It’s not often I get to write the phrase, ‘a riot of colour’, but upon opening the pages of self-described plant practitioner Jac Semmler’s latest book, these were the first words that came to mind.
Flower Power: Designing gardens for year-round wonder is Jac’s third book, and it had its international release on 3 March. Whilst her previous book Super Bloom provided the ‘ingredients’ to help create a garden, Flower Power shares the ‘recipe’, offering practical guidance to both professional designers and amateurs alike on how to compose a planting design that creates an immersive and floral wonderland, all year round.
In Flower Power, Jac sets the scene by starting with a chapter on ‘planting schemes for garden dreams’, where she lays out the fundamental elements of planting design. She then introduces us to the heroes of the garden, i.e. the plants, in their many habits and varied life cycles, starting with annuals and ending with the climbing cohort. Jac finds room in her gardens for both native and exotic plants. No trees here – Jac wanted to focus on the human scale. Jac then lays out design directions in plantings, considering colour, shape and scale, before moving onto composition and then providing practical advice on gardening through time.
Jac argues that plants are the main event in a garden and should be treated as the central characters in our spaces when designing a garden for year-round interest. She encourages us to follow the lead of plants and consider gardens as ever-changing places that flourish and grow over time, rather than just establish and survive. She says there is a role for both static (permanent) and dynamic (temporal) plants in the garden; for example, a succulent can provide year-round structure, whilst a bulb will come and go. Planting this way provides a garden with year-round, and successional seasonal, wonder, and even more so if it includes a wide variety of plants.
Why should you read this book?
Flower Power is written for a wide audience, including the home gardener. The professional horticulturist or landscape designer can take a great deal away from this book. If you are looking for design inspiration for a plant-driven garden full of seasonal beauty and wonder, Flower Power will help answer your questions. The principles described here can be applied to both private gardens and those in the public realm.
Whilst Jac’s planting palette is focussed on dry-climate compatible perennials, sub shrubs, succulents and annuals (she lives in Naarm/Melbourne), those of you living and working in the cooler, wetter parts of the country can still benefit from the fundamental garden design principles outlined in this book.
Jac writes that Flower Power has been designed to work both as a reference and a linear guide. If you are looking for a path to follow, start with pages 20-21, where she provides a framework for planting and design directions in your garden. Otherwise, dip in and out of this beautiful book as you like.
Coming in at a hefty 352 pages, this hardback edition is no lightweight tome! However, Jac’s writing flows easily, making the text easy to engage with. Her words are accompanied by the beautiful photography of Sarah Pannell, and key design and planting concepts are illustrated by gorgeous yet easily understood graphics. A highly recommended addition to your horticultural library!
Note: You can read my interview with Jac Semmler in Hort Journal Australia (‘Jac Semmler: Leading a ‘Flower Power’ revolution’, March 2026).
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Flower Power: Designing gardens for year-round wonder by Jac Semmler
Extent: 352 pages
Format: Hardback
Release date: 3 March 2026
RRP: AU $85.00
ISBN: 9781760764548
Publisher: Thames and Hudson Australia
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Hyperlinks (listed in order of appearance in text where they are highlighted yellow)
Hort Journal Australia: https://hortjournal.com.au/
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Image credits
- Front cover (Image: Thames & Hudson)
- Jac Semmler (Image: Sarah Pannell)
- Example page (Image: Thames & Hudson)
