Floret Farm's Discovering Dahlias ~ Book Review

If there is one place and time you could go right now, where and when would you pick? I would say Floret flower Farm during the summer. I was given the chance to review celebrated farmer-florist and New York Times bestselling author Erin Benzakein's new book Discovering Dahlias and it was such a pleasure from the very first page. As you can tell from the title, this book all about Dahlias (her previous books were Cut Flower Garden and A Year in Flowers) and gives excellent advice for growing, harvesting and arranging Dahlias.

I think one of the reasons her book is set apart from the rest in the same genre are breath taking photos taken by her husband Chris Benzakein. I feel like his pictures not only showcase the beautiful flowers, but they tell a story. I wish I could stand in the middle of the flower field during the sunset and enjoy the luscious colors and fresh air. I am a visual person, so I really appreciated that her book is not just a "how to" book. I have never ever read a gardening/farming book cover to cover in the past like I did with Discovering Dahlias.

I had no idea that there were so many variety of sizes, forms, and colors if Dahlias. I am sad that I can't share all the pages with you, but it is so interesting to see the varieties. It's like looking at an encyclopedia for Dahlias!

Ok, I don't have a green thumb and I failed many times in the past and I wish I had the magic touch to grow anything. As I was reading her book, it made me realized that Erin also had a fair share of trial and errors, lots of learning and put in years of hard work. In the first part of her book, she shares some basic advice for how to grow and care Dahlias (of course with some great photos!). As I kept reading these pages, more and more my desire to try to grow dahlias in my backyard started to sprout within me. Maybe I could do this too?

Look at these gorgeous colors! They are truly the fruits of her labors.

Last but not least... this might be my most favorite part of this book: "Variety finder". Erin and her crew grew more than 800 varieties in her fields when they were working on this book, and they narrowed down their top picks to 360 dahlias to create this directory. They are arranged by color groups, timeless and classy white to dramatic and bold maroon/black. I love making flower arrangements and the dahlia is one of my favorite flowers to work with. I flipped through these pages many times just to see and imagine what it would like to make arrangement with them.

I HIGHLY recommend Discoverying Dahlias even if you are total beginner like me or an experienced gardener. The title of this book "Discovering Dahlias" perfectly fits and is truly genius, because that exactly what I felt I was doing.