"When you bring flowers into your home and your life, you surround your family and friends with natural beauty that creates a climate of well-being and continuity."

Barbara Milo Ohrbach, author of nine books, including the best-selling The Scented Room, now celebrates the joy of flowers in her gorgeously photographed new book, Simply Flowers.

Ms. Ohrbach brings her creative approach and exquisite taste to arranging fresh flowers, providing all the basics you will need to effortlessly decorate and beautify your home with flowers, from simple country baskets spilling with vibrant wild flowers to stylish arrangements of carefully chosen blossoms.

Filled with practical advice and innovative ideas, including handy lists of botanicals, Simply Flowers is a very personal and imaginative book that takes the mystery out of flower arranging, making it easy and enjoyable. Ms. Ohrbach offers important tips on selecting and cutting flowers, and how to keep them looking fresh and beautiful for as long as possible; choosing the proper vase to complement your bouquet; finding the perfect place for your flowers; clever ways of mixing fruits and vegetables with botanicals; and simple arrangements that are especially quick to make when you're pressed for time. She discusses forcing bulbs and branches; using silk flowers and house plants; and ways to use ribbons and fabrics that will turn your flowers into charming and welcome gifts.

Readers with green thumbs (and even those without) will find helpful suggestions for planning their own cutting gardens or window boxes. And for anyone who likes to entertain, there are easy ideas for inventive table decorations.

At the end of her book, Ms. Ohrbach shares the sources she has relied on over the years for cut flowers and arrangements, books on flowers and gardening, and catalogues for bulbs, seeds, plants, and tools and accessories.

Whether you're a practiced hand at flower arranging, new to the art, or someone who just has a passion for flower-filled rooms, Simply Flowers will be a perennial inspiration.