I really loved reading this. It really does have so many flowers and plants with other names, symbolic meanings, possible powers and facts. Most have some sort of image with it.

This was a very interesting book about what each flower means, how to look after them and some tips and tricks for looking after flowers if you like flowers or like very well-designed layouts in pictures this is the book for you.

I know some about the language of Roses but I enjoyed learning more. Now I am going to be more picky when I give flowers to friends or family.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me give them my honest review

This is a beautiful, large-sized book, perfect for display. The content features lovely botanical-type drawings with a brief entry indicating the scientific name (the entries are arranged alphabetically by the scientific name), common names, symbolic meaning and folklore and legend of the plant. It also indicates whether or not the plant is poisonous although I noticed many non-poisonous plants with this indicator. Some grammatical errors were noted as well. This is a book best appreciated in its physical format, not digital!

https://bonnevivantetr.wordpress.com/2022/07/25/the-complete-language-of-flowers-by-s-theresa-dietz/
First of all, I felt very lucky to have an early access to this book in order to be able to review it. This one had a certain handbook-like feature to it since each flower was listed in alphabetical order. Each plant had their own illustration and/or photo (which is always appreciated) and underneath, each description contained the symbolic meanings, possible powers and some facts about that flower. This manual-like book also includes toxicity information about each plant, which is extremely important for gardeners (but also pet owners if you think about it).

This great book would be an especially precious gift for gardening geeks (like me), flower lovers or even florists or tattoo artists! Needless to say, I loved the page design of this book and its illustrations. I found the info it provided to be helpful and sufficient. So, if you’re into flowers, whether in your own garden or in their natural habitat or even their representations in various forms of art; you might consider buying this book.

I must gush about the beauty of this book! This book is a HUGE resource on all things flowers. It's got over 1,000 types of flowers within its pages.
What I loved most:
The illustrations are so wonderful! They are detailed and vibrant!
Each flower has an entry with its name, its meaning, some info on it scientifically and folklore about it! I loved reading the different tidbits of folklore in this! I felt like I learned so much!
If I ever write a book and need to include flowers, now I know which means what! In the Enola Holmes series, there's some language of flowers and this matched what I learned from that series. So cool!
This is also useful for gifting flowers to people. :)

Not nearly as interesting as I was expecting. This book isn't going to be a deep dive into the language of flowers I would compare it to a quick fact book about flowers. While there is a vast assortment of flowers covered in this guide none of them have more than at most five bullet points about them. I wouldn't give this to a beginner because it could be underwhelming for someone first wanting to learn about flowers, but it is probably a great, quick guide for the experienced florist.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - Wellfleet Pressfor a temporary digital edition via NetGalley of ‘The Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History - Pocket Edition’ by S. Theresa Dietz in exchange for an honest review.

This is a comprehensive illustrated dictionary for over 1,001 flower species. Each entry contains a visual depiction accompanied by the flower's scientific and common names, its characteristics and historic meanings including the mythology, medieval legends, and folklore.

I have been quite fascinated by the secret language of flowers since I first encountered it in historical romances. In a society so defined by its rules of etiquette, the idea of fragrant nosegays created to deliver a private message was intriguing. I have also had a long standing interest in the symbolism and folklore associated with plants and flowers.

This lavish and beautifully illustrated reference book contains both aspects as each entry contains information on symbolism, folklore and facts. The entries are organised alphabetically by the scientific names of each flower. At the conclusion are indexes of both common flower names and common flower meanings.

An attractive book that I expect will be of interest to aspiring and experienced botanists as a reference work. It would also make an excellent gift.

With respect to the Pocket Edition. In February 2020 I had read and reviewed the standard edition. While I only have a digital edition, a smaller edition is likely more portable, allowing it to be taken on field trips. So beautiful. On a second reading I amended my original rating from 4 to 5 stars.

Highly recommended.

