In this exquisitely lush volume, lifestyle legend Carolyne Roehm celebrates her gardens as outdoor living rooms, revealing how she chooses the plants, flowers, and layouts; how she entertains guests with gorgeous table settings and breathtaking arrangements; and how she savors the hours among the blooms. As Carolyne Roehm says, “It’s as simple as this: a garden is like love...a place you venture into with hope, energy, excitement, enchantment, and the greatest of expectations.” For Roehm, the garden has always been more than a canvas for beauty. A place where her devoted efforts bear glorious results, the garden is not only a reflection of what has inspired Roehm, but also a font of inspiration from which she draws--for her astonishingly lovely arrangements, her gracious dinner parties, and her new passion for interpreting her flowers in vibrant watercolor paintings. Each of the gardens at her historic Connecticut home, Weatherstone, has been lovingly crafted to serve as an outdoor living room, where the hours may be passed at work, alone, or enjoyed with company. In the Parterre Gardens bordering the south side of the home, Roehm created a fantasy of snow in spring with white tulips and Sargentina crabapple trees. All of the varietals in her Rose Garden were selected for their pulchritude and divine scent, as well as for their ability to bloom twice to satisfy her insatiable thirst for roses. And when the stream through her property offered only an unsatisfying trickle, Roehm replaced it with a river of hostas, primula, bleeding hearts, and rodgersia that sweeps through her Shade Garden. As Roehm accompanies us on the first-ever tour of these marvels, she shares witty and candid stories of the unexpected triumphs and the sometimes-crushing defeats. And always, there is her desire to return to the garden—to tend, to mend, or to plant anew. A garden is like love, Roehm claims, and indeed, this lavishly illustrated volume is a testament to an enduring, complex, unquestionably personal, and deeply passionate amour.

Suggests season-by-season ideas for place settings, floral arrangements, and menus appropriate for picnics, intimate meals, afternoon gatherings, and formal dinner parties.

3 book set

Simple text and photographs depict the parts of flowers and their pollination.

It has been more than a decade since Carolyne Roehm first shared her love of gardening and flower arranging. Now, for the first time ever, she turns her own photographic lens to that passion with Flowers, showcasing more than 300 images of the varieties in her abundant gardens, all captured at their most vibrant and exquisite moments throughout the season. With a gardener’s intimate understanding and a designer’s elegant eye, Roehm shows us the flowers she has cultivated for decades in and around Weatherstone, her historic Connecticut home. While alternating dramatic close-ups with portraits of lovely arrangements and sweeping views of her land, Roehm writes with wit, emotion, and affection of what flowers have meant to her, as well as of the joys and travails of the committed gardener’s life. What began as a casual hobby ultimately became a multi-year endeavor, as Roehm used her camera to explore the special relationship a gardener enjoys with her carefully nurtured beauties. The outcome is a remarkably personal visual essay: sumptuous, surprising, and as revealing of the sensibility behind the camera as the magnificent species that stand before it. This beautiful objet d’art—a flower garden in a book—is Carolyne Roehm’s most significant and singular volume yet.

In A Passion for Parties, Carolyne Roehm presents her dazzlingly creative ideas for every kind of event, from a black-and-white dinner dance to a spring tulip celebration. Original themes, detailed decorating tips, gorgeous table settings and floral arrangements, as well as more than forty outstanding and surprisingly easy recipes–are all here to lend your next occasion the sumptuous touches that are the hallmarks of Carolyne Roehm’s style. The book offers practical advice and inspiration and even a way to partake in these breathtakingly exquisite events, both behind the scenes and as they take place. Whether it is an intimate Valentine’s Day in Paris or an Autumn Barn Dance for seventy, all of the events depicted here are equally splendid. Organized seasonally, the book features ideas for small gatherings (Christmas Dinner in Aspen) or big blowout events (a Fourth of July dinner with fireworks) and family festivities (a seventy-fifth birthday party, a Dickens-inspired Halloween; a children’s Christmas cookie-decorating party). Recipes include Mini Lemon Crepes Stuffed with Lobster, Chilled Zucchini Soup with Toasted Coconut, Baby Back Ribs with Rhubarb Barbecue Sauce, and Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce.

Nothing lights up a room like flowers. Whether it's baby's breath draped on a table at a wedding reception, clusters of daffodils in small pots scattered throughout a living room or a bucket of sunflowers on a picnic table, a strategically placed bouquet has the power to create a mood and make us feel special. Unfortunately, most of us don't know how to display flowers properly, and they often end up clumsily thrown together in a vase. In A Passion for Flowers, Carolyne Roehm teaches readers how to create arrangements that set off a flower's natural beauty. She discusses the overall features of dozens of the most popular flowers and helps readers understand how these elements relate to each other. Though the book is filled with ideas for brightening holidays and special occasions, Roehm stresses that the magic of flowers should be enjoyed year-round. Organized by season to profile the blossoms as they come into their glory, bouquet "recipes" with step-by-step instructions are sprinkled throughout along with special care instructions for more sensitive blooms. Sections detailing containers, conditioning flowers and elements of floral design are included at the end of the book. A Passion for Flowers features 250 breathtaking photographs and is a treasure trove of knowledge and inspiration that will help readers stop and smell the roses every day.