Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers | 
| Author: Amy Stewart
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $3.44
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Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 233618
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 306
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 1565124383
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.1
EAN: 9781565124387
ASIN: 1565124383
Publication Date: January 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Customer satisfaction is out #1 priority. We ship daily. Our feedback says it all! ******A2******
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Product Description
We buy more flowers a year than we do Big Macs, spending $6.2 billion annually. We use them to mark our most important events, to express sentiments that might otherwise go unsaid. And we demand perfection. So it’s no surprise that there is a $40 billion global industry devoted to making flowers flawless.
Amy Stewart takes us inside the flower trade—from the hybridizers, who create new varieties in the laboratory, to the growers, who produce flowers by the millions (often in a factory-like setting), to the Dutch auctioneers, who set the bar (and the price), and ultimately to the neighborhood florists orchestrating the mind-boggling demands of Valentine’s and Mother’s Day. There’s the breeder intent on developing the first blue rose; an eccentric horticultural legend who created the world’s most popular lily; a grower of gerberas of every color imaginable; and the equivalent of a Tiffany diamond: the “ Forever Young” rose.
Stewart explores the relevance of flowers in our lives and in our history, and in the process she reveals all that has been gained—and lost—by tinkering with nature.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 Great service! July 2, 2008
This book was delivered quickly and arrived in excellent condition. I highy recommend the vendor.
You'll Never Look At Flowers the Same Way Again June 6, 2008
Did you ever read Anthony Bourdain's book "Kitchen Confidential" which is a sort of tell-all and autobiographical book of what goes on behind the swinging doors in restaurants. It's hilarious, sarcastic, etc. In its own way, Flower Confidential achieves the same greatness, just by its thoroughness in showing us what 'really' goes on. In a way, this is even more relevant, because we all have an idea of how a restaurant works, but no one thinks about how that bouquet came to be.
In addition to being able to spew off tons of facts about flowers to people (I can't tell if they're impressed or just think I'm crazy), this book has made me more conscious of the practices that go on and how to support ethical labor and fertilizating companies. I can't tell you how excited I was one day when I was in Sam's Club looking at their flowers, and yes, the Fair Trade sticker was there! I was happy to see it, and I was also glad that I knew what that sticker symbolized.
The book came out at an interesting time-right when Columbia and Ecuador (two major growers) were fighting each other. Every time I heard about the war, I always wondered what happened to the flower farms.
This book is honest, captivating, and is a great look at a very interesting industry. I'm amazed how much effort is put in to such a simple, cheap thing that we don'e even really think about. For me, whenever I get flowers, I'll ALWAYS be thinking about where they came from.
Who knew flowers were so interesting? January 5, 2008
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.
I almost wrote to the author! January 4, 2008
I loved this book so much. I am not a gardener but was an aspiring florist when I ran across this at my library. Read it quickly and thought it was fascinating and well written. I am also impressed with the amount of research she did to get all of the information and the amount of travel she endured to find out first hand how things worked.
When I finally did happen across a florist job in the shop I had always wanted to work in, I came in knowing little about design, but alot about the industry. I am always able to tell someone something that they didn't know. And it was even more exciting to actually open up a flower delivery and know about the company that they came from and how things are done there.
I almost wrote to the author to tell her how much I loved the book, but of course never got around to it. So if she reads this, Thank You Amy! In fact, I received the hardback book this past Christmas as a gift (I wonder how my MIL knew I wanted it! Hee, Hee.)
I highly recommend this book to anyone who runs or works in a shop, and also to those people who just like to know how things work. There really is much more involved than I think most people realize. Great Job Amy!
Wierd title, great book October 7, 2007
When I saw Amy Stewart's name on a new book I had to have it. I enjoyed her book about earthworms so much that I didn't think she could match it, but I was wrong. This is a wonderful expose of the flower trade around the world. From Holland to South America she tracked down the progress of cut flowers from their hybridizing to the final sale. It all has the ring of truth - that sense that the research was thorough, that nothing was skimped, and aspects of the flower business were presented whole cloth as well as facts being recorded and shared.
Last year I saw roses grown in Ecuador for markets continents away. I read about Dole closing down huge flower-growing greenhouses in poor towns where that was the only source of income. In our hacienda were bouquets of roses enormous beyond belief. Amy Stewart's book places this into perspective for me within the whole world of the flower industry.
In slaking her own curiosity about the natural world, this writer helps us understand our world better. This book is not just about flowers, or even the natural world - it is also about international trade, politics, business affairs and economic and social issues.
An excellent package. I can't wait for her next book.
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