Garden Books on Growing and Arranging Flowers Almost any flower, leaf or branch can look good in the right vase. The combination is a study in texture, color, shape, the reflection of light. Valerie Easton, a Seattle-based garden writer, discusses the art of growing and arranging cut flowers in "Petal and Twig: Seasonal Bouquets With Blossoms, Branches and Grasses From Your Garden" (Sasquatch Books; $16.95). Written as an informal diary, with photographs of arrangements from her own container garden, and tips on cutting and keeping flowers fresh, the book inspires ideas not only on what to grow but on how to combine (or not) those beauties inside. And Ken Druse, the photographer and garden writer who tends his own gardens in Brooklyn and New Jersey, has teamed up with Ellen Hoverkamp, a fine arts and botanical photographer, for his new book, "Natural Companions: The Garden Lover's Guide to Plant Combinations" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang; $40). With Ms. Hoverkamp's lustrous color studies of blooms and foliage, and his own photographs of memorable plant combinations in gardens (his own or others"), Mr. Druse contemplates the complex art of combining texture, color, shape, size and even the personalities of plants (a bromeliad, for instance, is no daisy) in the garden, not the vase. He also peppers his advice with the experience of a longtime gardener. "Don't be certain that the plants have died if nothing sprouts in the spring," he writes. I have had a few that seem to have just taken the year off.