This text is a collection of paintings of flowers by Elizabeth Blackadder. Gardening writer Deborah Kellaway provides commentary on the artist's favourite flowers - irises (the flower for which she is best known), poppies, tulips, lilies and orchids - and she writes shorter essays on hellebores, anemones and wild flowers, as well as the more exotic strelizia and banksia. She also considers the history of each plant and its place in painting and in the garden, as well as supplying brief cultivation notes.