Read resume
Black Tulip Publishing, founded by Karen Platt, is a British publishing company specializing in garden books for gardeners all around the world. It is based in Sheffield, England.
The reference series is headed by the best-selling Seed Search, begun in 1996, and now in its 6th edition. This unique book sparked off two more innovative titles: Seed Sowing and Growing Success and Plant Names A-Z, which was updated in 2006 and split into different sections. The first of these is Plant Synonyms. More sections will follow. Garden Surf, released in 2001, is a useful guide to garden websites.
In 2000, Karen Platt achieved another first when she launched, the much acclaimed, Black Magic and Purple Passion. This book started as a small volume of 300 dark plants with just 70 photographs and is now in its third edition as a large format book of 240 pages with over 425 colour photographs, many not found elsewhere and full descriptions of over 2750 dark plants. She has been donned the ‘Goddess of Black Plants’ by one Californian plantsman and as ‘Daughter of Darkness’ by one BC nursery owner. She is responsible for the popularity of black plants in horticulture.
This led to an ongoing colour series that will represent all colours used in the garden. Each book offers a blueprint on which plants to choose and how to use them. Platt's evolving colour series present colour in a new innovative light and bring new colours to the garden. In 2007, the first title of the Design series, Lifestyle Gardening, was published.
The idea for Black Tulip Publishing came in 1995 when searching for black plants. Karen suddenly had the idea to publish a seed finder guide. She entered gardening as a profession in 1992 and has so far enjoyed a long and successful career. She has two garden design awards from American flower shows and two awards from the Chelsea flower show for her displays in the Lifelong Learning section. She is founder of the International Black Plant Society, and has written for magazines and newspapers. She is often written about and quoted (not always credited unfortunately). She has appeared on TV and radio on both sides of the Atlantic. She has also been featured in French, Italian and German magazines.
Karen is one of the few writers to have successfully self published internationally. She retains control over page layout, typesetting, photography and other creative aspects of book and print production. She contributes her success to sheer determination and hard work and to her lively imagination and creativity as well as an abundance of ideas which never let her down. She uses her intuition and flair to know what will sell, what the public want and how and when to create and satisfy demand.
“My aim is to push the boundaries of gardening in regard to colour, plants and design. I want people to look at gardens afresh and use their imagination. I want to write about plants as I see them and grow them not how the grower wants us to see them in glowing terms. The plant world is not just petunias. It’s not pastels or garish colours. People are afraid of colour. I aim to encourage people to experiment, to find new ways to make their garden a usable outdoor space. Colour reflects moods and personality and I was the first to recognize that colour in the garden can be used as an expression of your personality and character just as much as fashion and interior design.”
|
