Flora Culture

How Flowers Shape Our World

Christin Geall author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Rizzoli International Publications

Publishing:7th Apr '26

£32.50

This title is due to be published on 7th April, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Flora Culture cover

As ever more types of flowers reach new popularity for their extraordinary beauty and exotic allure, they can also reach ever-broader markets. Many flower lovers are keen to learn more about them: what arrangements can you make with them, where do they come from, what is their cultural significance, and more. These plants must often be sourced from distant parts of the globe and flown great distances at great cost, however, generating large carbon footprints and sparking ethical concerns about the treatment of workers involved in growing them, supply chains, and questions about how to balance our ever-growing obsession for these flowers with fair practices for obtaining them. Here the floral designer extraordinaire focuses on her own and others work across the globe, reflecting new trends in floral design and exploring historical precedents and influences. Inspirational, visually compelling imagery helps the author address the many issues resulting from the continued expansion of the world s sources and growing zones for floral and botanical material. She aims to teach as well as delight in a seemingly simple yet profound A to Z format for wide-ranging entries on diverse topics including aesthetics, appropriation, colonialism, fair trade, floriculture, globalization, indigeneity, microplastics, seasonality, sustainability, and tokenism to name only a few. By using the species featured as springboards for discussion, Geall gets the reader truly thinking about what a bouquet of exotic flowers represents while also encouraging us to admire them as decadent examples of beauty for beauty s sake.

“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 Geall’s 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 realities—both 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 I’ve 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

ISBN: 9780847876136

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

304 pages