The Secrets of Wildflowers: A Delightful Feast of Little-Known Facts, Folklore, and History [Hardcover]

Jack Sanders (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Jack Sanders's colorful tribute to wildflowers is bursting with odd facts, ingenious uses, and bizarre superstition about some of North America's most beautiful and common plants. There are more than 10,000 varieties of wildflowers in North America, some rare, some so plentiful that they are designated as invasive weeds. Each has a unique story.
There's Bouncing Bet, a perennial common along the roads and railroad tracks of America. Like many of our most abundant summer wildflowers, Bet was brought over to fill colonial gardens. It's a beautiful plant, but also a useful one. Open up the stalk and its sap makes a fine soap. Colonial beermakers used to put a dab in to help the head on a brew. Doctors used it to wash wounds. Generally considered a weed, it's everywhere.
Or Coltsfoot, which pops up almost alone in winters, and was used in New England as a cure for coughs, the leaves boiled down in water. Asthmatics, Sanders tells us, used to smoke it for relief. For many years, apothecaries in France used Coltsfoot as its symbol, a surprising pedigree for a neglected "weed."
More a companion than a field guide, THE SECRETS OF WILDFLOWERS is a must-have for anyone who enjoys a walk in a meadow or a gaze outside.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Reviewers raved about Jack Sanders's earlier work:

"Sanders's book has been called 'nature writing at its very best.' Deservedly so. So let's hoist a glass of thistle wine and give a toast to Sanders and his petaled friends. Long live the dandelion and all its raffish and renegade ilk!"
--Per Ola and Emily d'Aulaire, Smithsonian

"When I feel depressed about the ravaging of Venus flytraps by collectors in North and South Carolina, I dip into Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles."
--Anne Raver, The New York Times

From the Back Cover

Few things in nature beautify the world more than wildflowers. Their countless colors and endless designs are found almost anywhere the sun strikes the earth - from fields to woods, deserts to ponds, and even in junkyards, dumps, and cracks in shopping-center parking lots.
The Secrets of Wildflowers, Jack Sanders's colorful tribute, is bursting with odd facts and wonderful superstitions about some of North America's most beautiful and common plants. And this is just one of its many uses. You'll also find natural history, folklore, habitats, horticulture, ingenious uses past and present, origins of names, and even their literary pedigrees. Far richer and eminently more varied than any filed guide, The Secrets of Wildflowers is one banquet no nature aficionado can pass up.
How they work and what they do are often overlooked, and how they have been used has largely been forgotten. The Secrets of Wildflowers provides a thorough introduction to more than one hundred representative species of North American wildflowers.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585746681
• ISBN-13: 978-1585746682
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 8.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #871,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A lifelong Connecticut resident, Jack Sanders graduated from Holy Cross College and has been a community newspaper editor for more than 35 years.
His interest in wildflowers began in the 1970s when he undertook a project to catalogue and photograph local wildlife. Over the years he has specialized in the study of the natural history, nomenclature, and uses to which wildflowers have been put, and in the process, has amassed a library of more than 150 books on wildflowers and related subjects.
He was northeastern region editor of Wildflower magazine, for which he wrote many articles. He has also written about wildflowers for The New York Times and other periodicals, and has given many lectures and courses on wildflowers. He is the author of Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles: The Lives and Lore of North American Wildflowers, The Internet Guide to Birds and Birding, and Internet Outdoor Family Fun Yellow Pages, all published by McGraw-Hill, The Secrets of Wildflowers, published in 2003 by Lyons, and three books of local history.
He also writes a weekly column on birds for nine newspapers.
He and his wife, Sally, also a newspaper editor, have two grown sons and live in Ridgefield.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best in the field!, April 29, 2003

By 

Edward J. Kanze "A naturalist and writer" (Bloomingdale, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secrets of Wildflowers: A Delightful Feast of Little-Known Facts, Folklore, and History (Hardcover)

There has never been a handsomer, more erudite, more pleasurable wildflower book to read than this one. Sanders has done a magnificent job of pulling together information from an array of sources---up-to-date science, folklore, descriptive natural history, medicinal uses, and more. Botanical manuals and field guides are vital for identifying North American wildflowers. This book is vital to learn the stories behind the species. It's beautiful to page through and a delight to read. I recommend it most highly!

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wildflower Wonders, August 29, 2005

By 

L. Mamere "Wetland Keeper" (Macedonia, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secrets of Wildflowers: A Delightful Feast of Little-Known Facts, Folklore, and History (Hardcover)

"The Secrets of Wildflowers" by Sanders is phenomenal! I am a naturalist in training and this book has helped me tremendously to find interesting facts to share. I wish there were more out there like this one, but I have just not found them. "The Secrets of Wildflowers" talks about a lot of plants native to North America, which is why it is so special. I can't thank Jack Sanders enough for making my homework a thousand times easier.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Little Gem of a Book, July 31, 2006

By 

Deanna Weber Prine (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Secrets of Wildflowers: A Delightful Feast of Little-Known Facts, Folklore, and History (Hardcover)

This is simply a wonderful addition to any library. I was looking for a native wildflower handbook with a little extra, but this surpassed my expectations. You don't need to be a botanist or a naturalist to enjoy this offering. It has tidbits of fascinating information about native U.S. wildflowers, from its history to medicinal uses to mythological lore. The layout is nice and there are many additional artistic touches here and there to make it a pleasure to read.

I guarantee you'll never look at a wildflower the same way after reading this little gem.