the herbarium world book night 2021

the herbarium

world book night 2021

‘With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?’ Oscar Wilde, De Profundis and Other Prison Writings, Penguin Classics, 2013

This year United Artists for World Book Night invited participants to search for flowers in a book or poem. The text could have a flowery title, be about flowers or the mention of flowers, perhaps even prompting a new artist’s book to be made. Artists were requested to respond to their chosen flowery words by creating

and sending a physical flower, for exhibition and a floral exchange.

We also asked our artists to make a note of the title author, publisher and date of the work that had inspired them, which in turn has created a bibliography of flowers for the catalogue of the project,

The Herbarium.

The size of the work was specified to be less than 8 x 8 x 2cm, with no organic materials, but the brief was otherwise wide – paper, fabric, collage, drawn, printed, text-based, painted, photographic etc.

The response has been excellent, 141 artists from fifteen countries have sent 168 flowers. Blooms have arrived from: Australia, Denmark, England, the Kingdom of Fife, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Nepal, The Netherlands, Scotland, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Singapore, Sweden, & the United American

states of Indiana, Pennsylvania & California.

The language of flowers flourished in the Victorian era, but it largely died out with the mores of the time, and is now mainly spoken by florists. The red rose still stands for passionate love, and the poppy is linked with remembrance of war. Chrysanthemums are a symbol of a long and happy life in Asia, but should

never be given as a gift in France where they are reserved for the floral tributes of a funeral.

Although critics have panned Georgia O’Keefe for her reminders that plants use their flowers to attract the birds and the bees, humans are also attracted to flowers. They are powerful signifiers of emotion, carrying sensuous memories of colour, perfume and touch. We cultivate them in our gardens, and use

them to punctuate and accompany the major times of life and death.

We are delighted that the acclaimed poet, writer and artist’s book maker Nancy Campbell accepted our commission to write for this project. Nancy’s beautiful poems have been hand-set and letterpress printed

to make a very special keepsake that will be included with the postal exchange of flowers when the exhibition finishes.

Blue skies and sunshine in April remind us that spring is a season of renewal and hope. Our flowers now are ready to leave the potting shed and the collection will be on display in the greenhouse vitrines of

Bower Ashton Library, from 23rd April to 23rd May 2021.

The library is currently not open to the public, so we are sharing the flowers in this online catalogue available to the public and our fellow gardeners.

United Artists for World Book Night 2021 ~ The Herbarium has been organised by Sarah Bodman and Linda Parr. Text by Linda Parr

Qiling Xu: ‘Little Plum Blossom of Hill Garden’, Lin Bu Zhejiang Collected Poems, Ancient Books Publishing House, 1986

Claire B. Marcus: A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson, M. A. Donohue, 1916

Ming Lee So: ‘Tulips’, Syliva Plath, Collected Poems, HarperCollins, 1981

Ahlrich van Ohlen: Wilde Iris, Louise Glück, Sammlung Luchterhand, 2008

Kirsten Dietrich: The Land, Vita Sackville-West, William Heinemann, 1926

Angelique Santos: The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, HarperCollins, 2010


Gin Saunders: The Language of Flowers, Mrs L. Burkes, Hugh Evelyn Ltd, 1963

Noriko Suzuki-Bosco: The Orchid Thief, Susan Orlean, Vintage, 2000

David Dellafiora: Notre-Dame-Des-Fleurs, Jean Genet, Marc Barbezat, 1943

Sigrid Ehemann: Flowers and Nature. Netherlandish Flower Painting of Four Centuries, Sam Segal, SDU Publishers, 1990

Linda Parr: The Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio, Penguin Books, 1972

Ahlrich van Ohlen: Novalis, Heinrich von Ofterdingen, Aufbau-Verlag Berlin, 1983


Cheuk Chi Chan: ‘Butterfly and Flower’ BoMai, 2006 Ben Jenner: When We Were Very Young, A. A. Milne, Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1924.


