Who doesn’t love beautiful books? They decorate my world, they inspire, they inform—and sometimes they take me to places I’ve never imagined. Big, colorful, well-designed books make a house feel like a home. They say a lot about the personalities who live there.

My bountiful bookshelves reflect a deep love of gardening. I’ll never forget finding Designing with Plants by Piet Oudolf, over 20 years ago. This book transformed what little I knew about gardening at the time. I learned that gardens can be lush, natural, emotional even—no more staid clumps of plants separated by too much mulch. I immediately sought out more of Oudolf’s work, and a few years later paid a visit to his home garden and nursery in Hummelo, the Netherlands. Lucky me that my sister was living abroad, right where my plant obsession firmly took hold!

Fast forward to the present day—right here in Detroit. Who knew I would work with Piet Oudolf to help build and plant an amazing new public garden on Belle Isle. That’s the thing about books, they can be magic.

Beautiful books at fleurdetroit, a sampling: