Included is details on planting, when and how to cut them whilst in bloom plus if they need digging up due to frost. There are tips throughout the book and lets you know how to best arrange your flowers in a vase, teapot or whatever you feel like.
Each flower comes with full colour photography and there are a number of projects such as a flower crown, a bouquet, dyeing a scarf or framing pressed flowers.
I certainly found it a useful book, as I now know my self seeding plant that has come up year after year in massive quantities is a Love in a Mist and when I should cut my Gladiola that I have planted.
The Resources section includes places to get your heirloom plants, heirloom gardens to visit which are all based in the USA.
I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.
Each chapter provides details on the individual flower and its history. Included is details on planting, when and how to cut them whilst in bloom plus if they need digging up due to frost. There are tips throughout the book and lets you know how to best arrange your flowers in a vase, teapot or whatever you feel like.
Each flower comes with full colour photography and there are a number of projects such as a flower crown, a bouquet, dyeing a scarf or framing pressed flowers.
I certainly found it a useful book, as I now know my self seeding plant that has come up year after year in massive quantities is a Love in a Mist and when I should cut my Gladiola that I have planted.
The Resources section includes places to get your heirloom plants, heirloom gardens to visit which are all based in the USA.
I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.
May 14, 2018
I love plants. Whether it be fruits and vegetables or Flowers. In this case it is flowers. Growing Heirloom Flowers by Chris McLaughlin is a book filled with stunning photos and tons of information to assist you in making and taking caking care of Heirloom Flowers. Most of these flowers are found in just about every garden department of stores. They are considered Heirloom Flowers because they have been around for so long and are classic.
The book shows you a picture of the flower and tells you how to and where is best to plant, how much water, sun, or shade it needs, when you should feed it, how to cut it back, how to protect during the winter, and so much more. It even gives you some history of the plant.
After reading this book I almost feel like an expert. Now I am off to the garden center to see if I can grow these plants like an expert.
I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.
The book shows you a picture of the flower and tells you how to and where is best to plant, how much water, sun, or shade it needs, when you should feed it, how to cut it back, how to protect during the winter, and so much more. It even gives you some history of the plant.
After reading this book I almost feel like an expert. Now I am off to the garden center to see if I can grow these plants like an expert.
I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.
April 23, 2018
Visually pleasing and informative. The author gives detailed information about the history, planting and usage of timeless, and essential in my opinion, flowers to incorporate into your gardens. Presented with many types, some hopefully you already grow and some you will remember that you used to love, you will invite them again into your space. Basic enough for the new gardener and informative enough for the seasoned. Worth a read
May 6, 2018
Get out your highlighter or page markers when you sit down with this book because you will want to check back on your favorite flowers throughout the season. Chris McLaughlin's "Growing Heirloom Flowers" is a gardeners dream reference book for any gardener whether they've been gardening for years or just getting started. I've discovered that my garden is already full of heirloom flowers, and the tips and tricks in this book have me confident that this will be their best year yet! "Growing Heirloom Flowers" would be the perfect Mother's Day gift, or 'just because' gift for any gardener in your life.
June 17, 2018
Thanks to this book I am about $20 poorer for buying seeds of what is pictured online. The photos are gorgeous, and I learned about several flowers I don't think I've seen before (such as Love in a Mist, which I have ordered now). Included in the book are some cute craft ideas like floral crowns and flower dying silk, and an interesting description of just what heirloom means. Flip through this to get ideas of what you want in your garden. I'm glad I did!
April 25, 2018
Fabulous book with lovely sections dedicated to beautiful flowers. I especially loved the descriptive text and vivid colourful pictures.
The handy tips were brilliant.
Recommended throughly
The handy tips were brilliant.
Recommended throughly
May 14, 2018
Wonderful! This book is full of my favorite flowers. There are tips on how to grow them, and where they came from. And, the book is beautifully photographed! There are also some interesting craft ideas that my wife is eager to try. A fun book just to pick up, browse through, and enjoy!