Margaret Burraston: The Botanist’s Daughter, Kayte Nunn, Orion Publishing Co, 2019

Tsz Wing Chan: Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, Shawn Harris, Chronicle Books, 2021

Su Fahy: ‘To a Mountain Daisy’ Poetical Works, Robert Burns, Collins, c.1940

Elaine Knight: Les Fleurs du Mal, Charles Baudelaire, John E. Tidball, 2018

Sonia Leggett: Snake’s Head Fritillary, North Meadow Nature Reserve, Wiltshire, UK, artist’s book, 2016

Kam Lun Chan: ‘Devil’s Snare’, Gina Rush, 2014 Brooke Koven: An Island Garden, Celia Thaxter, Houghton Mufflin, 1894

Gwen Simpson: ‘Darling Buds of May’ William Shakespeare, English Verse Vol 1, Oxford University Press, 1952

Hiu Man Chan: No Rain, No Flowers, Karon Dextra, Readersmagnet LLC, 2021

Cathey Webb: This is Yarrow, Tara Bergin, Carcanet Press, 2013

Ahlrich van Ohlen: ‘Die Blaue Blume’, Joseph von Eichendorff, 1818

Julie Blankenship: The Vagabond, Colette, Penguin Classics, 1995

Lizzie Field: Botanicum, Kathy Wills & Katie Scott, Big Picture Press, 2016

Ahlrich van Ohlen: ‘The Hill We Climb’, Amanda Gorman, poem for USA inauguration 2021

Wing Yu Chan: ‘Like a flower in the desert’, Christy Ann Martine, 2019

Zelda Velika: Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton, Alfred A. Knopf, 1988

Janet Allsebrook: The Book of Nonsense, Edward Lear, The Folio Society, 2002

Margaret Burraston: Travels with My Aunt, Graham Greene, Penguin, 2004

Siu Hang Chung: Dark of the Moon, John Sandford, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007

Janet Allsebrook: The Book of Nonsense, Edward Lear, The Folio Society, 2002

Kai Tin Cheng: What’s Inside A Flower? And Other Questions About Science & Nature, Rachel Ignotofsky, Crown Books, 2021

Lis Evans: ‘Primrose’, The Complete Book of Flower Fairies, C. M. Barker, Frederick Warne, 1996

Brooke Koven: For a Flower Album, Colette, David McKay Company, 1960

Man Yi Cheung: Fresh Water for Flowers: A Novel, Valérie Perrin, Europa Editions, 2020

Elizabeth Dymond: ‘White into White’, Sujita Hisajo, World Haiku Review, 2001

Ahlrich van Ohlen: Jahreszeitenblume / Seasons Flower, artist’s book, Ahlrich van Ohlen 2021

Chung Chau Cheung: Cool Flowers: How to Grow and Enjoy Long-Blooming Hardy Annual Flowers Using Cool Weather Techniques, Lisa Mason Ziegler, St. Lynn’s Press, 2014

Sarah Bodman: Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Márquez, Alfred A. Knopf, 1988

Chan Yu Sing: Welcome Flower Child: The Magic of Your Birth Flower, Brigette Barrager, Random House. 2021

Ka Him Chiu: ‘Mutability - The Flower That Smiles Today’, Shelley, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, Volume 4 (1839)

Sue Vallance: Bread Cement Cactus, Annie Zaidi, Cambridge University Press, 2020

Elena Zeppou: Perfume - The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Süskind, Penguin Books, 1987

Charlotte Hall: The Hot House Flower, Lucinda Riley, Penguin Books, 2010

Danielle Cossey: Virgil: The Eclogues, translated by A. S. Kline, 2001

Chris Ruston: ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, John Keats, Oxford Press, 1819

Alison Raybould: ‘Weeds’, Sea To The West, Norman Nicholson, Faber & Faber, 1981

Rosemary Everett: Life in the Garden, Penelope Lively, Penguin, 2018

Tsz Ho Fong: The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser, 1590 Kam Ping Yu: Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life, Katherine E. Standefer, Little, Brown Spark, 2020