Thank you for NetGalley and the Publisher for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

Sadly I will keep this review short because, according to my personal opinion only, the negatives greatly outweight the positives in this book.

I liked the cover and the concept behind this book. I also enjoyed the illustrations however at the same time found them completely useless. Content wise, this book is mostly a miss with certain outlier flowers with a decent amount of knowledge written. about them.

The layout of this book is horrendous. Because of my job I have to work on page layout and I would never publish this. The dividers are very randomly placed and the text overflows many many times. Some flowers have way more info than others, there's no aim to make them somewhat standardized/uniform looking whatsoever. The size and placement of the illustrations are completely random as well.
Symbols aren't used consistently, but rather a few selected appear per flower. Now this may be because there is no relevant info in said category represented by the symbol, In that case the symbol itself should still be present without the info/content written next to it without giving the illusion that there is no relevant info for sure.

This is the sort of book that looks good on the shelf. You buy it as a beginner of the beginners and only later realising the lack of knowledge in it, yet it is not pretty enough to counterbalance that deficit.

2/5 stars

I absolutely loved this book. It is very informative and I especially enjoyed the folk lore of the flowers. The only thing I struggled on a couple of occasions with was the lay out. Sometimes it went over a column other times it went onto the next page which was a little confusing. Other than that I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves plants and flowers. It would make a lovely gift.

The Complete Language of Flowers is a comprehensive reference guide to over 1000 different flora and fauna, The beautiful illustrations are accompanied by information on the flower names, folklore, toxicity and any other facts that are of interest. A clear index is included for looking up each flower. It is a great resource for gardeners, flower lovers and artists.

A reference book for the Language of Flowers which contains pretty illustrations, accompanied by a list of the various names of each flower, whether or not it is toxic, its meaning, and any accompanying facts or folklore surrounding it. There is an index to look for flowers under the common rather than scientific name, which is helpful for those who are only casual gardeners. It's a nice book to dip into.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

When I saw this book listed on Netgalley, I knew I had to request it. I absolutely love the flower language and the symbolism of plants in general - so this seemed perfect. I am happy to say that this book was just what I had in mind.

This book features a brief guide for how to use it at the very beginning, which I thought was a nice touch, as it shows What exact information could be found about plants. The flowers are organised in alphabetic order, by their scientific (latin) name. When applicable, there is also a toxicity
symbol - indicating a toxic plant of course. Under that, are listed other scientific names and a plethora of common names. There are also symbolic meanings, color meanings (if there are any), possible powers and folklore and facts. There are also featured lovely, colorful, illustrations for every flower.

I enjoyed this type of classification - especially as I wasn't looking for specific plants, but rather general symbolism of all plants available. If you are looking for specific plants it would still be easy to navigate, scientific names can be found through a simple google search, or you could use the common names index at the end of the book. I especially enjoyed the folklore section, and the index of common flower meanings (also at the end).

This is a pocket edition of a previously published full-sized book, and from what I understand based on other reviews, there are no differences between the books besides the size. The only thing I will mention, not really as a negative, but perhaps to consider - this book features a large number of flowers, so there's only so much information about each one. I think this is a lovely beginners' guide for someone who doesn't know a lot about the topic but wants a good starting point. It's maybe not as suitable for someone who already knows a great deal on the topic.

Overall, this is an amazingly done guide with plenty of flowers, and well-sorted, easily accessible information. I would recommend it if you are interested in the topic and are looking for a place to start with the language of flowers.

A thoroughly enjoyable encyclopedia of the history and folklore associated with hundreds of flowers. Invaluable and the art work is gorgeous!!

The Complete Language of Flowers: A Definitive and Illustrated History is a giant floriography (I just love that word!) of flowers, herbs, and other plants. The sketches are beautiful and remind me of Victorian botanical illustrations. The printed version would make a whimsical coffee table book for fans of cottagecore.

