My New Bulb Book
This is a different format for my newsletter because I am so excited to announce the arrival of my new Bulb Book – The Essential Guide to Bulbs, Grow a Bounty of Beautiful Bulbs in Gardens and Containers. In the case of ‘The Bulb Book’, it is, and has been, a passion project for me. I have always loved growing flowers from bulbs. They are fascinating to me.
I have been asked about the process that was involved in creating the Bulb Book, so I thought that I would share a few behind the scenes glimpses about my methods and how the book came to fruition.
The Bulb Book Making Process
Making a book is a long process that begins with a germ of an idea. At this point, ‘The Book’ begins to be real, but only to you. The next step involves explaining the idea to others and persuading someone else, or many someones, that this book is just what the world has been waiting for.
The hypothetical book lives rent-free in your head for a while until you put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. This is the time to gather together the amorphous cloud of thoughts and give it some solid form. This can be a long process, or it may come flowing out in an almost coherent form. The bulb book had been simmering for a long time, so it was ready to be written.
The writing and photographing part are the most exciting, and the hardest. I asked my oldest daughter, who is also a writer, about her perception of my writing process. She said that I am a ‘pants-er’, by which I gather she means that I fly by the seat of my pants! If she means that I delve deeply into research for ages and then write fast and lots, then yes, that is a fair assessment. Then I re-arrange, find duplicate parts, merge, and re-arrange some more to get it into the framework.
When photographing gardening books, you have to be aware of which flowers bloom in what month, so that you can photograph them in their prime. Luckily, we grow almost all of the genera of bulbs in the garden here at Northview, so that gave me easy access for photography when the light was just right. I travel to visit gardens on a regular basis, so I went to bulb gardens in America, England, and The Netherlands for photos in different climates and situations.
Photographs in themselves are a time-consuming process. For example, in one trip to Holland I took 18,000 photographs in three days. These photos have to be downloaded, looked at, and labeled. I then had to choose the best of the best. I whittled them down, but I was often choosing one out of 100. It is like deciding between your children!
As a creative person, the next part is difficult. It is the nuts and bolts of editing, re-editing, and editing some more. As you have noticed from reading this newsletter, I can easily write at length! The hard part is editing my own work. I am so lucky that I have Hanna von Schlegell, who is our gardener here at Northview, who can check the nomenclature, is an eagle-eyed editor, and knows my writing foibles from working with me on the last two books.
New to the book team, but no less appreciated, is my assistant, Helene Fantini-Cooper. She brought her Catholic school grammar expertise and a skillful way of smoothing out my quirky ‘Jenny-isms’ so that they make sense.
The deadline approached. Many cups of tea, and even coffee, were downed to get the book to the publisher (Timber Press) on the prearranged day. The text went to them as one enormous, but well-organized, file. The photographs (all 550 of them) had been labeled with their own unique number that described where they should be in the text, along with their captions.
For a while, all was eerily quiet here in my office. The book had taken all my time and all my brain energy. Now there was a lull while Timber Press looked at everything that I had sent them.
A few months later, the edited manuscript came back for my final edits. That was another big push. We had to go through and catch every repeated word, comma misuse, lack of capital letters, and anything else that was awry.
Back went the tome to Timber Press. Later they sent me about ten pages to look at that were the model for the book design. At some point, I also saw a mock-up of the future front cover, and eventually one last edit of the whole book printed out. By this time, the book was beginning to seem real and exciting.
Then one day, an unassuming brown box arrived at my house and inside was the first book. It was such a thrill to see it eventually as an object and not just an idea. I am so delighted to be sharing my Bulb Book with you. At last, it is arriving in bookshops and mailboxes. I hope that you love reading it and enjoy the photos.
What useful information might you glean from The Bulb Book?
There are bulbs for every garden and every gardener. This book is full of inspirational photos of bulbs in a variety of gardens. There are extensive bulb descriptions with photos in two sections; those that bloom in the spring, and then summer and autumn-flowering bulbs. Use this part to find bulbs that resonate with you.
The design chapter helps you put your bulb combinations together and combine them with other plants in your garden. There is a whole chapter on growing bulbs in containers, and the final chapter shows how to plant and tend your bulbs. And did we mention that there are lots of luscious photos?
Before You Garden: My Bulb Book
My blog this month is all about my new book, The Essential Guide to Bulbs. I’m so excited to share it with you! Click the link to read more about what’s inside the book, explore the seasons of bulbs, and see some more photos of some of my favorite bulbs.
Gardening Questions on the Radio
I have been doing a garden segment on our local NPR radio station, 90.9 FM in the Philadelphia Area – Or streaming on the WHYY website each Thursday at about 4:45pm with Matt Guilhem. You can send in your questions to this email GARDEN@WHYY.ORG.
Longwood Gardens – Garden History and Design Course
I will be teaching a Longwood Gardens course called ‘Introduction to the History of Landscape Design’ this November and December. It is an online course and the link is below. You can take the course from home wherever you live. I believe that it is recorded for participants, so even if the time and dates do not work, you can watch later – check before registering.
Come to Our Book Launch Party!
We are thrilled to announce that Jenny Rose’s latest book, The Bulb Book – The Essential Guide to Bulbs, Grow a Bounty of Beautiful Bulbs in Gardens and Containers, will be available to the public on October 14, 2025. We would like to invite you, your friends, and fellow garden club members to a book launch at Northview on Saturday, October 18th, starting at noon! This is your chance to not only see the Northview gardens in all their fall glory, but to be one of the first to obtain a copy of The Bulb Book personally signed by the author, Jenny Rose Carey for only $30! Join us for a fun afternoon of celebration and camaraderie, complete with (non-alcoholic) bubbly and tulip cookies!!!
If you would like to come, shoot me an email to RVSP. Parking is limited, so I highly recommend carpooling when possible.
Can’t make it? There are other days I will be in bookstores, museums, gardens, and libraries where I will be meeting with you all and signing copies of The Bulb Book.
October 29, 2025 at 4PM
Book talk and book signing at Morris Arboretum (100 E Northwestern Avenue, Philadelphia PA, 19118). Registration required. Save your seat here!
November 9, 2025 at 1:30PM
Lecture and book launch at Scott Arboretum and Gardens (500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081). Registration required. Save your seat here!
November 16, 2025 at 3:00PM
Book launch and signing at the Woodmere Art Museum (9201 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19118). Call for more details at 215-247-0476.
November 20, 2025 at 6:30PM
Author talk, book sale, and signing at Upper Dublin Library (520 Virginia Drive, Fort Washington, PA 19034)
If you like this newsletter, please tell your gardening friends about it. It is easy to subscribe by contacting me via my website.
If you would like to see photos of my garden at Northview and images of my garden travels, please follow me on Instagram @NorthviewGarden and @JennyRoseCarey
Happy Autumn – and bulb planting season.
Cheers,
PS: If you want to hear more of my thoughts and support me in what I do, check out my books. Glorious Shade celebrates the benefits of shade and shows you how to make the most of it. This information-rich, hardworking guide is packed with everything you need to successfully garden in the shadiest corners of a yard. The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Guide gives home gardeners the confidence they need to create the flower-filled garden of their dreams. Instead of concentrating primarily on color, it brings flower shape and texture to the fore, helping homeowners make plant choices that come together in an aesthetically pleasing way.
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