Martha's Flowers: A Practical Guide to Growing, Gathering, and Enjoying [Hardcover]

The essential resource from Martha Stewart, with expert advice and lessons on gardening and making the most of your spectacular blooms

Martha Stewart's lifelong love of flowers began at a young age, as she dug in and planted alongside her father in their family garden, growing healthy, beautiful blooms, every year. The indispensable lessons she learned then--and those she has since picked up from master gardeners--form the best practices she applies to her voluminous flower gardens today. For the first time, she compiles the wisdom of a lifetime spent gardening into a practical yet inspired book. Learn how and when to plant, nurture, and at the perfect time, cut from your garden. With lush blooms in hand, discover how to build stunning arrangements. Accompanied by beautiful photographs of displays in Martha's home, bursting with ideas, and covering every step from seed to vase,Martha's Flowersis a must-have handbook for flower gardeners and enthusiasts of all skill levels.MARTHA STEWART is America's most trusted lifestyle expert and teacher and the author of more than 80 books on cooking, entertaining, crafts, homekeeping, gardening, weddings, and decorating.

KEVIN SHARKEY, Executive Director of Design at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, helped found the decorating and floral design voice of Martha Stewart Living magazine, working alongside Martha for 22 years.Introduction
AS I WRITE THIS, I AM IN THE PROCESS OF planning my next garden. It will be my seventh garden, and I’ve been collecting images in my head, tear sheets in folders, and names of varieties of trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers that I think will be appropriate in this new and exciting landscape. And I’ve tried to imagine if this time will be any different from when I designed and dug (and double dug), then planted my very first, and very modest, garden in front of our tiny, white clapboard single-story cottage in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusel³