Seeing with Tenderness offers a glimpse into the world of Ngoc Minh Ngo, a renowned garden photographer and writer whose work celebrates the beauty of flowers, gardens, and the natural world. She has authored six books and countless articles for leading publications, including T Magazine, Vogue, Architectural Digest, and Martha Stewart Living.
Ngoc grew up in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, in which her father served as a colonel in the South Vietnamese Army.
As the war drew to a close, her family was forced to flee. Their trusted housekeeper made the gut-wrenching decision to burn all their family photographs and documents to ensure their safety—what Ngoc describes as “the greatest sense of loss that I have ever experienced.”
This loss fundamentally altered her relationship with photography and memory, and she says that her approach to photography centers around finding “tenderness” in opposition to violence in the world.
In California, where the family rebuilt their life, Ngoc’s father became an avid gardener, finding particular joy in growing roses. He passed away in April 2008, just before his flowers could bloom one last time. This personal loss deepened Ngoc’s connection to roses, eventually inspiring her latest book, Roses in the Garden, featuring rose collections from around the world and dedicated to his memory.
We were honored when Ngoc visited Floret for a few days last year to photograph a segment for the book. She captured our heritage rose collection—from the blush-tinged ‘Félicité et Perpétue’ climbing our metal archways to the citrus-scented Rosa × dupontii spilling out of the hedgerows.
Between the good light of the early morning and late afternoon, she shared her remarkable story as well as her approach to photography with us. We are so grateful.
To celebrate the release of Ngoc’s upcoming book, Roses in the Garden, we’re giving away five copies. For a chance to win, post a comment below telling us which part of Ngoc’s interview impacted you the most. Winners will be announced on April 1. Please note: This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.
Congratulations to our winners: Laurie Hoelzeman, Aubry Parker, Kim Gunter, Stacie Seuberling and Cynthia Carpenter
To learn more and connect with Ngoc, be sure to visit her website and follow her on Instagram. Roses in the Garden will be released on April 29, 2025, and is available for pre-order now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and your favorite local bookstore.
Other titles by Ngoc include:
Eden Revisited: A Garden in Northern Morocco
In Bloom: Creating and Living with Flowers
Bringing Nature Home: Floral Arrangements Inspired by Nature
New York Green: Discovering the City’s Most Treasured Parks and Gardens
The House of a Lifetime: A Collector’s Journey in Tangier
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Cindi Randolph on
Her words captured my immigrant family’s quest to regain a new reality. They, like her, lost everything to WW11 via “relocation camps”” to atomic bombs decimating family homes in Japan. Ngoc’s determination to capture beauty first her soul is searing. What I have from my family is grown in my garden and my most precious possessions.-thank you Ngoc for a lovely missive.