The illustrated classic of an inspired woman and her flower garden on Appledore Island. Celia Thaxter’s small garden with hollyhocks and poppies and scarlet flax was much admired by friends, neighbors, and visitors to the island off the coast of Portland, Maine. There, she wrote this collection of remembrances and gardening advice and it was originally published in 1894, shortly before her death.
In vivid prose, Thaxter captures the stretching stems and blossoming flowers in moods ranging from bitter defeat, delivered by unrelenting slugs, to the exultant triumph of birdsong and bursting blooms. Any gardener will understand and take heart from Thaxter’s philosophical outlook. “I am fully and intensely aware,” she writes, “that plants are conscious of love and respond to it as they do to nothing else.” Many artists found inspiration on Appledore including the American impressionist, Childe Hassam, who provided this enduring book’s many full-page paintings and chapter head decorations. This book is perfect for anyone passionate about flowers and classic books on gardening.
Critical Praise
“A brilliant reprint that outshines all its muddy predecessors.”
—Hortus (U.K.)