Sarah Bodman: The Blind Man’s Garden, Nadeem Aslam, Vintage Books, 2013

Tanya Hardy: ‘Heirloom’, Kathleen Raine, The Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Woman Poets, ed. Jeni Couzyn, 1985

Chak Kuen Wong: Wildflowers: A Guide to Identifying the Wildflowers in the Wine Country of Northern California, Barbara R. Haddon, 2020

Sharon Hall Shipp: Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury, Corgi Books, 1965

Sarah Bodman: Dance, Dance, Dance, Haruki Murakami, Vintage, 2002

Chrystal Cherniwchan: The Chernobyl Herbarium: Fragments of an Exploded Consciousness, Michael Marder & Anaïs Tondeur, Open Humanities Press, 2016

Ching Ping Ivy Fung: The Language of Flowers: A Novel, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Ballantine Books, 2012

Bindu Adhikary: ‘The Rose is My Favourite Flower,’ In the Realm of The Mind, Bishwa Basnet, 1991

Lynette Willoughby: The Bluebell Wood, Kelly Knight, Austin Macauley Publishers, 2018

Jil Fairclough: ‘The Rose’, William Carlos Williams Selected Poems, Penguin Books 1976

Catherine Polley: The Enchanted April, Elizabeth Von Arnim, Vintage, 1922

Constanze Kreiser: Wilde Iris, Louise Glück, Sammlung Luchterhand, 2008

Constanze Kreiser: ‘Tulips’, Collected Poems, Sylvia Plath, Harper Collins, 1992

Wai Ho Fong: ‘A Red, Red Rose’, Robert Burns, 1794 Carolyn Wing: The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran, Penguin Books, 1992

Richard Shipp: The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Paul Zindel, Harper & Row, 1971

Su Bovington: ‘Lathyrus’, British and Foreign Flowering Plants and Ferns, Anna Atkins, 1853/54

Eva Hejdström: ‘Auguries of Innocence’, Pickering Manuscripts, William Blake, 1863

Wing Ki Ho: Seven Wings and the Bleeding Twin Flowers, T. K. Francisco, Credo House Publishing, 2011

Ella Budd: Reader’s Digest Family Guide to Nature: Answers to 1001 Questions, Richard L. Scheffel, Reader’s Digest Services, 1984

Sara Elgerot: ‘The Last Flower of Autumn’, Poems, Edith Södergran, Holger Schildts förlag, 1916

Nga Ting Ip: Beauty and the Beast, Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, 1756

Jessica Ho: The Story of Rose, Hi Shu, Cosmos Books, 2008

Lynn Pilling: ‘Thistles’, Ted Hughes: Poems selected by Simon Armitage, Faber & Faber, 2000

Roy Willingham: ‘Our Sea-walled Garden’, Richard II, William Shakespeare, Andrew Wise, 1597

Corinne Welch: ‘A Tale’, Collected Poems, Edward Thomas, Faber & Faber, 1974

Isabella Meregote: The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943


Sarah Bradicich: The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett, William Heinemann, 1911

Yiran Gao: ‘I Watched a Rosebud’, Christina Rosetti, Macmillan, 1879

Yan Tung Kwong: The People Look Like Flowers At Last, Charles Bukowski, Ecco, 2014

Sin Yu Kwok: The Iron Flower, Laurie Forest, Harlequin, 2018

Maria White: Morning Glory, Alan Spence, Lucina Prestige (Ed.), Elizabeth Blackadder (Illustrator) Renaissance Press, 2011

Mike Clements: Green Manuring - Principles and Practice, Dr. Adrian J. Pieters, Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1927

Bernd W Plake: Flower Fairies of the Garden, Cicely Mary Barker, Blackie & Son Ltd, 1974

Niamh Fahy: Station Island, Seamus Heaney, Faber & Faber, 1984


Hiu Ting Lai: The Champa Flower, Rabindranath Tagore, Katha Books, 2012

Anne Bossenbroek: Fleurs de Rouille (Rust Flowers), artist’s book, Anne Bossenbroek-Bouchard, 2021

