Erin BenzakeinReseñas

WHOA. If you have even the smallest interest in flowers, or you are like me and just go gaga when you see amazing arrangements, this book is a real delight. I want to rush out to my closest local flower farm right now and just buy armfuls! It's also VERY cool that she takes us behind the curtain and shows how to actually make those out-of-this-world arrangements, complete with lists of tools, tips and flower instruction. Do yourself a favor and take a moment to stop and smell the FLOWERS(ha ha!) in this gorgeous book!

From Floret Farms in Washington state, this is a big book that tells you everything you need to know about growing dahlias, including planting tubers and growing from seed, how to make cuttings, dividing tubers and storage, all with photos. But the flower photos are glorious. Going by color variety, each section if filled with photos of each variety and their characteristics and preferences. It's like a beauty pageant because all of them are gorgeous. And more variety than I expected, as I would have thought some dahlias were chrysanthemums or peonies or weird daisies.
This would make a great gift for a gardener or just someone who likes pretty books.½

The photography in this book is so beautiful.

I received this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program.

Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden is a beautiful book full of photos. The book starts with the basics of planning, digging, and essential techniques. Then, it is arranged seasonally through the year. I felt that this layout worked well for a gardening book. Everything is written from the viewpoint of the author and how she does things. I really liked some of her techniques for managing weeds and supporting the flowers.

Once you get into the seasonal part of the book, each season starts with a list of tasks for that season. Then, bloomers for that season are gone over. Specific varieties that the author uses are listed. Lastly, there is a section of flower arranging projects. At the end of the book is a list of the author's favorite resources.

I loved getting the point of view of someone who obviously knows what she is talking about. It was nice to see varieties of flowers listed that suited a cutting garden. The pictures were especially welcome.

Floret Farm is located in the Skagit Valley of Washington. As you may guess, this area doesn't have a lot in common with many other areas of the country. The author talks about 20 degrees as cold. Those of us in the northern midwest wish we only got that cold! The author did mention some things to do differently for colder climates but the advice was very generic and needed more detail. I don't imagine her suggestions work well in the hotter regions of the country either.

Overall, Floret Farm's Cut Flower Gardens is a great book to see a working farm in action. Just remember to supplement it with a good regional gardening guide.½

Fantastic book! Packed with detailed information on flower gardening. Gorgeous photos [I wish that some of the photos had been labeled/captioned with more details about the types of tools shown]. This book focuses on techniques used on a huge garden dedicated to growing & selling many varieties of cut flowers; however there is plenty of good info that can be applied to tiny gardens. Also lots of flower craft ideas & instructions!½

Cut Flower Garden is a wonderfully unique book. It functions as a reference book but is beautiful enough to be displayed on a coffee table. The content is presented with attractive typography, gorgeous photography and clear organization by seasons.

I marveled at all the different ways to prepare a cut stem for a vase and I was amazed at the huge variety of bountiful blooms -- both unusual and common -- featured throughout the book.

I would have appreciated a few more technical details -- a map of the garden’s specific location, labels for the more unusual tools and captions for some of the unlabeled photographs. But aside from that, I found this to be a lovely book and I am inspired to be more bold and creative in my own gardens.

As a former florist I was so excited to learn I would receive a copy of this book as part of the Early Reviewer program. When it arrived I sat down with it that night and read it.

Sadly I was disappointed. The book is beautiful, polished and definitely worth the price but it didn't contain the information I was hoping for which was a detailed history of the farm and how it became what it is today. There is discussion of that but not as much as I wanted.

The book contains tons of information on growing flowers for selling and things to ponder as a flower farmer, definitely worth reading for anyone interested in the subject of cut flowers, but it just wasn't what I was hoping for.

This beautifully designed and beautifully produced volume is a combination of things: a textbook (on how to start your own cutting garden for commercial purposes), a project book (with Martha Stewart–like step-by-step instructions for creating [also Martha Stewart–like] lavish bouquets, wreaths, garlands, and even a spring flower crown), a coffee table–worthy tome (with its lush photography), a nostalgic reminiscence of elders for whom flowers were important fixtures in their lives, and a bit of a life lesson on how things should be. (On the latter note, I'd not have thought of organic flower gardening as a moral issue. For food, yes; organic is key. But for nonconsumables? But I suppose the earth is the earth, and we should be just as conscious of what we put into it as we put into our bodies.) How you use and engage with this book, then, is based on your motivations and goals.