Browsing through this during Spring was perfect. I made a point to look up the meaning and folklore behind daffodils, tulips, and bluebells because they are all currently blooming in my yard. It was kind of difficult to find a few flowers because they’re organized alphabetically by Latin name, but there is an index in the back to help readers find the Latin name based on the common one.

This book was clearly a labor of love and I was not surprised to read in the acknowledgements that it took S. Theresa Dietz over 20 years to compile all the information. It’s a fun dictionary with interesting facts and I’ll be sure to reference it as more plants bloom in my yard in the coming months.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - Wellfleet Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Note: The pocket version of this book and the original are shelved as the same book. Obviously, the pocket version is much smaller with tiny photos. My review below is of the original that was released in 2020 (I've read both) but they are inherently the same other than size.

This is a beautifully illustrated book that's a joy to flip through. The whimsical art is the star here, though there are other lovely elements.

What this book is: An alphabetical listing (by latin name) of over a thousand flower species, with small color illustrations of each one and information such as whether it's poisonous (simply shown by a skull and crossbones by the name), other names it's known by, symbolic meanings throughout history, brief folklore and facts, and "possible powers" (such as death, healing, magic, sending away thieves, killing serpents, protection against witches and more for black elderberries).

What this book is not: This is not a gardening book (no growing zones, information about annual or perennial, size, etc. is given) or an herbal book (no information on how to use elder or echinacea, for instance). It also doesn't give uses for flowers in terms of edibility, teas, etc.

I found the illustrations delightful and really enjoyed looking through it. I appreciated that it's arranged by Latin name, since names for flowers vary so greatly by region and it's good for gardeners, herbalists and foragers to know plants by their Latin names. The facts and folklore were fun, but not in depth. I would have loved simple information like an icon showing garden suitability, size of plant, season of bloom, etc. but this is not that type of book. Still, it's a lovely one.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This book provides a comprehensive dictionary of flowers (as well as some other plants) and their symbolism and historical uses. The best way to utilize this book is a reference guide, finding specific flowers that you're interested in learning about when you are interested.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and seeing these mini snapshots of history of each of the flowers described. It was interesting to get these bits and pieces and see how different cultures used these plants in the past. I wish we could have had guides for suggested bouquets based on different types of messages you might want to send, but I understand that this would be a lot to add to an already-sizeable guide.

The Complete Language of Flowers is a comprehensive encyclopedia providing the meanings, powers, facts, and folklore for over 1,001 flower species. Bringing the age-old art of flower symbolism to modern audiences, this volume is essential for readers, gardeners, and romantics alike.

The language of flowers (floriography) is a means of communicating through the arrangement of flowers and has been practiced for thousands of years in traditional cultures. Flowers have long been used as symbols in art and literature, with examples dating as far back as the Bible and classical works of Shakespeare.

Historically, flowers have been used to romantically capture the archetypal ideas of beauty. Flowers laden with symbolism predominate much of the work of artists and writers, who are admired for their idealistic representation of women and emphasis on nature and morality. In seventeenth century Europe flower gardens were cultivated in wealthy homes as a sign of prosperity and affluence; arrangements of specific blooms would have been given as gifts to express emotions that were not appropriate to be spoken aloud in Victorian society or used to decorate the interior of a home.

Each entry provides the a beautiful illustration of each flower, along with the scientific and common names, characteristics, as well as historic meanings from mythology, medieval legends, folklore, and flower poetry.

First of all, thank you Quarto Publishing Group-Wellfleet Press for giving me the opportunity to read this review copy. This is a very beautifully illustrated book. Even the book's cover is gorgeous. I admit that i was enticed by the cover and of course by the interesting details and descriptions of the book.

