The Cutting Garden: Growing and Arranging Garden Flowers Paperback – May 1, 2013

The information i wanted on how to grow flowers from seeds.

This is a beautiful and well written book. I truly enjoyed it.

Great book in great condition

Arrived quickly, just as described - beautiful book!

This is a perfectly lovely book, and it solves two problems that plague many gardeners. Many of us long to cut flowers for the house with a generous spirit, but are at the same time loath to deprive the garden of them just when they are at the height of their beauty. And the second problem is, what to do with the flowers when we do get them indoors, so that they look beautiful and inspired and are not just a big colorful mess.Raven solves the first problem by suggesting a cutting garden that is purpose-grown to yield its floral beauty to the house, while still providing structured and varied interest in the garden. She shows, in practical and inspired prose and with beautiful pictures, how to design a space as small as ten by 15 feet for that purpose, and then how to plant it for different seasons and for dramatically different looks, and how I long to try it! She makes it seem so easy that the hardest part for most of us will be to find even a ten by 15 plot of ground in a mostly sunny part of the garden, but surely a bit of grass wouldn't be missed.And this book is even more inspired in addressing the second problem: what to do with the flowers and foliage when you get them inside. Many gardeners, I know, are intimidated when faced with the task of making a thing of beauty out of an armful of plant material. It is odd that this should be so, because flower arranging in a vase is only an intensification or miniaturization of what the gardener does in the garden: arranging flowers and their foliage for beautiful and interesting effects. But there you are.Some gardeners, me for example, would rather get in a sealed metal fuselage and fly halfway around the world to a tricky and complicated business meeting than have to arrange a vase of flowers. I used to take refuge in telling people that my flower arranging was done "Virginia style"; that is, you cut whatever you have blooming in the garden at the moment and just stick it in a vase "anyhoo", as they used to say in the Old Dominion during Mr. Jefferson's time and thereafter. Perhaps they still do; I would like to think so.But not anymore. Now we can all deal with cut flowers with authority and verve. Raven takes you through the basics of flower arranging in a way that is very simple and direct. It's not exactly flower arranging for dummies - the tone is far too friendly and much more suave that that - but it is very insightful and the art is demystified thoroughly. I love the way she shows you an All right but not very inspired arrangement and then shows exactly how, with a few additions and tweaks, it is transformed into something much more beautiful. These right and wrong pictures she gently labels "failure" and "success". And the second half of the book is a lavishly illustrated and highly practical guide to useful cutting flowers in every season, with tips on their cultivation.Sarah Raven is a great English gardener and garden writer, and with this book she has hit on exactly the right mix of the gorgeous and the practical - always the sweet spot most gardeners are aiming for in their own garden practice. The book is wonderfully illustrated by hundreds of color photographs by Pia Tryde. Especially in the second half of the book, each photograph is a superb cameo that is brilliantly lit and photographed. Each one has the intense focus and high beauty of an incised botanical print. They are marvels of detail and are delicious to look at. They make you long to broaden the scope of the plants in your garden and once you see these pictures you will never look at the plants in your garden the same way again. Just pick half a dozen or a dozen plants in this book that are new to you and vow to find them and grow them this spring. Until then, this book will be gratefully received by any gardener friend of your acquaintance, but buy one for yourself first.

Love the book, and though I haven't read far into it yet, I am finding a lot of valuable information in the first pages! Know I will find it a great resource. Thank you.

I have really learned a lot from this book. It is very easy to read and it gives you so many ideas for unconventional floral designs. The pictures are absolutely beautiful as well!

useless. not worth the price, better finds at Goodwill