I'll never have a cutting garden on the scale of Erin Benzakein's in Washington State. But the book is inspiring--to the tune of encouraging me to try my hand at some flowers that I'd previously avoided or ignored. Sweet peas? Dahlias? Organized by the season, with a primer of basics at the outset, the book includes tasks and projects for each season as well as in-depth profiles of a half-dozen to dozen key "bloomers" or foliage plants. Completely making this volume worth the price--though I was lucky to be indulged with a hardcopy via the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program--are the "vase life tricks" for the cut flowers and foliage profiled in the book. Benzakein details at what budding stage to harvest florals (and even at what time of day) and then how to preserve their beauty once arranged. Yes, I knew about adding sugar or flower preservative to the water. But I never would have known that some flowers benefit from this treatment (as described for "wimpy drinkers" that are a challenge to get hydrated after picking): "dip their stem ends into boiling water, or hold the stem ends over an open flame, for 7 to 10 seconds, at which point you will notice the stems changing color and texture. Then place them in a vase of cool water. This treatment works well for basil, cerinthe, Iceland poppies, mint, and scented geranium, but can also be tried on anything that's prone to wilting" (p. 39). Brilliant!

Now, the book doesn't include all the florals I'd have expected: carnations, gladiolus, hydrangea, iris, and lavender--for just five examples--are not mentioned. But what the book does include makes it a most worthwhile reference and source of inspiration.

A final note: THANK YOU to Chronicle Books--I was already a fan--for sending an honest-to-goodness book, not a flimsy paperback "advance uncorrected proof" or "advance uncorrected copy" (ARC) on newsprint and sans images (or image captions), accurate pagination, or an index. I am not a professional reviewer; and I offer to review books via LibraryThing because I actually would like to add the books I identify to my collection. To me, an ARC is not very useful. Assessing the contributions of a physical volume necessitates knowing how it will be produced and how it will feel in the hand--and being able to see the maps and images--and being able to assess the usefulness of the index. I would rather not have ARCs in my collection. So I'd be delighted if LibraryThing would identify which books on offer are "real" copies and which books are but stand-ins for the real thing. ARCs are not meant to be kept or cherished--but real books, like Benazkein's Cut Flower Garden--should be.

Excellent book on flower gardening. Covers basics, types of plants, care of plants as well as projects for each season. While the setting is real flower farm in Washington State. everyone can glean information. The photography is well done and makes this book one that can be read by the older garden who can't bend and stoop anymore . This book puts you right into the garden again.
Each section basics and each season is full of information about care of garden, making indoor displays of you cut flowers as well as tasks to the completed. Very glad to add to my library.

Beautiful book! Floret Farm's Cut Flower Garden is wonderful to just sit down and enjoy as a coffee table book and also very user friendly for the novice gardener. I loved the narrow focus on how to actually use the flowers in projects for the home or to sell, and the wonderful "vase life tricks" for each flower. The layout of the book by season, and then by a selection of flowers within each season, is so useful and pleasing. The suggested projects for each season are described very well and actually make it look easy to accomplish yourself. I will treasure this one and may buy additional copies for my gardening friends!

A beautiful book full of detailed instructions for the new gardener. Even the non-gardeners in my family enjoyed looking at the pictures.

This is quite a beautiful book - lovely photos, lovely projects. I appreciate how the book is organized by season and includes information on more than just flowers. That was a nice surprise. Geared toward a beginner gardener I would think, rather than an expert.

This book provides a valuable reference tool as well as an interesting and fun coffee table book. I am primarily a vegetable gardener however I do plant a lot of flowering annuals as well. This book provides a plethora of ideas for using the flowers as well as vegetables in unique and beautiful ways for decorating around the home and for gifts. The seasonal format was a good way to divide the subject matter however I know from my own gardening experience that the seasons do not always correspond to local conditions. I notices several references that do not apply to the hot and humid southern climate. That is something that I am used to adjusting when reading gardening books so it was not a huge factor. The chapters on tools, seeds and cultural practices were all right on and I found useful new information as well as ideas for improving my practices. Overall I liked this book very much and will recommend it to my gardening friends.

This is a lovely book, with beautiful pictures. I love that it is organized by season, with tips and tricks for planting, finding, caring for, and cutting. I am a very basic gardener, with little natural artistry, and this was VERY informative. I wish I'd had this book when I had a yard (we're in a condo now), but this is a book I can share with friends and we can all benefit.

A beautiful book, with inspirational photos. I like that the book is organized by seasons and offers suggestions for easy to find flowers, but then also includes the authors favorite varieties of each. There are comprehensive "what you need" lists that make it easy to get started. My one small complaint is that the font is very tiny, for my aging eyes, in the descriptions of the plants.

I just received this book today and started reading it immediately.
It is exactly what I wanted in a book about cutting flowers from my garden. The photos are beautiful and informative. I really appreciated the author's personal recommendations. I'm often confused when buying seeds as to which variety is best in my growing conditions and she clears this up for me.
The way to best cut and preserve flowers after cutting was information that I have searched for and not found in the other books on gardening that I own.
The "Basics" section helped me with ideas as to how to organize the flower garden and when to do the plantings.
Overall I thought this book was excellent and provides a much needed source of information that is difficult to get and that I have never seen compiled in this organized way.
The photos are lovely and tell me what I want to know/see.
The only thing I would have liked was for the tools to be labeled as I was not certain as to which names fit with which tools. I know I can find this information elsewhere but it would have been helpful to have the photos labeled accordingly.