This book provides a highly interesting look at the cut flower business, from breeding to growing to selling. It truly is a world-wide business. In one section, the author follows a rose from it's planting in Ecuador, outlining the harvest and packing processes, the truck and air trip to Miami and the many alternative routes it may take from there. I liked the way the author brought in just the right amount of individual people's stories to bring the whole business alive.

Oh! But if ever a book needed coloured pictures, this is the one. I was constantly using Google images to look at the flowers she was describing, and when I wasn't near my computer, I was frustrated by not having images. ( )

Read. About the industrial flower trade.

Wonderful boook detailing the development of commercial breeding from its earliest days in America to the 'factory' farms of South America producing the biggest, most beautiful blooms available at only the most exclusive florists. There is a long diversion into the mind-bogglingly mixture of dirt&plants and computerised bidding in the famous flower market of Amsterdam.

The book is written in a very easy, though informative, style and would interest people who generally like non-fiction, you don't have to be into flowers to enjoy this book. ( )

In Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful Amy Stewart has drawn an entertaining and informative picture of the commercial cut flower industry. Including just enough historical background to set the stage, Stewart details the development of the industry and its modern realities in three sections: Breeding, Growing and Selling. While I don’t often buy cut flowers (I prefer to grow them myself), the gardener in me was fascinated by the Breeding and Growing sections. As an environmentalist and someone with a passing interest in the effects of globalization in Latin America, the Selling section was replete with revelations, too. This engaging book is well worth picking up and may well influence your choice the next time you say it with flowers.

This is a fun as well as informative book about the business of growing and selling cut flowers. The author travels about the world talking to folks who create new varieties, mass produce, and market flowers (the US pales in comparison to other areas of the world, in both volume and style). A huge business that I've been oblivious to, and a business with a long history. As soon as people could get around seasonal fluctuations, they did -- growing in more suitable climates, transporting with climate control. And FTD, wiring flowers, began nearly a century ago, in 1910. An entertaining book, but... no photos! And they'd really be handy. I've never much paid attention to cut flowers, don't know more than a few standard types, and didn't always have the internet available while reading.

(read 19 Mar 2009)