“Blooming Flowers is a gorgeously lush evocation of twelve different flowers, each one steeped in its own stories, cultural associations and botanical wonder. It is not just a sunny celebration of everything floral – we learn how intimately flowers are entwined with global warming, transatlantic slavery, US imperialism and nuclear radioactivity – but this is a beautifully written book, full of exquisite detail, startling facts and laced with just the right amount of poetry.”—Peter Fiennes, author of Oak and Ash and Thorn