One spring evening in 2015, graphic designer Samuel Zeller got off a train one stop early after a bad day at work in Geneva and visited a botanical garden with a camera. He was not a keen horticulturalist but in the time he spent amongst the glasshouses he reawakened a childhood passion for nature, which would, in turn, set him on a new career path. When he later looked at the photographs he’d taken that evening, he realized that it was part of a much bigger project.
Over the next two years, Zeller, who now works full time as a photographer, visited botanical gardens in capital cities from Paris and Prague to Porto and many more sites across Scotland, Belgium, and France and his photographs have now been compiled into a charming small book, Botanical (£16.95; Amazon UK).
Photography by Samuel Zeller, courtesy of Hoxton Mini Press.
Flashes of color appear from the depths of the glasshouses in an impressionistic haze—the tomato-red tubular flowers of coral plant (Russelia equisetiformis Plantaginaceae) or the lush green of a twisting frond of a tree fern (Cyathea sp. Cyatheaceae).
See more of our favorite botanical gardens and glasshouses in 10 Ideas to Steal from Botanical Gardens Around the World. For more inspiration, see our Garden Ideas to Steal archives and our curated design guides for Hardscape 101 projects, including Fences & Gates, Retaining Walls, Edible Gardens, and Decks & Patios. And don’t miss:- 10 Best Garden Design Trends for 2018
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- April in New York: Visit the NY Botanical Garden in Bloom
- Insider’s Tour: Secrets of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
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