17 Best Flower Gardening Books (2023 Guide)
Welcome to the best flower gardening books available in 2023!
Flower gardening is a fun hobby that brings endless joy and satisfaction. But growing your own garden is actually a lot of work and be quite overwhelming for the budding gardener.
This post gives you the best flower gardening books so that you can grow beautiful blooms year after year!
A flower gardener needs to understand soil, climate, growing zones and individual flower needs in order to successfully grow flowers. These wonderful books give practical advice to new gardeners and will allow you to grow your own cut flowers-successfully.
If you’re more of an blog reader and want to skip the garden book, read our beginners guide to flower gardening here!
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Flower Gardening Books For Beginners
1. Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden By Erin Benzakein
This easy to read guide to cut flowers is one of the best books on growing cut flowers for the beginner gardener.
Erin gives expert advice on how to grow flowers in a small space and detailed instructions on growing many different kinds of cut flowers. Erin is generous with her vast experience, and encourages novice gardeners to not only grow their own flowers but also create their own floral designs for indoor enjoyment.
Erin’s book overflows with rich photography and useful information, making it a popular best seller. (Erin grows and sells her own unique seeds, be sure to get your hands on some of her cool flowers here!)
Get the list for the best flowers for a cut flower garden right here!
2. Flower Gardening For Beginners By Amy Berene
Filled with handcrafted floral illustrations, Amy Berene has created a beautiful yet simple guide to growing your own cut-flower garden in her beautiful book.
Amy goes into all the details a novice flower gardener needs to begin their flower growing journey. With the help of this book the beginner gardener will gain practical flower garden fundamentals.
This essential guide teaches you gardening terms, the basics of setting up a garden plot, and detailed profiles of over 35 different flowers. Featuring lush photography and lots of different varieties of flowers, this book is a great resource for novice flower gardeners.
3. The Old Farmer’s Almanac Flower Gardener’s Handbook
Famous for practical information and delicious photography, The Farmer’s Almanac Flower Handbook belongs in every gardening library. This practical guide features detailed descriptions of over thirty plants, as well as detailed information on the right soil for your plants.
This floral guide also features journal pages to record your own flower growing journey, and lots of information on flower disease prevention and pest control.
Keep in mind that half of this book is a record keeping section and half of the book is helpful information for flower gardening. If you don’t want a journal, keep scrolling for more fabulous book options.
4. A Year Full Of Flowers by Sarah Raven
If you crave the beauty of blooming flowers year round, this month-by-month guide is for you. Learn what flowers you can grow even in the middle of winter, and learn to develop your own year round flower garden.
Start your flower gardening journey off on the right foot with this gorgeous book on growing flowers by Sarah Raven.
Sarah provides sound gardening advice and will help you grow beautiful flowers no matter your level of experience. She teaches you to embrace the beauty of each season, and to get the most out of winter with cool season flowers.
Filled with gorgeous professional photography, this resource is one of our favorite coffee table books.
5. The Flower Hunter By Lucy Hunter
Featuring gorgeous photos and artistic flower arrangements, Lucy Hunter will inspire you to embrace garden design and bring your cut flowers inside.
This book will help you celebrate the joy of growing flowers by bringing them inside.
“Lucy’s evocative, gently humorous words accompany her glorious photographs and exquisite floral arrangements, as she encourages the reader to marvel at the intricate cycles of the natural world, develop their own innate creativity, and to look for beauty in the everyday.”
6. The Flower Gardener’s Bible
The Flower’s Gardener’s Bible is a reference book that should grace the shelves of every gardener’s library. This comprehensive guide covers garden design, soil, planning and planting a flower garden, and pest control.
Learn how to grow and plan a perennial garden, rock garden, a cottage garden and more!
The book is divided into three comprehensive sections, featuring gorgeous flower photographs. This is the comprehensive guide to flower gardening, full of great ideas and over 400 flower profiles. At over 300 pages, this complete guide to flowers is a great deal!
7. A Year In Flowers (Floral Arranging)
If you are looking to feature your gorgeous flowers inside, this is the book for you! Erin from Floret Farm join us once again with another great book. This time she shares her experience in floral arrangement.
The books description proclaims:
“Floret Farm’s A Year in Flowers offers advice on every phase of working with cut flowers—including gardening, buying, caring for, and arranging fresh flowers. With simple-to-follow advice on flower care, material selection, and essential design techniques, it features an A – Z flower guide with photos and care tips for more than 200 varieties.”
Take your cut flowers to the next level by styling them in your home. And if you are hoping to start a career in floral arranging, this is the right book for you!
8. The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide
If you want a thorough yet basic flower gardening book then get a copy of The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide. Jenny Rose Carey will teach you how to create a mesmerizing flower garden with colors that compliment.
Learn how to start growing flowers (this year!) and how to design your garden to be aesthetically pleasing and last season after season.
A review on this thorough floral book says it all:
“The images are gorgeous and the info given for each flower is the most basic needed to get started. Lists shape, role in your garden, where to place in the garden, bloom time, size, hardiness zone, annual or perennial.
Lots of other useful info as well. As a vegetable gardener originally, I find the info helpful for branching out into flower gardening.”
This book includes garden design and plant profiles.
Learn how to properly water flowers here.
9. The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide To Raising and Selling Cut Flowers
Have you ever wondered what it takes to grow a commercial flower garden? The Flower Farmer will teach you how to grow flowers for a successful cut-flower business.
Written to appeal to novice gardeners (and those more experienced), you’ll learn about natural pest control, cultivating soil, selecting the right flower varieties, and so much more.
