Costa's garden: Flowers by Costa Georgiadies. Illus. by Brenna Quinlan

Costa welcomes readers into his garden, a place of quiet, of contemplation, a place to explore and look at all that goes on there. By close observation children will learn lots of things that happen in all gardens. Flowers make you smile, their beauty, scent, their shape and colour can be closely observed, and children will see they are a conduit between animals and plants. Most flowers open during the day where they come in contact with butterflies, native bees and dragonflies, all the pollinators that rely on their nectar and pollen. At night the flowers attract moths, bats and small marsupials. There is a balance between animals and flowers which readers can observe in a garden.

Flower are loud, attracting the attention of the pollinators, they are bold and large, ready for the pollinator to see them and choose them over another. They grow at different times of the year, ready for the insects, birds and animals that are around then. 

Part of their impact upon us is known as horticultural therapy, a state where the flowers impact with their looks, smell, size and colour, helping us smile. A field of sunflowers bring us joy. Many people travel with gardens at the centre of their plans. In Australia we travel west to see wildflowers or to a botanic gardens to see the death smell flower when it opens. 

Flowers bring people together; they are used at all sorts of ceremonies, at many of the rites of passage we observe through various stages of our lives. 

Flowers are associated with people and the smell of a flower can bring back all sorts of memories of someone beloved. Flowers invite everyone to look with their heads, hearts and hands to explore and observe what flowers mean to us.  And Costa asks us to connect, to look with awe and wonder.  

This invitation to connect with flowers around us will have classes bouncing to plant their own gardens, to observe what is already there and be part of it. 

Colourful, bold illustrations are amazingly done using watercolour presenting magnificent images of flowers of all sorts. Kids will love recognising the ones they know and questions some they do not. The text and illustrations together invite readers to use their heads to question, their hearts to look at the flowers with joy and hands to feel what they are seeing. With all three parts of their being engaged, children will be helping their wellbeing, a major part of horticultural therapy. 

Costa has spread his love of gardening so well known to us all through Gardening Australia, speaking to young children about the positive impact of their involvement in loving a garden.

Themes: Gardens, Flowers, Wellbeing, Horticultural therapy, Pollinators, Animals, Birds, Insects.

Fran Knight