Black Flora
Inspiring Profiles of Floriculture's New Vanguard
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Discover the growing community of Black floriculture leading the new vanguard in flowers.
Black Flora is the first book to feature profiles of contemporary Black experts innovating in the world of flowers. Author and longtime gardener, Teresa Speight, offers a beautiful intersection of flowers and community. This book is a homecoming, one that unearths the floral legacies of the past and present, while providing a source of inspiration for younger generations of plant-lovers seeking examples of successful Black floral artists and entrepreneurs.
With photos and insights from over 20 growers, florists, and designers from around the US, each with a deep reverence for nature, Black Flora showcases a range of floral expertise. And as visionary horticulturalist and garden historian, Abra Lee, reflects in her foreword, the community represented in Black Flora has an important significance both today, and in garden history.
Both a celebration of now and a vision for the future, Black Flora honors floriculture’s creative vanguard.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this vivid coffee-table book, Cottage in the Court blogger Speight (coauthor of The Urban Garden) explores Black florists' creative processes and inspirations. The individual profiles detail how florists and others who work with flowers got started in their trade. For instance, Speight recounts how botanical artist Nicole Cordier's desire to find a sense of community inspired her to take a job with a farmer-owned cooperative for cut flowers, where she learned the "many different ways to work" with the plants. Entries touch on the racism that Black florists encounter (wedding design studio director Joy Proctor recalls how clients sometimes assume her white assistant is her boss) and the importance of representation (flower farmer Whitney Jaye discusses how seeing established Black farmers helped convince her "this can be viable work"). The vibrant photos illustrate the florists' creativity. For instance, Speight shows off a strapless top clothing designer Ashley Robinson wove from "shiny tropical foliage," as well as artwork in which blue flowers spill out of concrete cinder blocks, designed by Kiara Hancock to represent the beauty in her "gritty concrete jungle" upbringing. The delectable arrangements and heartfelt profiles showcase Black floral designers' ingenuity and talent. This is worth checking out.
