Life with Flowers: Inspiration and Lessons from the Garden

by Frances Palmer, Erin Benzakein (Foreword by)

Overview

Become a part of artist and master gardener Frances Palmer’s world as she shares everything she knows about growing and arranging flowers in this gorgeous book—"Flower lovers, prepare for peak inspiration" (Amy Merrick, author of On Flowers).

In this follow-up to Life in the Studio, potter, gardener, and photographer Frances Palmer celebrates her love of flowers. Frances approaches her garden planning in waves, ensuring there are always beautiful booms for her to photograph in her vases. In Life with Flowers, chapters for each these “waves" includes profiles on her favorite varieties—with flower-specific gardening how-to's and arranging techniques, as well as delicious flower-forward recipes and simple DIY projects. 

Part of the delight and richness of this book comes from the fact that Frances is at once a gardener and an artist: We learn that she was inspired to grow bearded irises after an exhibition of Cedric Morris’s iris paintings at the Garden Museum in London; that when arranging her tulips she thinks of André Kertész's 1939 surreal photograph Melancholic Tulip; and that she never passes a tiger lily without imagining the chattering garden from Alice in Wonderland or smells her azalea bush without being transported to the English garden of Rebecca. 

To read Life with Flowers is to be invited into both the garden and the creative mind of an insatiably curious, highly skilled, and wildly generous talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781648291395
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/13/2025
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Frances Palmer, author of Life in the Studio and the forthcoming Life with Flowers, is a potter known for her handmade functional ceramics, a gardener known especially for her dahlias, and a photographer who finds her greatest inspiration where her flowers meet her pots. Her work has been featured in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Vogue, Elle Décor, Martha Stewart Living, The World of Interiors, House & Garden,British House & Garden, and Veranda, among other publications. She lives, works, and gardens in Weston, Connecticut. Follow her on Instagram at @francespalmer.

Editorial Reviews

Frances Palmer, beloved potter, gardener, photographer, and cook, has written a personal tale of the flowers she grows and displays in every season with charmingly instructive detail.”

—Page Dickey, author and director emeritus of the Garden Conservancy

“No one grows and arranges flowers with the same enchanting, joyful spirit as Frances. What a gift then to devour her new book, basking in the floral glow of each and every variety she loves, her creative touchstones, and that coveted list of nurseries and suppliers! Flower lovers, prepare for peak inspiration. My heart was ablaze with each turn of the page.” 

—Amy Merrick, florist and author of On Flowers

“Whether you find blooms out your front door or never pick up a trowel but love to fill vases, this gorgeous book of beautiful blooms, artful arrangements, and wise words is an inspiration. It’s guaranteed to bring on flower lust, lift your spirits, and nourish your soul.”

—Dominique Browning, author and founder and director of Moms Clean Air Force

“Who better to show us how to arrange flowers? Frances Palmer not only grows buckets of them, but she also creates beautifully distinct vessels that make you pay attention to every twisting stem and folding petal of these glorious plants.”—Stephen Orr, author of The New American Herbal

"Frances Palmer is a Constance Spry for the twenty-first century. Like Spry, she is a skilled and passionate gardener, and this process informs how she uses flowers in the vase. And, like Spry, she designs beautiful vases and vessels for her floral masterpieces—but Palmer goes on to both make those vessels herself and photograph the results. These extraordinary, complementary talents are captured and generously shared in this sublime book." 

 —Shane Connolly, florist and author of A Year in Flowers

From the Publisher