Philippa Wood: ‘Sunflower and chives’, Companion Planting, Richard Bird, Quarto Publishing Plc, 1990

Tamar MacLellan: ‘Lavender and leeks’, Companion Planting, Richard Bird, Quarto Publishing Plc, 1990

Hei Yu Wong: Launch-Zing, Floret Farm’s Discovering Dahlias, Erin Benzakein, Chronicle Books, 2021

Rosie Ingrey: One Hundred Poems from The Japanese, Kenneth Rexroth, New Directions, 1964


Hui Sze Lau: Paper Flower Art, Jessie Chui, GMC Publications, 2020

Mei Yin Lai: Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes, Harcourt, 2004

Ka Man Lam: ‘Lilacs in the valley’, Chia-Tung Lee, Lucie Graham-Smith: ‘Forgive my hat’, The Garden Party and Selected Short Stories, Katherine Mansfield, Oxford University Press, 2008

Eduardo Garcia: Flores Mensajeras, Eduardo Garcia, Ediciones Fruta Bomba, February 2021

Judy Rodrigues: The Magic Wreath of Hidden Flowers, Grace Aguilar, W.H. Mason, 1835

Ying Nam Lau: A Life Without Flowers, Marci Bolden, Pink Sand Press, 2020

Prerna Chandiramani: ‘A Mere Flower’, Stray Birds, Rabindranath Tagore, The Macmillan Company, 1917

Kei Tung Tang: All the Flowers in Paris: A Novel, Random House, 2019

Ka Yan Lee: Crepe Paper Flowers: The Beginner’s Guide to Making and Arranging Beautiful Blooms, Lia Griffith, Clarkson Potter, 2018

Yee Ting Wong: Flowers in the Dark, Sister Dang Nghiem, Parallax Press, 2021

Barbara A. Morton: ‘Haiku from Origami’, Barbara A. Morton, Entropie Books, 2016

Yijia Bai: ‘My Butterfly’, Robert Frost, The World’s Poetry Archive, 1894

Ho Yan Lo: ‘wildflowers’, Gaby Comprés, 2016

Edmund Chia: What A Rose, Edmund Chia, 2021 Hiu Kwan Yu: Flowers: Creative Design, James L. Johnson Jr, San Jacinto Publishing Co., 2001

Wing Ki Yuen: Hope for the Flowers, Trina Paulus, Paulist Press 1973

Ka Lee Lip: ‘The Language of Flowers’, Zhou Dunyi, n.d.

Anwyl Cooper-Willis: Nonsense Botany, Edward Lear, Warne and Co., 1877

Chin Hei Liu: Everlastings: How to Grow, Harvest and Create with Dried Flowers, Bex Partridge, Hardie Grant, 2020

Wai Man Yau: ‘The Rose that grew from Concrete’, Tupac Shakur, 2009

Theo Wood: Winter Flowering Plants, Arthur Osborn, Ward Lock & Co, 1948

Clare Carswell: Launch-Zing, Clare Carswell, Oolith Press, 2021

Sarah Wootton: ‘The Georgics’, Virgil, 29BC

Jean Hathaway: ’Violets, Eeyore’ from Rabbit’s Busy Day, The House at Pooh Corner, A. A. Milne, Methuen, 1928

Anna Juchnowicz: Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Georges Perec, Ed & trans John Sturrock, Penguin Classics, 2008

Sumi Perera: Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury, Doubleday, 1957

Cheuk Yan Yu: Flowers in the Gutter, K. R. Gaddy, Dutton Books, 2020

Lynette Willoughby: The Colour Fuschia, Celie Adam, Alphonso House, 2021

Sally Chinea: A Garden to Dye For, Chris McLaughlin, St Lynn’s Press, 2014


Ka Wai Sung: A Year Full of Flowers, Sarah Raven, Bloomsbury, 2021

Corinne: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, Macmillan, 1865

Kathryn Poole: ‘The Crocus’, Norman Nicholson; Poets of Our Time, compiled by F. E. S. Finn, John Murray, 1973

