Romance of Flowers

I have a passion for flowers, but who'd know it from the pitiful scraggly marigolds, the struggling verbena, the droopy pansies that make up my garden. Thus, I pore over books such as this green with jealousy (appropriately), realising that in a perfect world mine would be these posies, and bloom they would beside my doorstep with wild abandon. Violets are my favourites: the sweet violet, viola odorata, and the double Parma violets infused with the most heady, exotic, delectable perfume. Sadly, sweet violets are rarer than rare these days, having been passed over by nurserymen with an eye to profit from the commonly-available African violets. African violets aren't true violets at all, but Saintpaulia ionantha, a Gesneriad native to southeastern Africa, and to my mind at least, a sorry second cousin. Oh! to have lived in the Victorian era when violet sellers stood by almost every corner, and young ladies wore violet corsages to dances, duly warned by etiquette books not to smell too often or deeply of their flowers so as to avoid 'overcoming their senses'. The photographs are simply gorgeous, scrumptious enough to eat, and by the by one can indeed eat violets, candied or infused within sirup, the instructions for which come included within the book. A perfect gift book for the flower lover on your list.