As an avid journal maker and crafter, I’m always on the lookout for a collection of books with illustrations I can use to craft with. The best way to build your collection is to explore thrift stores, estate sales, yearly book sales at your local libraries and yard sales. When looking for particular books, one is not always successful but every once in a while, you can hit the jack pot.

There are quite a few botanical and wildlife books that have been on my wish-list and alas, I haven’t been actively searching for them, nor have I visited a thrift stores of late and want to remedy that. The hunt alone is thrilling and makes the experience more precious when you come across something you’ve been looking for.

Today, I’m sharing selected works I’m wanting to acquire and my wish is that you will find yourself inspired to search for these books to add to your collection. -Stephanie Hopkins

The Nature Notes of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden

This entirely new diary is composed in a similar style to the Country Diary, with Edith Holden’s thoughts, anecdotes, and writings interspersed with poetry, mottoes, and her exquisite watercolor paintings of flowers, plants, birds, butterflies and landscape scenes.

The Illustrated Book of Wild Flowers by Zdenka Podhajská, Květoslav Hísek (Illustrator)

A facsimile reproduction of a naturalist’s diary for the year 1906. Edith Holden recorded in words and paintings the flora and fauna of the British countryside through the changing seasons of the year. Edith Holden’s words, all carefully written by hand, include her favorite poems, personal thoughts and observations on the wildlife she saw surrounding her home in Warwickshire, and on her travels through England and Scotland. The exquisitely beautiful paintings on every page of birds, butterflies, bees and flowers, reflects her deep love of nature; they have been executed with a naturalist’s eye for detail and the sensitivity of an artist.

The Spotters Guide to Healing Plants by Jindrich Krejca

It is not the object of this book to present a complete morphology of plants, for which see a botanical dictionary. Here we present only a selection of medicinal plants – most of them flowering plants – and true-to-life color illustrations of them.

A Garden Eden Masterpieces of Botanical Illustration by H. Walter Lack

In pursuit of both knowledge and delight, the craft of botanical illustration has always required not only meticulous draftsmanship but also a rigorous scientific understanding. This new edition of a TASCHEN classic celebrates the botanical tradition and talents with a selection of outstanding works from the National Library of Vienna, including many new images.

From Byzantine manuscripts right through to 19th-century masterpieces, through peonies, callas, and chrysanthemums, these exquisite reproductions dazzle in their accuracy and their aesthetics. Whether in gently furled leaves, precisely textured fruits, or the sheer beauty and variety of colors, we celebrate an art form as tender as it is precise, and ever more resonant amid our growing awareness of our ecological surroundings and the preciousness of natural flora.

Basilius Besler’s Florilegium: The Book of Plants by Klaus Walter Littger

A magnificent pictorial document of the flowers grown in the greatest German garden of its time, the Hortus Eystettensis is in a class of its own when it comes to the range of flowers engraved.

First published in 1613, the 367 copperplate engravings by Basilius Besler (1561–1629) capture the spectacular diversity of the palatial gardens of Prince-Bishop Johann Konrad von Gemmingen (1593/95–1612) in Eichstätt, Bavaria, Germany. The meticulous illustrations are organized according to the four seasons, and, following the classification system used today, show plants belonging to a total of 90 families and covering 340 genera. The whole collection is regarded as one of the finest treasures of botanical literature; it was described by Carl Linnaeus, the legendary 18th-century botanist and zoologist, as an “incomparable work.”

Besler’s pictorial catalog long outlived the gardens, which were destroyed in 1634 by invading Swedish troops. In auction, the asking price for a first-edition copy of Hortus Eystettensis is now more than half a million dollars. With this edition, TASCHEN opens up the garden to a much wider audience: a rich and beautiful record, destined to keep the garden’s beauty in bloom.