Flora: An Illustrated History of the Garden Flower

by Dr. W. Elliott

With stunning illustrations from the Royal Horticultural Society's Lindley Library collection and concise text by Royal Horticultural Society archivist Dr. Brent Elliott, Flora tell the fascinating story of the worldwide botanical exploration undertaken over the past 500 years. Founded in 1804, the RHS led the way in sending collectors around the world in search of new floral species, fostering the domestic cultivation of the garden flowers we know and love today. In the process the RHS has built an unrivaled collection of stunning artworks and rare books covering five centuries of plant history. 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 in Flora , many by the great names in botanical art, are notable not only for their historical value in charting the development of garden flowers, but also for their indisputable beauty and artistic merit. Flora is divided into six geographical Europe; Middle East; Southern & Tropical Africa; Australasia & The Pacific; The Americas; and Asia. Biographies of the botanists and artists are also included. The history of botanical illustration is long and broad. Today, the art is undergoing a botanical illustrations are found on everything from greeting cards to wallpaper to expensive original artworks. This spectacular collection of Royal Horticultural Society illustrations will capture the attention of gardeners and art lovers alike.

Genres: Gardening, History, Art

335 pages, Hardcover

First published August 28, 2001

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please let me find this at a used book store or thrift store or anywhere where I can take it home and start carefully cutting out the pages and taping them on the walls all over my house.

THIS is the book of botanical illustrations I've been looking for, nicely introducing us to the flowers, one by one, continent by continent. It doesn't mean I don't want more. (I do. The dahlia pages aren't quite it, for some reason. Well, for the reason that the dahlias pictured aren't my *absolute* favorites.)

Me and this book spent about 2 months together, page by page, lunch by lunch.

[K.V. Johansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are beautiful and the accompanying short texts on each plant are accurate and informative. It's a book that can be read cover to cover or browsed in at leisure, and even used as a reference, though the latter is definitely not its primary function; the entries on each plant aren't detailed enough for that. However, it has one drawback, and that is its format. Even for a coffee-table book, which is what it's meant to be, it's huge. You really do have to sit down at the kitchen table to read it.

[Ratforce]

Botanical illustration fans will enjoy Flora: An Illustrated History of the Garden Flower by Brent Elliott. The illustrations are gathered from the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library and the history explained in the book expands over 500 years.

[Beroha · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this lavishly illustrated book you will find the stories behind exotic and more familiar flower such as roses. For those who like smaller books you can also find a mini edition to carry along.