If you're looking for style, look to France. And there's nothing quite like French flower style. In her new book, Flower Couture, From My Garden to My House, (Rizzoli USA, 2025), French designer Cordelia de Castellane takes you through the gardens at her French country house and offers inspiration for ways to make flowers an inseparable part of life.
As she says in the introduction to the book, "This garden has transformed my life. There is nothing extraordinary about it; it is small and pretty, but it's given me a passion. I'll take you there. There are so many secrets and there is so much love behind my little wooden gate."
Each chapter of the book — eight in all — represents flowers of a specific color, with recipes for bouquets, tablescapes, and much more. For example, purple includes lavender, violets, irises, alliums, lilacs, and more. As de Castellane says, "I don't decorate anything with purple … but I cherish it in my bouquets and in my garden." Beautiful photographs and drawings accompany each chapter and hue in the book.
In addition, there are essays on her country house, her favorite colors, bouquet design, her Paris Coffee Flower Shop, Cordelia, and what she calls "her garden fairies," — the people who help her with gardening tasks.
If you're not quite ready for a trip to France, bring everything beautiful about France into your life with this book. You won't regret having on your bookshelf.
Even if you're a dedicated gardener, there's likely a lot you don't know about lavender. But you can learn all about it in this new book, Lavender for All Seasons (Timber Press, 2025) by Paola Legarre.
Legarre has been growing different kinds of lavender for more than 20 years, and now, at her Sage Creations Farm in Palisade, Colorado, she farms 10 acres, including six acres of lavender. As she says in the introduction to the book, "Whether you are a novice who is ready to take your first steps along the path, a budding commercial grower who wants in-depth information and insights, or a lavender fan at any point in between, this book is meant for you."
Legarre will show you how to select the right type of lavender for your hardiness zone, tips for growing and maintaining your plants, the best companion plants, and how to harvest and then enjoy all the benefits of lavender.
Lagarre concentrates on six types of lavender and their many cultivars, so you are sure to find one that suits your landscapes and your tastes. You'll discover that there are pink and white lavenders, as well as the usual ones with violet, violet-blue or lavender to mid-violet flowers.
And finally, she offers a chapter on cooking with lavender and another on lavender crafts.
It's an essential book for anyone who loves lavender.
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