The Posy Book: Teresa H. Sabankaya, Foreword by Amy Stewart
Garden-Inspired Bouquets That Tell a Story
Inspired by the Victorian-era language of flowers, a posy is a small, round bouquet of flowers, herbs and plants meant to convey a message, such as dahlias for gratitude, sunflowers for adoration or thyme for bravery.
These floral poems have become Teresa Sabankaya’s signature. Brides want them for their weddings, but a posy is a lovely gift any time of year, and one that readers can easily put together from their garden or with blooms from their local florist.
In The Posy Book, Sabankaya shares step-by-step instructions, floral recipes for more than 20 posies and ideas for seasonal variations. A modern floral dictionary, with 12 original paintings by celebrated illustrator Maryjo Koch, will help readers craft their own posies filled with personal meaning.
Review
This is such a special book on so many levels, it is beautifully illustrated with absolutely gorgeous photographs of the posies that Teresa Sabankaya creates with their meanings. She describes the language of flowers as Floriography:
‘By creating a sentiment using the language of flowers, a posy can serve as a vehicle to covey profound messages that sometimes cannot be articulated in words.’
The Posy Book holds a modern floral dictionary, a comprehensive compilation of many historical language of flowers dictionaries and other references but it also includes new plant and flower introductions.
This beautiful book also includes detailed portraits of delightful posies each with the names of the flowers, plus the meanings.
Making posies is a really helpful chapter on how to create a posy from starting with the sentiment, how to actually create it using focal, complementary, line flowers and herbs, or other greenery. There is also a step-by-step guide to putting it all together plus suggestions for creating a special tag to accompany the posy.
In addition there is a Quick-Start Occasions Directory where all you need to do is to select the occasion and the chart will show you how to select a few flowers to create a posy based on that occasion.
There is also a Quick-Start Sentiments Directory where you can search for the feeling, or emotion that you want to express and the appropriate flowers or plants to include in the posy.
In addition there is the really comprehensive New Language of Flowers Dictionary absolutely packed full with information.
If you love flowers you will absolutely adore this book, it is full of inspiration of how you can share your love with others, or it makes a beautiful gift for a flower-lover. Highly Recommended!