Flower Day

Reviews / Votes

"Knapp's beautiful flower essays will inspire every reader to look more closely at the world's botanical wonders. Knapp's descriptions abound with diversity: color, shape, odor, height, size, sex habits, pollinators, fruits, seeds, patterns, longevity, and a wide array of cultural stories. Her chapters range from the enormous sago palm (as big as a Volkswagen Beetle) to the tiny hairgrass in Antarctica, and from our lust for orchids to our love-hate relationship with dandelions. These stories are beautifully written, with extraordinary illustrations, and every reader will come away with a greater admiration for all things floral." * Meg Lowman, author of "The Arbornaut" * "All of us are used to walking out into gardens in the evening and seeing the moonflowers opening, with Carolina jessamine and others joining them throughout the night. Buttercups, asters, sunflowers, and fuchsias bloom at specific times, starting near dawn. Together, these plants present a rich panorama-a kind of floral clock that, with its various combinations, informs a careful observer of the time of day, rain or shine. In this beautifully illustrated book, Knapp generously enriches our understanding of the lovely floral views that greet us every hour of the day and night." * Peter H. Raven, president emeritus, Missouri Botanical Garden * "Flower Day offers a glorious, round-the-clock glimpse into the incredible plant diversity on the planet. This book highlights how and why different plants flower at different times during the day, and Knapp masterfully intertwines the botany, plant biology, history, evolution, and ecology of twenty-four species. Anyone with even a cursory affinity for plants or curiosity about the natural world will appreciate this beautiful book." * Allison Miller, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and Saint Louis University * "Gardeners will appreciate something new to read during their breaks from weeding. Sandra Knapp's Flower Day, evocatively illustrated in black and white by Katie Scott, describes 24 flowers, one for each hour . . . . . Whether you sit down to read it in early afternoon (corpse flower, 2 p.m.) or in the evening (night-blooming jessamine at 7; sacred datura at 9), you will discover in Ms. Knapp's journal 'a world of interactions and happenings.'" * Wall Street Journal * "Knapp offers a lovely series of essays on and appreciations of the flower, using the conceit that the biologist Linnaeus suggested-creating a flower clock. Knapp, with the aid of artist Katie Scott, describes 24 plants in the order by which their blooms appear during the course of a day. Knapp ebbs and flows through her essays, sharing different pieces of information.. . . . Rich observation and beautiful illustrations are highlights of Knapp's unique take on flowering plants." * Library Journal * "In 24 mini-essays about plants, Flower Day covers such topics as floral biology, pollination ecology, physiology, threats to plant's existence, and ethnobotany. The text is - most pleasingly - a quite undemanding read that's very well-written, and with some nice phrasing, e.g., "comprising grayish green stems that resemble a mass of snakes sliding over rocks and vegetation," (p. 10 re queen of the night). In that way it manages to - fairly effortlessly - impart plenty of interesting plant - and plant-related - facts. Which all makes for a most rewarding and satisfying reading and learning experience." * Plant Cuttings *