Picker is an Australian illustrator whose richly coloured images lift this volume to beautiful heights.
The lush flower paintings are the big attraction as Picker profiles flowers such as cherry blossom, gardenia and passionflower.
Blossom plants are simply plants which produce masses of flowers, and this selection is of some of the most floriferous popular bloomers.
The New York exile sees beauty in all blooms, creating a 'mental map' of places to visit to get a flower fix, from the High Line to Central Park as she misses the plants and season of her youth and realises "how much I was part of them".
Fruit features too, such as figs, which have a "thick carpet of miniscule blossoms, or florets," inside the fruits, which are "shy flowers that bloom meekly inwards"
There's some quirky takes on the plant choices, such as a recipe for golden hop milk made from hop flowers and nasturtium pesto from tropaeolum seeds.
This book is an uncomplicated idea which develops into something bigger, as the author says, bringing forth "practical and creative ideas to find wonder in the floral world".