Start your garden plan off on the right foot with this thorough guide to organic flower gardening.
10. Growing Flowers By Niki Irving
Featuring lots of gorgeous photography and loads of flower growing tips, author Niki Irving invites us in to her flower growing journey. Irving teaches us how to grow flowers organically, understand our own climates, and prepare the soil.
She then walks us through tilling and laying out a garden, planting seeds and bulbs, and much more!
This book will teach you how to grow your own cut flower garden and gives you tips on the best flowers to choose for arrangements. Personal and inspiring, this is one of our favorite books.
Add it to your gardening bookshelf today!
From a reader: “This book covers everything from getting your soil ready, planting and then enjoying all those gorgeous blooms. Very organized by type of flower and she shares all of her extra growing tips that come from experience. I highly recommend this book. It would make a great gift for any gardener, novice or skilled.”
11. Mastering The Art Of Flower Gardening
If you are looking for a book that will get you blooms in every season, this one is for you. Featuring popular flowers that grow in spring, summer, winter and fall, this book will help you extend your flower growing season.
Mastering The Art Of Flower Gardening also gives a brief introduction on how to establish your flower garden, and teaches you how to grow flowers from seed.
This book is filled with bright and clear photographs, giving you lots of inspiration for your future flowers.
12. Flower Gardening For Beginner’s: The Essential 3-Step Guide
Are you a failed flower gardener that’s looking for hope? Maybe you’ve always wanted to grow your favorite flower (hello roses!), but have never had the confidence.
This book is a step-by-step guide that will hold your hand through the flower growing process.
Flower Gardening For Beginner’s will teach you how to design a functional flower landscape and avoid the common mistakes most new gardener’s make. Sadly, this guide does not contain photos, so if you are a visual learner you’ll want to pick one of the other great books from this list!
From disease control to how to choose the right plants, this book will give you the confidence to start growing your own flowers this year!
Learn how to fertilize flowers here.
13. Encyclopedia Of Plants + Flowers By Christopher Brickell
The Encyclopedia of Flowers is a comprehensive guide to over 4,000 flowers combined with valuable flower gardening tips.
This book is the ultimate combination of flower knowledge combined with gardening tips. Starting with tips on how to tend your soil and plant flower seeds, the intro if full of tips on composting, fertilizing and weeding.
This flower encyclopedia includes hundreds of flowers categorized by fragrance, growth habit, growing needs, and more. Gorgeous photography compliments this generous index to flowers. Over 700 pages long and chock full of essential information for flower gardener’s!
A review from a reader: “An AMAZING, comprehensive addition to my gardening book library. The sheer amount of information contained in the 700+ pages is incredible. There is a plant selector section divided into 23 categories that recommends plants based on site, soil, sun/shade, purpose. The plant catalog section has plant portraits and descriptions of 4000 plants divided into groups.”
14. The Modern Cottage: A Fresh Approach To A Classic Style
This modern take on cottage flower gardens combines traditional cottage flowers with reliable perennials.
The Modern Cottage Garden will encourage you to be bold and creative in your flower gardening endeavors. Pair romantic roses with with traditional perennials, and combine dreamy cut flowers with reliable perennials that keep the garden full and lush year after year.
Including an index of over 50 essential plants and a guide to growing in containers, this book brings the cottage style garden into the 21st century.
15. The Edible Flower Garden By Kathy Brown
Did you know that many flowers are actually edible? Pansies, nasturtiums, chamomile and roses are just a few that bring both beauty and culinary options to the flower beds.
Learn to grow your own edible flower garden with a thorough history of each plant and tips on how to grow them.
The Edible Flower Garden by Kathy Brown is “A unique gardening guide and recipe collection offering over 25 planting schemes with accompanying recipes showing how to use the flowers in the kitchen and including an illustrated directory of 45 edible flowers.”
16. The Flower Yard: Growing Flamboyant Flowers In Containers
The Flower Yard by Arthur Parkinson is a feast for the eyes and the flower loving soul. With rich photographs and an emphasis on container gardening, Parkinson encourages you to plant a year round flower garden with creativity and joy.
This book is both inspirational and practical for those who are growing flowers without much space and need to utilize containers.
“This is gardening done entirely in pots, yet on a grand scale that will inspire anyone who wants their doorstep or patio to be a glamorous and lively canvas that nurtures them visually and mentally. “
17. The Flower Farmer’s Year: How To Grow Cut Flowers For Pleasure and Profit
Whether you want to grow flowers as a hobby or business, this flower farmer book will give you a thorough guide to growing cut flowers.
The author shares her years of experience in growing cut flowers for profit using organic methods.
Chock full of useful tips, author Newberry covers plot design, flower types, rotating crops, staking flowers, and more! She gives details on perennials, annuals, biennials, and wildflowers, making this one of the most thorough and helpful books on growing flowers.
From spring flower gardens to summer, fall and winter, this guide helps you plan a gardening year full of flowers.
Final Thoughts On The Best Flower Gardening Books
We hope this list of flower gardening books left you inspired and encouraged.
You don’t have to be a professional gardener to orchestrate beautiful flower beds or even start your own cut flower garden business.
You just need a little inspiration and experience!
Take the valuable information from these books and apply it into the rich soil that awaits. While reading about flower gardening is inspiring, the only way to really learn is to get your hands dirty and put some roots in the ground.
Reading quality flower books will help you get started, but the art of flowers must be experienced and enjoyed!
And who knows… maybe one day you’ll be writing your own flower gardening guide to join this list of beautiful books!
Are you a beginner flower gardener? Check out these resources and guides:
