To open Christin's new book is to plunge into a lush, provocative world of plants and flowers, where murky political intrigue and heartbreaking exploitation intertwine with sheer botanical magic, bursting with joy and colour. Every page offers a mesmerisingly beautiful journey through time and across continents, revealing not just the wonder of plants, but the tangled roots of power, beauty, and survival that connect us all." Sophie Conran
Few understand the depths of our dependence upon flowers in culture, art, medicine, religion, agriculture, and as drivers of our livelihoods better than Christin Geall. The narrative challenges us to embrace a new vision of floriculture grounded in current reality and informed by a hopeful future. The ideas are thoughtfully interwoven throughout the pages, offering glimpses and inspiration into the countless ways flowers directly and indirectly influence our lives, worldwide. Uli Lorimer, Director of Horticulture, Native Plant Trust, Ask The Gardener columnist, The Boston Globe, author of The Northeast Native Plant Primer- 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden (Timber Press)
How rare, in this age of simplification, to find a book that takes pleasure in using arcane words as well as thought-provoking pictures. Pick a page at random from this floral compendium and immerse yourself in Christin Gealls world of ideas. Kendra Wilson, Gardenista, Author of Gardenista: The Low Impact Garden (Artisan)
Author, designer, and cultural critic (in the largest sense of this word), Christin Geall is at it again. After leading engaged readers on a delightful and intellectual exploration of floral design as fine art and enterprise in her first book, Cultivated, The Elements of Floral Style, her newest title, Flora Culture, How Flowers Shape Our World (April 2026, Rizzolli) takes on the good, bad, ugly, and transcendant about our very ancient and very contemporary human love of flowers. She dives into, analyzes, questions, and ultimately gets us, the readers, to see how this human love of flowers might be thoughtfully reimagined "to accommodate present realitiesboth scientific and cultural, so that "our desire, our very love of plants and flowers does less harm and more good through greater understanding. Jennifer Jewell, Host and founder of Cultivating Place, Conservation on Natural History and the Impulse to Garden, a coproduction of Northstate Public Radio; author of What We Sow: On the Personal, Ecological, and Cultiral Significance of Seeds (Timber Press); Under Western Skies: Visionary Gardens from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast (Timber Press) and The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants (Timber Press)
I cannot remember when Ive been more dazzled, delighted, or beguiled by a book, particularly one about flowers, though it is about so much more: horticulture, humanity, culture, capitalism, and the power and voice of choices we make every day. Frances Schultz, author The Bee Cottage Story
A fascinating journey through an alphabet of botanical lore. Filled with fun facts, critical definitions, and the political context of common and arcane horticultural concepts. A beautiful and joyous read. Rebecca McMackin, Ecological horticulturist and TED speaker
This is such a delicious book with people and flowers at its heart. It is full of stories with rich and fascinating insights into the world of fashion, politics, history and much more. All very beautifully illustrated. Advolly Richmond, OBE, FLS. Author of A Short History of Flowers
An extraordinarily rare combination of visual opulence and deep and wide research, but also in that it powerfully challenges the ethics of the floristry industry. Noel Kingsbury, Internationally known writer, garden designer and teacher; author of twenty-five books
Bravo to Christin Geall for confronting the most urgent questions in contemporary horticulture with insight and wit. In these incisive yet deeply enjoyable essays, she challenges readers to look more closely at their relationship with plants and flowers. Provocative and elegant, the book is enriched by stunning, rarely seen images that do more than illustratethey expand and illuminate the text, inviting a richer understanding of the natural world. Horatio Joyce, The Garden Conservancy
"Christin Geall is a true Agent Provocateur. Her deeply insightful book uses her medium of flowers to probe deeply into our culture, our behaviours, political and economic, our strange treatment of the world we inhabit. Our perceptions of beauty and corruptions of it. All with her characteristic witty intellect. She makes her journeys through each topic engrossing and memorable. This book is a genuinely startling achievement offered joyfully by one of horticultures greatest minds." Jinny Blom
