A Year in Flowers: New book by Erin Benzakein

I am a big fan of Erin Benzakein of Floret Flowers. I have been following Floret on Instagram for years and am constantly in awe of the beautiful images taken on the farm. Floret Farm grows hundreds of flower varieties and they all look amazing. I loved Erin’s first book, Cut Flower Garden, and now there is a new book. Cut Flower Garden was all about growing flowers. The new book, A Year in Flowers, is all about arranging flowers. Read on to learn more about this new book, or to just enjoy the gorgeous photos from the book.

First book: Cut Flower Garden

Floret Farm’s first book, Cut Flower Garden, was all about growing flowers. In it, you’ll find easy-to-follow steps for planting, growing, and harvesting more than 175 varieties of flowers. Including cottage garden favourites and old and new varieties. But most importantly, the book features the best and most beautiful varieties for cutting.

New book: A Year in Flowers

A Year in Flowers picks up where Cut Flower Garden left off. It describes everything you need to start making your own arrangements, whether you are harvesting flowers from your garden or buying flowers at the local market. This book is all about design. It offers easy-to-follow advice on flower care, material selection, and essential design techniques. It also includes how-tos for more than 25 seasonal arrangements. Such as centrepieces, posies, wreaths, and bridal bouquets.

Use whatever is available

According to Erin, you don’t need a flower garden or flower farm to create flower arrangements. Flowers from the market or grocery store and a few foraged bits will work just as well. With a little practice and patience, you’ll get the hang of it in no time. In the book, you’ll find information about buying local, seasonal blooms for your arrangements. Of course, you can also grow your own flowers, even in the smallest of spaces. A Year in Flowers teaches you there is more to flower arranging than perfect, long-stemmed roses and to use whatever is available around you to create something beautiful and unique.

Start a flower arrangement

Erin starts every bouquet with a stroll through the garden, gathering blooms and foliage that catch her attention. Once she has a colour palette in mind and a nice mix of ingredients she then chooses a vase. After that, she builds a base of interesting foliage and then layers in different sized blooms. In addition, she uses other textural ingredients to add interest and movement to the finished bouquet.
Even though choosing her favourite flowers is almost impossible for Erin, if she has to pick just three, they would be sweet peas, Iceland poppies, and dahlias.

Seasonal flowers

Erin Benzakein is one of the leading voices in the seasonal flower movement. Growing, harvesting, and arranging locally-grown flowers is becoming more and more popular. For loose, garden-style arrangements, the quality of the material matters. So work with what is at its best in the garden! Besides, grown, not flown, seasonal blooms are the more sustainable option. And of course, seasonal flowers have a story. There is a farm and a face associated with each bloom. Have you found a local flower farm offering bouquet subscriptions yet?

A Year in Flowers is a must-read for any flower lover. To order your very own copy of A Year in Flowers, click here to visit the website, and be sure to follow Floret Flowers on Instagram.

Nederlands lezers/Dutch readers can order the book here (this is an affiliate link):

All images © Chris Benzakein.