Overview
Compact format of the critically acclaimed and best-selling original edition.
Critically acclaimed and enthusiastically reviewed, Flora is now available in a compact format. With stunning illustrations from the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library collection and concise text, RHS archivist Dr. Elliott tells the fascinating story of the worldwide botanical exploration undertaken over the past 500 years. Founded in 1804, the RHS sent collectors around the world in search of new floral species, fostering the domestic cultivation of the garden flowers we know and love today. The Society's Lindley Library is one of the world's finest horticulture archives, containing more than 250,000 paintings, illustrations and rare books.
The illustrations, by many by the great names in botanical art, are notable for their historical value in charting the development of garden flowers as well as their indisputable beauty and artistic merit. Flora includes biographical profiles of these botanists and artists.
This spectacular collection of RHS illustrations in a concise format will capture the attention of gardeners and art lovers alike.
History of botanical illustration accompanied by 300 color illustrations and biographies of their illustrators. Illustrations from the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library collection.
Editorials
Science Books and Films [review of the full sized -
This book is a fascinating story of the grand obsession of the discovery and introduction of plants into European gardens ... Over 300 beautiful botanical color plates.Booklist [review of the full sized edition] -
At first glance, this gorgeous volume appears to be an art book, but the nature of its art, hundreds of superior botanical illustrations reaching back several centuries and chronicling nearly 500 years of plant exploration and horticultural experimentation, defines it as a work of science history.Calgary Herald -
Tells the stories of intrepid plant hunters... lovely botanical illustrations.Hamilton Spectator -
The text is knowledgeable and approachable, but the point here is the paintings. The colors are transcendent and their forms and shape exquisite.New York Times Book Review [review of the full siz -
It's as though we were able to see the plant as it appeared on its first introduction, when all the excitement that attaches to a new variety or a new species could still be felt.Washington Post Book World [review of the full siz -
A pleasurable journey through the history of botany and horticulture ... The book makes for a marvelous winter diversion for the gardener, a chance to reflect on how far we have come in the garden in just a few short generations, and on the men and women who made it possible.Economist [review of the full sized edition]
A fascinating work of reference as well as a joy to behold.Maclean's [review of the full sized edition]
Unique and spectacular.Wall Street Journal [review of the full sized edit -
This is not a work of technical botany, but it rests on deep knowledge enlivened by pictures by careful and often inspired artists over many centuries.American Reference Book Annual [review of the full -
Elliott's elegant flower history is that rare example of a collector's item available in the home gardener's price range. Stunningly illustrated, the work matches the passion of the flower lover with the scholar's command of fact and the artist's eye for grace and sweep.Victoria [review of the full sized edition] -
Flora offers a garden of delights preserved forever on paper.Economist
A fascinating work of reference as well as a joy to behold.Raymond Sokolov
Not a work of technical botany, but rests on deep knowledge enlivened by pictures by careful and often inspired artists.—Wall Street Journal
Detroit News
A coffeetable book for the sophisticated green thumb.James J. White
The book invites leisurely perusal of attractive artworks. . .—American Scientist
Verlyn Klinkenborg
It's as though we were able to see the plant as it appeared on its first introduction.—New York Times Book Review
Adrian Higgins
A pleasurable journey through the history of botany and horticulture.—The Washington Post Book World