Each month for the past 15 years or so, we try to rec­om­mend a flower book for the flo­ral and plant enthu­si­ast. Usu­al­ly we choose a how-to book that shows the read­er a new tech­nique, flo­ral style or trend. The book we are rec­om­mend­ing this month is one of inspi­ra­tion. We had the plea­sure of hear­ing its author speak at this year’s Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit. Jen­nifer Jew­ell is a gar­den­er, gar­den writer, and gar­den­ing edu­ca­tor and advo­cate. Since 2016, she has writ­ten and host­ed the nation­al award-win­ning, week­ly pub­lic radio pro­gram and pod­cast, Cul­ti­vat­ing Place, a copro­duc­tion of North State Pub­lic Radio in Chico, Cal­i­for­nia. Her book, The Earth in Her Hands: 75 Extra­or­di­nary Women Work­ing in the World of Plants is a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of pro­files of peo­ple work­ing in the worlds of gar­dens, plants and flow­ers. Some of our favorite peo­ple are rep­re­sent­ed here includ­ing Debra Prinz­ing, Amy Stew­art, Fran­coise Weeks, Erin Ben­za­kein and Leslie Ben­nett.

Jennifer Jewell on stage at the Slow Flowers Summit 2021

Jen­nifer Jew­ell speaks at The Slow Flow­ers Sum­mit this year at Filoli. Pho­to by Kit Wertz.

The peo­ple fea­tured in this book come from dif­fer­ent parts of the plant world as botan­i­cal sci­en­tists, flo­ral design­ers, land­scape archi­tects, jour­nal­ists, edu­ca­tors, plant hunters, social jus­tice advo­cates, farm­ers and more. While it’s not a com­plete list, it’s a hardy one and offers a glimpse into this won­der­ful world of liv­ing things and how we appre­ci­ate them as humans and how we con­nect through plants and flow­ers in our communities.

This book is avail­able as an audio book read by Cindy Kay , Kin­dle and hard cov­er copy. Please vis­it Jen­nifer­’s web­site to learn more about her pod­cast, Cul­ti­vat­ing Place and all her books.