Flower Gardening — Mastering the Art

When I opened Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening: A Gardeners Guide to Growing Flowers, From Today’s Favorites to Unusual Varieties, I was impressed by the gorgeous flower photos. As I started reading, I became awestruck. The breadth of knowledge within the pages of this book about flowers, flower gardening and the wonders of the flower kingdom is for lack of a better word—awe inspiring.

Growing with Flowers

The author, Matt Mattus, an American visual designer, artist, horticulturist and futurist, is a third-generation gardener of his family property in Massachusetts. He also runs a popular gardening blog, Growing with Plants. Every flower variety or species he mentions in his book are ones that he has personally grown and trialed.

Saying that the book gives you everything you need to know about flower gardening, while true, is somewhat of an understatement. Because in this book you’ll find so much more. Like the history of many flowers we know and love. Dahlias, for instance, and the advancements in their breeding. And the trick to getting lavender to bloom and thrive, if you’re not living in a Mediterranean climate.

Practical Flower Gardening Advice

The book is chock full of practical advice for growing the flower garden of your dreams. You’ll find instructions on starting flowers from seed. Also discover how to harden the seedlings off and transplant them in your garden come spring. And Mattus shares various seed starting methods for indoors. The instructions depend on the species. For instance, he covers species that require long growing times and are therefore best started early indoors. These include snapdragon and larkspur. Mattus dedicates a page to larkspur. He discusses their benefits and how to best grow these challenging flowers.

Set up in encyclopedia style, Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening includes instructions for growing more than 100 different types of annuals from seed. You’ll also find information on many summer bulbs, vines and shrubs, including lilac. Get an up-close look at a wide variety of lovely flowers. These include celosia, clarkia, petunia, mission bells, strawflower and salpiglossis (one of my all-time favorites). Also find monkey flower, nemesia, stock, peony, lily, poppy, tuberose, sweet pea, and many more.

Autumn Flower Gardening

The section on autumn blooms is packed full of information on how to grow many of these stunning often jewel-toned beauties. Learn all about growing chrysanthemums (mums) and gladiolus.

Forcing Bulbs Indoors

In the section on winter flowers, Mattus shares how the cold months are one of his favorite times of year. During the winter, he enjoys forcing bulbs into bloom indoors.

“Growing anything green indoors in the winter provides hope, but forcing bulbs into bloom is pure magic,” says Mattus in the Winter Blooms chapter. “Watching a bowl of paperwhite narcissus or a giant amaryllis bulb come into bloom indoors, with the snow deep outside, is a powerful annual ritual. It also may be the first foray many of us make into the world of gardening.”

Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening is one of those books that will delight and inspire the flower grower in every seasoned gardener. And if you’re new to the world of gardening, the book is sure to make a flower gardener out of you.