Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful | 
| Author: Amy Stewart
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $7.90
You Save: $6.05 (43%)
New (27) Used (5) from $7.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 51967
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 1
ISBN: 1565126033
Dewey Decimal Number: 582
EAN: 9781565126039
ASIN: 1565126033
Publication Date: March 18, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: It's paperback (soft-cover)...Fast shipping!!!
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Award-winning author Amy Stewart takes readers on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes look at the flower industry and how it has sought—for better or worse—to achieve perfection. She tracks down the hybridizers, geneticists, farmers, and florists working to invent, manufacture, and sell flowers that are bigger, brighter, and sturdier than anything nature can provide. There's a scientist intent on developing the first genetically modified blue rose; an eccentric horitcultural legend who created the most popular lily; a breeder of gerberas of every color imaginable; and an Ecuadorean farmer growing exquisite roses, the floral equivalent of a Tiffany diamond. And, at every turn she discovers the startling intersection of nature and technology, of sentiment and commerce.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 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.
The dirt DIVA endorses Amy Stewart's book, baby! August 28, 2007
As an opinionated garden columnist, who preaches organic gardening to anyone who will listen . . . I was thrilled to read a book that finally tells the true story behind the floral industry. The system is ridiculous and needs drastic change. This will only happen when flower consumers are educated enough to see what their purchases are doing to the soil and to the farmers and their families, who work amongst toxic pesticides just so we can have a nice, long-lasting, unscented, superficial flower on our table.
Plus, the book is beautifully written.
AMEN AMY!
Amazing Introduction to Exciting World of Flowers August 24, 2007
When you go to the supermarket and see groceries, most of us have at least a basic understanding of from where and how the food came to be there, such as the fields where crops grew, ranches where livestock were raised, slaughterhouses, processing facilities, etc. But how many times have most of us thought about flowers? Especially considering just how short a period of time there is between when a flower is picked, when it is displayed in our homes, and when it finally wilts, there are an amazing number of processes and work involved in flowers. Travelling around the world, from the "design" stage (yes, you'll read about how flowers are "engineered") to planting, to selling, to transportation, to marketing, all the way to the florist's shop or the supermarket, Stewart covers it all. You'll even learn a lot about some of the "allied" professions in the flower trade, like logistics, retailing, biotechnology, and more. And best of all, the book is written in a very easy to read style. If you have any interest in flowers and/or you just like learning about how things work, then I wholeheartedly recommend this book to you.
|
|
|
