Are you looking for a gift for the gardener in your life? Maybe it’s the holidays, maybe it’s their birthday, or maybe you just want to show them how much you care. Or maybe you’re the gardener looking for something to add to your collection!
We’ve curated this list of books because we love them and we know you will too! These books are split into three categories: growing your knowledge, collector and coffee table books, and books that will peak your curiousity and take you around the globe learning about plants.
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Although the books are split into three categories, every book is guaranteed to teach you, or whoever you gift the book to, something about gardening. The first section is for the gardener who is practical and wants to know everything, a citizen scientist. The next grouping is for those who love to garden but also love a good decor piece. Why not learning about botany and also have the perfect shelf decor? Finally, the last grouping mixes pretty books with amazing stories. Stories hunting down rare plants, the weird world of insects, or even how alive the soil is below our feet. Whether you’re being transported to another country, or below the surface, these books are a must-not-miss!
by Jeff Lowenfels
This book is the ultimate book for the gardener that wants to understand the biology of plants and how they work. It teaches you about how to best feed your plants and explains each nutrient and why they’re needed for proper growth. This book is part of a trilogy that is the perfect gift to give to any gardener that wants to garden with science in mind.
by Jeff Lowenfels
Knowing more about fungi and mycorrhizae is important as a gardener, since fungi are an important part of the soil food web and are a key part in plants receiving nutrients and water. Understanding why fungi are useful, and how to harness them, will make any garden stronger. This book is part of a trilogy that gives any gardener the full picture, so they can garden with science-backed knowledge.
by Jeff Lowenfels, Wayne Lewis
The third book in the trilogy, Teaming with Microbes is all about the soil. This book teaches you how soil is alive and filled with bacteria, fungi and other microbes that help keep plants alive and healthy. In this book it takes you through how to feed these microbes and foster a healthy soil environment, meaning stronger plants next season!
by Frankie Flowers
If you are a beginner gardener that wants to grow more than just vegetables, thank this book is the perfect choice. Frankie breaks down how to build a garden and orders the information by season so you know exactly what to do step-by-step, season-by-season. This book covers everything from annual flowers to trees. A must read for anyone who is just starting into gardening and wants a barrier-free entry that can make gardening feel simple!
by Frankie Flowers
This book is the ultimate book for the beginner gardener who is looking to start growing vegetables. Filled with step by step instructions on how to start a garden, what plants are the easiest to grow, and how to plant and grow them, this book starting a garden easy. The book also includes information on soil, types of gardens, and the time needed to maintain a garden. No topic is left untouched making it the perfect book for beginners.
by Erin Benzakein, Julie Chai
Erin and Floret Farm rose to fame after their first season on the Magnolia Network’s Floret Farm. And for good reason! This book is the absolute PERFECT book for any gardener who is just getting into growing flowers specifically for cutting (making bouquets and arrangements). This book is loaded with beautiful photos and advice on specific flowers. Erin teaches you the best flowers to grow, how to care for them and when is the best time to cut them for perfect displays. A must-read for anyone interested in cut flowers and making flower arrangements.
by Erin Benzakein, Julie Chai, Jill Jorgensen
If you love dahlias than this book is a must-have! This book is loaded with incredible photos and well thought out information on how to grow and care for dahlias. These flowers are showstoppers in any garden and any arrangement and are one of those cult-like followed flowers. This book is perfect for any gardener who is getting into dahlias or is already obsessed.
by Erin Benzakein, Julie Chai, Jill Jorgensen
Another stunning book by Floret Flowers. This book is the perfect coffee table book for anyone who is obsessed with flowers. Over 200 varieties are covered in this book including information on how to grow them, care for them and cut them. If you know a gardener who loves flowers and home decor, than this book is the perfect gift for them! To have a book that is both a show piece and filled with growing tips. Where can you go wrong?
by Simon Akeroyd, Zia Allaway, Helena Caldon, Martyn Cox and Jenny Hendy
This book covers everything you can ever imagine! And it’s targeted to Canadians which isn’t always easy to find! This book includes all kinds of topics, from landscape design to water features, all the way to different annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. If you are looking for a book that can inspire and teach, this is the perfect book. Filled with inspiration and knowledge, there is something for everyone in this book!
