Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers

This book is a fascinating look at the flower industry. I've looked at especially beautiful cut flowers before and wondered where they came from and how they got them quite so perfect, but I had no idea how complex the answer would be. This was a real page-turner from beginning to end, and it had me wishing that I lived near Miami, glad I live near San Francisco and its Flower Mart, planning a trip to Arcata, CA in July, reminding my boyfriend to get me that Costco membership and wanting to buy myself some flowers every week (and feeling much more knowledgeable about doing so.) She starts out at the San Francisco Flower Mart and it sounds so impressive...60 vendors, wow! But, by the end of the book, when she gets to the Dutch Flower Auction, the Flower Mart seems downright puny and probably lacking in the more high end flowers from the international market. The one thing that disappointed me a bit about this book was the pictures. Ms. Stewart talks about taking photos several times in the book and I wanted to see them. There are some interesting line drawings in the book, and each section has a grainy black and white photo at the beginning (for a total of four photos) but I wanted more. Well, it turns out her website, amystewart.com, has all the big color pictures that were missing from the book, so I suggest checking it out after or during reading the book. I am in the middle of planting/planning a vegetable garden right now, but this book had me wishing a little bit that I was planting a rose garden instead. I can see how one could never grow flowers at home that were as "perfect" as what a commercial grower can do, but Amy Stewart just got me so excited about flowers. I think now I'll read her book "From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden", and hopefully get as excited about the vegetable garden. If you enjoy the part of the book that talks about the history of the Dutch and their "world domination via the tulip", then you may want to also check out the book "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan.

This was an excellent book to read! I enjoyed the writer's style and its easy to read format. The information that the Amy Stewart delivers in her book is truely eye opening. I never knew there was so much involved in making someones day with flowers! There is so much more involved than meets the eye. If you are a person interested in getting into the actual business of selling flowers or owning a flowers store this is a MUST read!

How much thought do you give to those flowers you pass in the grocery store aisle? Do you know where your Valentine's Day roses came from or how they got to you? For most of us, we don't know, nor rather care, but thankfully author, Amy Stewart does. In Flower Confidential (Algonquin Books, 2007), Stewart takes us deep inside the huge and profitable business of flowers. From a lily grower in the American Northwest, to the rose fields of Ecuador she introduces us to the people, places and plants that travel all over the world to supply our human need for colorful and almost too perfect flowers. Flower Confidential is a fun romp around the world that also holds some deep concerns. The treatment of the workers in the fields and greenhouses is an on-going issue no matter where the author visits. She also discusses how the need for a "perfect" flower that travels well and lasts long in the vase has removed their scent. It also puts us in danger of producing yet another industry focused on lowest-common denominator, where each flower looks begins to look much like every other flower. Stewart's writing takes us along on her travels, describing people and plants alike in a visual style that gives us an understanding of who they are and what they are trying to accomplish. We feel the sense of amazement as she visits the Miami airport center where the majority of flowers enter the US. I particularly felt her desire to scoop up armloads of flowers or save those consigned to the compost heaps. Immerse yourself in the little-known of flowers and the people who grow them. You will develop a new-found respect for what both suffer to provide that perfect arrangement for your dining room table.

Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart is a fascinating look inside the flower business. I love books like this that give an indepth look into hidden worlds that operate beyond our normal ken. Stewart includes great tidbits that are perfect pieces of trivia for tossing around: bees can't see red. But the real charm of this book is her own passion for flowers and how it leads her to travel the world in search of the truth behind where the flowers we buy come from. She takes us from a flower farm in California to greenhouses in Ecuador to the famous Dutch auction houses. Each place comes to life through her detailed witty descriptions. The sad tale of the creation of the Star Gazer lily and the fight for the rights to it is compelling drama. Stewart gives the history of breeding and selling flowers up to the current gene-splicing in the current quest for a truly blue rose. Her tantalizing descriptions of flowers led me to keep the laptop open next to me so I could see each flower for myself. She brings up excellent questions about where and how flowers should be grown and what we as consumers should expect. Stewart covers organic flowers and worker conditions as well as describing the odd and often unpoetic ways in which these flowers are grown. Fantastic read!

Amy Stewart joins the ranks of other authors who make the everyday fascinating. Dava Sovel made the concept of "longitude" captivating. Kurlansky made everyday "Salt" capitvating. Michael Pollan took on the mundane subjects of gardening and eating and turned them into page-turners as well as thought-provoking, life-changing events. In her second book, Amy Stewart made "Worms" seem monumental in "The Earth Moved..." and now she takes on the grocery store flower in ways that will make you stop and think. If you enjoy thinking about things that most people take for granted, read "Flower Confidential" and you will never see that bouquet of flowers in the supermarket the same again.