However,there are a few parts of this book that is not to my liking. But first i will list a few points that i like about this book. I find some of the facts and info stated in the folklores and facts section to be quite interesting like for example how the Hibiscus called the Shoe Flower is named so as the petals can be used to shine shoes and in the Pacific Islands, a red Hibiscus flower is worn by women as a sign of their interests, if worn behind the left ear means she desires a lover, if worn behind the right ear, means she already has a lover, and if worn behind both ears means she wants another one!. Or the story about wild barley,how in the medieval times, a type of divination using cakes made of wild barley was used to determine guilt or innocence known as alphitomancy, if there was a group of suspected criminals, all of them were fed with the cakes or bread and supposedly the person who got indigestion was the guilty party!.

I also find the facts about some of these plants have become endangered and threatened to be just as interesting as well as crucial to know. Or how some the flowers like a few species of Orchids and plants are using some kind of unique mimicry camouflage or luring techniques into luring and tricking the pollinators insects to do cross pollinations for them.

Ok, those are among points that i liked about this book. Unfortunately, there are a few parts that i find lacking and a little disappointing. For one thing, is the way the author organizes the flowers and plants according to Latin Names instead of the Commonly used,well-known or popular names. I find this part to be troubling and a bothersome especially to someone who is unfamiliar and is not an expert in plants and flowers but is interested to learn about them like me. Isn't a reference guide supposed to be informative as well as easy to follow?. Listing the plants according to their unfamiliar Latin Names isn't easy to follow as we need to look out at the index sections for those names. Isn't it better, if listing the plants according to their popular or commonly known names first, then followed by their Latin/scientific names?.

Secondly which is also the most important part that is the poisonous and toxicity symbols and descriptions of those plants. Why is it that i find that only a few of those poisonous plants came with the descriptions of the level of harmfulness and the side effects of those poison towards humans and animals and which parts are harmful while many others did not have any descriptions or information at all about all of these things?. Yet the most shocking thing is that some of the supposed to be poisonous or toxic plants are from among the plants that we usually used for cooking and the plants that we usually planted in our gardens. Now, that's the part that confuses me i mean if some parts of the plants are really harmful and toxic, shouldn't it come also with an information and some descriptions so that we are aware of it and can take safety precautions?. Not only that, there isn't even an illustration of some of these supposed to be harmful plants for our reference and guidelines. How are we supposed to take some safety and precautionary measures of these plants if we do not even know how it looks like or what kind of harm it can cause to us?.

Thirdly, i am confused with the purpose or objective of this book. As a supposed to be a reference guide, i find this part to be a little confusing as i find this book focuses more on the superstitious mumbo jumbo,myths and legends which is a bothersome to me as for one thing, that isn't the only kind of information that i was looking for from this book and i am not a superstitious person. It is okay to include some superstitious beliefs and local folklores about those plants coz i am sure many people are interested to know about them (so do i) but they are just way too much info and focus on all of that until i begin to think that this book is actually a reference guide for magic spells and witch crafts!. I wish you could also add some beneficial info about those plants like how they are used in other culture as in cooking, as medicine or for other purposes you know more of that cultural and historical aspects to make it more interesting and something useful we could use or apply like for treatment or the medicinal aspect,for everyday purposes like to clean or remove something,etc. I seriously think this book could use a little more extensive and careful research and more editing as i find some facts of the plants to be misleading and confusing.

In conclusion, this book could be a much better and more interesting book but needs some polishing and editing in certain areas. As for now, i could only give this book a rating of 2.5🌟 rounded up to 3🌟. Still, this is a pretty good and interesting book,which i enjoyed reading certain aspects of it but it just isn't what i am looking for or expecting of. But i am sure other readers might enjoy this book more than me.

What a beautiful book! Starting with the illustrations that just capture the flowers in such a beautiful, but also simple way and then giving the symbolic meaning, powers, folklore and facts, it was a fun book to dip into and out of to just enjoy the facts behind flowers.

Before I dove into the full book, I looked up my favorite - the sunflower and the tulips and it was so fun to read the meanings behind the ones I hold close to my heart and in my garden!

This will be a fun gift for my friends who also care most about flowers.