In full honesty, I bought most of these books because they are incredibly beautiful, both inside and out. These books give as much information as a textbook, but can be used as a decor piece on a coffee table or open shelf. Plus, most of the books below come from the Royal Horticultural Society or Kew Gardens which means they will be PACKED full of amazing knowledge. What more can one want beyond learning more about plants while looking at beautiful illustrations.
by Ross Bayton, Simon Maughan
This book, along with others in the collection, is a piece of art. It is filled with beautiful illustrations that complement the information being shared. This book is all about plant families. If you are an amateur botanist or horticulturalist and want to learn how different plants are related to each other, what makes them similar and what makes them unique, than this is for you. This book discusses many common plants such as orchids, cabbage and plantain. It is a perfect addition to any gardeners collection. Plus it looks beautiful on a shelf or table.
by Geoff Hodge
This book, along with the others in the collection, is a piece of art. Filled with beautiful illustrations of plants, seeds and fruit, not only will you appreciate the artwork, but you will learn a ton of information! This book covers everything from growth, reproduction, soil, pruning and pests. Pretty well anything you need to know about plants can be found in this book. This book is a collectors item and teacher for any gardener.
by Sonya Patel Ellis
Just shy of 400 pages, this book is packed full of information and inspiration. This book is all about how to learn more about plants to use them in your every day life. The beginning of the book takes you on a journey through the history of plants. Later in the chapters you are taught about different medicinal and wild plants to forage, recipes to make (food, cocktails and beauty products) and finally creative ways to use plants, from pressed flowers to botanical art. This book is perfect for the gardener who is also a creative.
by Kathy Willis
I first found this book at the Natural History Museum in San Diego and was instantly obsessed! The illustrations in this book are on another level! It’s hard to tell from the photo but this book is LARGE. The book is half written, half illustrations, making it a beautiful coffee table book for anyone interested in learning more about plants. The book is written like a beautiful story while the illustrations look like they came straight out of a historical document. A beautiful collectors item.
by Ambra Edwards
As a reader, you will be taken on an adventure around the globe learning about interesting and unique plants found across different countries and continents. From the corpse lily to the monkey puzzle tree, this book will take you back in history to when these plants were first documented and give you interesting facts about these unusual plants that you can tell your friends about.
Some of these books are stranger than fiction. Learning about the weird world of insects, the underground network of fungi and the search for lost plant species will take you on an epic journey around the world learning about incredible work that is being done and what goes on underground!
by Anne Svendrup-Thygeson
This book is a lot of fun to read! The author takes you through weird facts, quirks and habits of insects from ants, to aphids, to praying mantis. Filled with comedy, and stranger than fiction stories, you will learn so much about insects while being entertained the entire time. A critical book for gardeners to understand the essential role of insects in our environment, with a hilarious tone throughout.
by Sonya Patel Ellis
I still think about this book and how epic it was to read. The author is a horticulturalist at Kew Gardens that travelled the world searching for rare and endangered species. He tells stories of the plants and his efforts to learn to grow them from seed, propagate them and save them from extinction. This book will captivate your imagination and leave you wanting to read it again.
by Stefano Mancuso
This book is another fun read to learn about how plants get to where they are. From coconuts floating in the ocean to water hyacinths invading the globe, this book takes you on an adventure around the world telling you the story of how plants have travelled and taken up home in new places – for better or for worse. A fun read with some pretty water colours for illustration.
by Merlin Sheldrake
This book is all about the hidden fungi that live underground that we never see, but need, in order to keep forests and plants alive and healthy. Learn how large these systems of fungi can grow, and how critical they are to keeping plants healthy. These fungi do astonishing things like send communication across plants, bring in nutrients and allow plants to support one another. This book is an interesting read to bring together plant knowledge in a complete way.
by Peter Wohlleben
Peter Wohlleben has a wide selection of incredible books that he has authored and they never disappoint. This book is a wonderful complement to anyone who is interested in the fungi world beneath our feet, or how our forests communicate. This book will take you through how trees communicate, how they care for one another and how important it is for a forest to stay together to maintain their health. Understanding trees can help you become a better gardener if you are interested in growing a food forest, orchard or want trees to compliment your perennial gardens.
by Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is at it again with another wonderful book that takes you through three different plants and how they affect your brain. From caffeine, to opium to mescaline, this book takes you on a journey of the world of plants and how they can change our brains. Since Michael is a writer by profession, his books are filled with stories that take you on a journey from his garden growing poppies to this attempts at going caffeine free. This book is a fun read that is tied to plants, making it a great crossover for any garden lover.
by Camille T Dungy
I listened to this book as an audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed it. The author is a poet so her book is written in a calm and relaxing way as she describes her experiences building her own garden. Often times gardening is written from one perspective only, however this book is meant to show how gardening should and needs to be diversified and accessible to all. If you are looking for a diverse perspective and a calm, poetic book to enjoy with your morning tea, than this is the perfect choice.
by Novella Carpenter
I really enjoyed this book. The author lives in inner-city Oakland, in an area that is not meant for farming and decides to take up backyard homesteading. From attempts at surviving on only her home grown food, to raising ducks and chickens in a city, the author gets into so many unusual and interesting situations. Many of her stories include her neighbours and their quirks, as well as her own interesting family, making it a book filled with entertainment. This book is perfect for any gardener who wants to read an entertaining book on how to turn city life into country life and all of the weird happenings that come with it.