July 3, 2018
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This beautiful book is such a treasure chest of heirloom flowers. those species that have been grown for many years, in many gardens. From cottage garden classics such as foxglove and hollyhocks, to the uses and history of so many beautiful blooms, this is reference book for any dedicated flower gardener.
This beautiful book is such a treasure chest of heirloom flowers. those species that have been grown for many years, in many gardens. From cottage garden classics such as foxglove and hollyhocks, to the uses and history of so many beautiful blooms, this is reference book for any dedicated flower gardener.
June 24, 2018
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Growing Heirloom Flowers: Bring the Vintage Beauty of Heritage Blooms to Your Modern Garden is a new how-to-and-why gardening handbook from Chris McLaughlin out 8th May 2018 by Quarto - Cool Springs Press. It's gloriously full color, 163 pages and available in ebook and hardcover formats.
I'm a huge believer in biodiversity and open pollinated crops, seed sharing and organic gardening. I grew up on a smallholding full of animals and plants which were eminently suited to their environments because they'd grown and flourished in the climate where they were planted/raised for a long long time. There was never much thought given to the transportability or marketability of different vegetables or flowers because they only had to travel a few hundred meters to the kitchen. The tomatoes, by gosh, exploded with tomato flavor and the clove pinks and stocks made you giddy with the smell. That is something this author really gets. In fact, there's been a really scary trend toward loss of biodiversity and variety in our crops and seeds worldwide. The trend toward taking back our heirloom heritage is important and this book is very timely in that respect.
The book starts with an introduction and explanation; what heirlooms are and why we should be interested in growing them. The author continues on to describe the different uses of plants and starts off with flowers for the cutting garden. Most of the plants she describes for different uses have an individual entry with pictures, color photos and uses. Happily, she includes the proper Latin names in each listing, so gardeners can find their way to the correct plants.
Interspersed rather whimsically in each chapter are short tutorial with crafts and other fun tidbits (making a flower crown, freezing flower ice cubes for drinks, drinks, crafts and foods, etc). Fragrant flowers get their own chapter and I really agree with all her choices. There are a number of old favorites often overlooked (especially in modern garden centres), and which deserve a place in the cottage garden. The chapter on cottage garden classics also includes a fair number of old 'forgotten' favorites which will reward the modern gardener with gorgeous blooms and provide wonderful food and pollen for bees and other wildlife.
The book includes a resource list (slanted toward gardeners in the USA) and handy list of gardens to visit for inspiration. There's a very short author bio and a useful (abridged) index. All in all a worthwhile addition to the heirloom gardening library.
The author's style is very breezy and chatty and exuberant. It did get a bit wearisome that she referred to every one of the plants in the book as 'she' and 'the girls'. A bit of anthropomorphism is fine, but it got to be a bit much for me particularly. On the other hand, for the vast majority of gardeners who will use this book as a pick-and-mix resource and not read it from cover to cover, that won't be an issue. It's a charming and useful book.
4 stars
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Growing Heirloom Flowers: Bring the Vintage Beauty of Heritage Blooms to Your Modern Garden is a new how-to-and-why gardening handbook from Chris McLaughlin out 8th May 2018 by Quarto - Cool Springs Press. It's gloriously full color, 163 pages and available in ebook and hardcover formats.
I'm a huge believer in biodiversity and open pollinated crops, seed sharing and organic gardening. I grew up on a smallholding full of animals and plants which were eminently suited to their environments because they'd grown and flourished in the climate where they were planted/raised for a long long time. There was never much thought given to the transportability or marketability of different vegetables or flowers because they only had to travel a few hundred meters to the kitchen. The tomatoes, by gosh, exploded with tomato flavor and the clove pinks and stocks made you giddy with the smell. That is something this author really gets. In fact, there's been a really scary trend toward loss of biodiversity and variety in our crops and seeds worldwide. The trend toward taking back our heirloom heritage is important and this book is very timely in that respect.
