Sow, Reap, Repeat

deas grow not unlike flowers. Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld were like two seedlings, eager to (Thames & Hudson; $60) to a preference for “talking plants to avoid talking play dates.” Apart from their work as lawyers and mothers, they discovered a mutual passion for cut flowers. Elworthy and her family had moved into a magnificent Jacobean house, Wardington Manor, whose legacy included cutting gardens from which London society often procured flowers. But those grounds had lain dormant for decades. The women decided to restore those planting fields, while also entering into a business designing productive gardens. “This is a book about our story and a visual diary of all we have learned,” they write. They lead readers through a year of planting, growing, and cutting. Their ideas are always in bloom.