Siu Ho Lo: ‘Plant Healing Words’, Alexandra Vasiliu, 2021

Andrea Robinson: ‘The Flower Girls: Crocus Lily’, The Observer’s Book of Common Flowers, compiled by Arthur King Frederick Warner & Co. Ltd, 1957

Andrea Robinson: ‘The Flower Girls: Shirley Poppy’, Lily Poppy Poppy Rose: a short guide to the flowers of Lambethartist’s book, Andrea Robinson, 2016

Lok Yi Ma: The Language of Flowers: A Novel, Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Ballantine Books, 2012

Hiu Tung Ming: The Land Gardeners, Bridget Elworthy, Thames & Hudson, 2020


Cho Tik Wong: ‘Dead Dandelions’, Collette Wilson, 2012

Jude Maguire: The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt, Andrea Wulf, John Murray, 2016


Hoi Ting Ng: ‘Windflowers’, Seals & Crofts, 1974 Gen Harrison: Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift, Dean & Co, 1971

Elizabeth Willow: Our Vanishing Wildflowers, Henry S. Salt, Watts & Co., 1928

Nga Yan Ng: ‘Gardenia jasminoides’ Rene Liu, 1995

Rachel Marsh: The Bedlam Stacks, Natasha Pulley, Bloomsbury, New York, 2017

Jill Lauriston: ‘in time of daffodils’, 95 poems by ee cummings, Harcourt, Brace & Co, 1958

Yin Yin Sin: The Art of Pressed Flowers and Leaves, Jennie Ashmore, Batsford, 2019

Ka Ching Lo: ‘Physics of Love’ Kim Inwook, 2016

Ka Yan Yuen: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel, Lisa See, Random House, 2009

Jane Cradock-Watson: ‘The Black Magnolia’, The Wild Cherry Tree, H. E. Bates, Penguin Books, 1968

Heather Chou: ‘Ione’, The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1913

Tsz Shan Lau: Trees, Leaves, Flowers and Seeds: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Plant Kingdom, DK / Smithsonian Institution, 2019

Andrea Hill: Lockdown Flower, Andrea Hill, 2021

Karen F. Pierce: The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1983

Sylee Gore: ‘Impossible Bouquet: Berlin 2021, Paperwork and the Will of Capital, Taryn Simon, 2015

Ka Yan Law: ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, William Wordsworth, 1802

Ka Yan Law: ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, William Wordsworth, 1802

Kate Bernstein: The Beckoning Lady, Margery Allingham, Hogarth Crime, 1987


Pauline Lamont-Fisher: ‘The Bee Meeting’ Ariel, Sylvia Plath, Faber & Faber, 1965

Witch-hazel Hamamelis virginiana

As smoke will rise from a candle only after the flame diesso a branch must be cut from the bush before it finds water

in the frozen earth. When clouds are heavy with snow, a revolution occurs: flower outstrips leaf, little sparks spilling and curling from the burl’

blazing at the same moment the black seeds burst.

WatercressNasturtium officinale

How to tell one shadow from another underwater – cool leaves like coins cast

deep in dappled river – how to know florets from spots of sunlight? Hollow stems plaited and knotted with water, like pattern of thought

or weather. How is it not the river I bundle into bags? Old herb, farmed longer than any other, green fire to burn the tongue

and bolster the blood that flows through us.

YarrowAchillea millefolium

Call it wound-wort, when rust scraped from the sword

becomes a blossom to heal the cut the blade made,or thousand-seal, flowers within flowers small as stars or cells.

Test pollen to date a tomb, scatter stalks to tell the future.Under the pillow it brings a night of dreams

or seven years of love. Call it Plumajillo, little feather –the fronds found everywhere, even lining the starling’s nest

World Book Night © Nancy Campbell 2021

the herbarium world book night 2021

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