The book starts with an introduction and explanation; what heirlooms are and why we should be interested in growing them. The author continues on to describe the different uses of plants and starts off with flowers for the cutting garden. Most of the plants she describes for different uses have an individual entry with pictures, color photos and uses. Happily, she includes the proper Latin names in each listing, so gardeners can find their way to the correct plants.
Interspersed rather whimsically in each chapter are short tutorial with crafts and other fun tidbits (making a flower crown, freezing flower ice cubes for drinks, drinks, crafts and foods, etc). Fragrant flowers get their own chapter and I really agree with all her choices. There are a number of old favorites often overlooked (especially in modern garden centres), and which deserve a place in the cottage garden. The chapter on cottage garden classics also includes a fair number of old 'forgotten' favorites which will reward the modern gardener with gorgeous blooms and provide wonderful food and pollen for bees and other wildlife.
The book includes a resource list (slanted toward gardeners in the USA) and handy list of gardens to visit for inspiration. There's a very short author bio and a useful (abridged) index. All in all a worthwhile addition to the heirloom gardening library.
The author's style is very breezy and chatty and exuberant. It did get a bit wearisome that she referred to every one of the plants in the book as 'she' and 'the girls'. A bit of anthropomorphism is fine, but it got to be a bit much for me particularly. On the other hand, for the vast majority of gardeners who will use this book as a pick-and-mix resource and not read it from cover to cover, that won't be an issue. It's a charming and useful book.
4 stars
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
September 18, 2019
The flowers were fine, but the author’s writing style was incredibly grating and ultimately prevented me from enjoying this. I’ve occasionally come across other authors who have written in this wink-wink, just-between-us, conversational tone, that I suspect the author believes is clever and witty, but rarely have I seen it executed well. Even in grade school I was warned that, in fiction, natural sounding dialogue should not translate to a literal transcript of the way we speak.
This flow of this book is constantly interrupted with unnecessary, parenthetical commentary, such “(Try to keep up)”, “(Try saying that three times fast”), and “(My clever disclaimer)”, when it was anything but clever. Was it an attempt at sarcasm? Several times, we are told to stop and do something, like phone our mother, and are reassured “I’ll wait”. The text is peppered with language like “bugaboo”, “somethin’ somethin’”, and “just sayin’” and maybe you will love that. Maybe you’ll feel like you’re best friends with the author. I was torn between rolling my eyes, feeling condescended, and wanting to cry “where was your editor?!”
There are better books on gardening, in my opinion, I’m sorry to say I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.
This flow of this book is constantly interrupted with unnecessary, parenthetical commentary, such “(Try to keep up)”, “(Try saying that three times fast”), and “(My clever disclaimer)”, when it was anything but clever. Was it an attempt at sarcasm? Several times, we are told to stop and do something, like phone our mother, and are reassured “I’ll wait”. The text is peppered with language like “bugaboo”, “somethin’ somethin’”, and “just sayin’” and maybe you will love that. Maybe you’ll feel like you’re best friends with the author. I was torn between rolling my eyes, feeling condescended, and wanting to cry “where was your editor?!”
There are better books on gardening, in my opinion, I’m sorry to say I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.
June 1, 2018
This has got to be one of my favourite gardening books of the year so far! And it’s not just the eye candy aspect, although that’s a huge part of it – Nadeen Flynn’s photographs are absolutely sumptuous and I can’t stop flipping through the pages in wonder. It’s the inspiration that practically drips from every page, making me want to rush out to try everything out in my own garden.
Beginning with a definition of heirloom flowers and notes about seed saving, Chris McLaughlin launches into detailed chapters covering cutting flowers (dahlias, larkspur, glads), fragrant flowers (nicotiana, lilacs, bee balm), flowers for handcrafting (calendula, lavender), and traditional cottage flowers (blue flax, cosmos). A few recipes and beautiful DIY projects make delightful additions. This is a gorgeous, informative book I know I will keep returning to.
