Petal Power

by Julia Atkinson-Dunn

192 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[IE · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were several things I disliked about this book and I’m disappointed to say that overall I didn’t enjoy it… But first I’ll list the good things: Flower arrangements were lovely, looked wild and aesthetically pleasing. I liked that she used some more “uncommon” flowers like fennel. And the front cover is very pretty… Now the not-so-good stuff: too many photos of feet (why not photos of hands? Feet don’t do the gardening work…). Too many exclamation marks on each page(!) It felt like reading an overly excited tone, like saying “Wow! Wow wow wow!”. I think the amount of exclamation marks is more suitable for a casual blog post. It was repetitive to keep reading things such as, “ask your neighbour, ask the internet, ask a garden center staff member”, etc. Why even include these topics without any advice. I found it strange and off putting that very early on, on page 16, she recommends other books to read on the topic of gardening and floristry. I am used to seeing ‘further reading’ recommendations at the very end of books. I have some of the books on her list and it made me want to just give up on this book and go and read one of them instead… Also on this same page is the note “The beauty of gardening is that the books you buy on the subject rarely date”. This is false. With the current focus on sustainability, old gardening books telling everyone to use environment-damaging pesticides, peat etc. are certainly dated and irrelevant. I love old gardening books but you need to be cautious following their advice, and since Petal Power is targeted at beginner gardeners, that advice is a little reckless.

[Caro Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great help for a novice

[Jen | jenreadsx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful words and imagery from a kiwi gardener.

I loved how a few of the flowers in this book I had never heard of nor seen before, which doesn’t happen very often!