Summer Garden Reading: Don’t Miss These New Titles
Find two great new gardening books that help tackle design and introducing native plants into your landscape
Wondering what to read next? Here are two new garden books that I've found especially interesting and insightful. One tackles the topic of garden design, while the other helps anyone aiming to add more native species to their landscape. If you've ever felt overwhelmed at the sheer number of choices that must be made in creating a garden, these books are for you. They'll help narrow down the options, while still leaving plenty of space for your personal preferences to shine through.
In Flower Power, Jac Semmler Cultivates Your Unique Creativity
Jac Semmler is an Australian plantswoman and designer who delights in sharing the joy of plants. This is evident throughout Flower Power (Thames & Hudson, 2026), her guide to creating a garden that truly reflects your personality while also suiting your spot on the planet. Plants, not style, are central to Semmler’s practice, making this the perfect read for plant nerds in need of design assistance.
Embracing garden design
Acknowledging that planting design can feel daunting and gardening can bring disappointments, Semmler is endlessly encouraging as she walks readers through her approach to plant selection and arrangement. She emphasizes the personal nature of gardening throughout the book, giving the reader confidence in decision-making.
Questions and thought prompts are especially helpful features of Flower Power, as are the book’s generous photographs by Sarah Pannell. These are large and often embellished with markings that help the reader truly see what Semmler means.
Flower Power will delight anyone interested in planting a bit more courageously and creatively.
Make Eco-Boosting Trades with Plant This, Not That
It’s one thing to decide to add more native plants to the garden, and an entirely different thing to figure out just which native plants will work, both literally and visually. Elise Howard’s Plant This, Not That (Workman, 2026) simplifies the process by providing species-for-species swaps.
Arranging them by typical locations in a home landscape—such as the foundation planting, hedges and the mixed border—Howard calls out dozens of ubiquitous exotics and offers a range of native substitutions.
Find natives for your region
A native-range map accompanies each recommended species, helping the reader tailor the swap to their locale. For example, Eastern U.S. readers can consider inkberry and winterberry hollies as replacements for the boxwood in their foundation scheme, while Western U.S. readers can opt for Oregon grape holly or myrtle boxleaf.
The plant swaps make up the bulk of the book, but Howard also explains other ways to shift toward a more nature-friendly garden. Throughout, she writes with an encouraging and approachable style, sensitive to the difficulties of change. Plant This, Not That makes it something to embrace and enjoy.
Related Article: The Rise of Nativars