Beginning with a definition of heirloom flowers and notes about seed saving, Chris McLaughlin launches into detailed chapters covering cutting flowers (dahlias, larkspur, glads), fragrant flowers (nicotiana, lilacs, bee balm), flowers for handcrafting (calendula, lavender), and traditional cottage flowers (blue flax, cosmos). A few recipes and beautiful DIY projects make delightful additions. This is a gorgeous, informative book I know I will keep returning to.
June 7, 2018
I spent time at my Mother's this week. A topic of discussion was heirloom flowers and our favorites. I must admit I have many I love but in the top 5 are Gladolias, Rose's, Peony's, Bleeding Heart's, Lilac's. Mom's list is slightly different - though we share some in common.
This book offers excellent information on growing many heirloom flowers.
There are flower arranging tips and details on how to make an attractive "Summer Flower Crown", lessons in drying and pressing framed flowers, and a list of edibles and how to make floral ice cubes. There's also soaps, candles, body scrubs, bath salts, floral paper, and creative garden journal ideas.
This book offers excellent information on growing many heirloom flowers.
There are flower arranging tips and details on how to make an attractive "Summer Flower Crown", lessons in drying and pressing framed flowers, and a list of edibles and how to make floral ice cubes. There's also soaps, candles, body scrubs, bath salts, floral paper, and creative garden journal ideas.
September 14, 2024
4.75/5⭐️
This book is not only a beautiful coffee table book, it also gave specific profiles on heirloom flowers & what you'd want to specifically plant them for (color, fragrance, etc.). It was very thorough, and a book I will 100% want to re-check out again from the library (if I don't buy it for myself first)!
This book is not only a beautiful coffee table book, it also gave specific profiles on heirloom flowers & what you'd want to specifically plant them for (color, fragrance, etc.). It was very thorough, and a book I will 100% want to re-check out again from the library (if I don't buy it for myself first)!
August 10, 2018
Fantastic book! Great selection of heirloom flowers and short but sweet descriptions. Useful info on growing from seed (or whatever is the best method). Also contains crafts that I'd like to do. Might need to check this one out again!
August 21, 2020
Wow! This is a great resource book for gardeners!
I think every home should have a copy of this book. Well written, great photos and lots of background of some of our favorite flowers. I learned a lot from this book!
I think every home should have a copy of this book. Well written, great photos and lots of background of some of our favorite flowers. I learned a lot from this book!
February 11, 2021
I really liked this book. The pictures are beautiful, the author has a great sense of humor, and the information is valuable. I took this out of the library but there's a good chance I'll be buying my own copy.
May 18, 2019
You will want to browse the photos, but once inside, you'll read every word written
June 26, 2021
I love the sense of humor and writing style. My mother-in-law gave me this book for Christmas and have discovered new fantastic plants I want to try!
September 19, 2022
The authors writing style was kind of annoying, and some of the flower info wasn’t entirely accurate, but good for beginners just wanting to grow flowers for landscaping.
July 9, 2024
A gorgeous book!! An excellent manual for anyone wanting a more cottage garden feel. I’m inspired to try some new flowers ASAP.
November 30, 2024
I’d like to learn to grow some flowers and this has good information.
April 20, 2018
Excellent reference book! It contains step by step tutorials and professional information about the heirloom flowers. Just at time for this Spring. Wonderful!
May 29, 2018
Growing Heirloom Flowers is a collection of how to grow many of my favorite flowers. I really enjoyed this book because a lot of the flowers covered are ones that are sentimental reminders of my two grandmother’s flower gardens. The book contains breathtaking pictures of beautiful flowers. It also contains a few craft tutorials that show how to use flowers in other ways than cut flower arrangements. This book has inspired me to add back in a few of my childhood favorites into my flower garden this year and would be a welcome addition to any flower gardener’s collection.
I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.
I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I was not obligated to write a positive review.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews