flower

Grace Greylock Niles was a botanist, teacher, collector, photographer, free spirit, swamp-explorer, writer, and nature enthusiast. This fascinating and beautifully illustrated book opens the readers' eyes and mind to a world of natural beauty that few would dare to explore. A native of Vermont, the author spent decades exploring the flora and fauna of the northeast, but her special interest in orchids inspired her tireless “bog-trotting.”

This type of book, an illustrated flora, is an example of the core collection of worldwide floras the Botany and Horticulture Library has in its 100,000 plus volume collection. Floras are limited-print scientific texts used by botanists throughout the world for plant identification and to answer botanical nomenclature questions. This book describes 600 plants, their characteristics, and medicinal effects. Additionally, it shows 117 plants with black and white illustrations. The author is a scientist and as well as a botanical artist.

This beautiful book of pressed flowers was compiled by newlyweds Ralph L. and Hetty G. Dixon, who collected the majority of the specimens along the banks of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath in Georgetown in the 1920s. Although the Dixons were amateurs, they took great care in the mounting and identification of their blooms, and it is thanks to this that most of the specimens remain intact. But the love story contained within these pages isn’t the only golden thing about the book; the locally collected flowers include golden corydalis and golden ragwort.

This is not a typical book on gardening methods, but rather a meditation on how each of us responds to a garden as a place, and on the importance of gardens to humans’ well-being. Chapter topics include the “social side of gardens” and "gardens of well-known people." Author Hildegarde Hawthorne was the granddaughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne and a prolific writer in her own right. The book is richly illustrated with drawings and black-and-white photographs. The last chapter speculates about America’s future gardens. Will we have stately gardens similar to those in England, Italy, and France?

This beautifully illustrated pattern book, part of a five volume study of mid-19th century French architecture by artist and chromolithographer Victor Petit, includes fifty color lithographs of designs for gardens. The colorful, full-page illustrations provide designs for the placement of paths, flowerbeds, waterways, and garden structures for properties ranging from one sixth of an acre to more than seven and a half acres.

James Bateman (1811-1897) was a renowned horticulturist, specifically focused on orchidology. He was a highly regarded researcher and landscaper who promoted the analysis and cultivation of flowers and hosted several scholarly expeditions to Mexico and South America.

In 19th century America, as the middle class grew, more people had time to garden for pleasure. That is when books on flower gardening became popular. Chrysanthemum Culture for America (1891) by James Morton was one of the earliest American publications on the history and care of chrysanthemums. At the time, the famous horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey considered it the best book “written by an American” on the flower.

Beautiful Gardens in America (both the 1915 and 1924 editions) is Louise Shelton’s most important work and a noted work of twentieth century American gardening and cultural history. This 1924 edition includes 11 color and 274 half-tone photos (a large increase from the 1915 edition) of notable American gardens of the time. Both photos and gardens were carefully selected by the author and cover many regions of the country and varying climatic conditions.

An early twentieth century book in which an older gardener named Giles teaches three children, named Mark, Dorothy, and Ruth how to create their first garden. The book chronicles them caring for the garden in their first year. The reader begins in January and ends with the garden blanketed with snow in December. The children learn the importance of doing garden chores each month and if you “take care of your plants and treat them rightly, they are sure to reward you with beautiful flowers.” The delightful illustrations throughout the book are by Gertrude M.

This elegantly illustrated book has eight direct color photographs and 64 half tone plates depicting roses and rose gardens. The author, Harry Higgott Thomas (1876-1956), started out with a career in banking but switched his focus and went to study at Kew Gardens and became one of the best known names in garden writing. The< color photographs are by Henry Essenhigh Corke who combined his botany knowledge with the family photography business to become a pioneering photographer of plants.

For just twenty five cents in 1963, you could buy this little book, documenting plants in Window Rock, Arizona, at the Navajo Tribal Museum. The plants listed in this catalog were collected in the area. The actual dried plant specimens now reside at the Jepson Herbarium at  the University of California, Berkeley. Each plant entry is simple, listing the scientific name, common name, and a brief description of the landscape where the plant was found. In some cases, elevation is listed as well.

Did you know that several types of plant bulbs, such as hyacinth, tulips, crocus, daffodils, amaryllis, snowdrops, and irises, can grow and bloom successfully in just water and provide a beautiful display in your home? The equipment invented to do that is the bulb vase. This book’s unusual subject (it is the only book on bulb vases in the Botany and Horticulture Library!) details the history of these vases from the 1700s through their prominence during the Victorian era and into present day.