Book Review: "Flower Confidential" by Amy Stewart

This "behind the scenes" book about the cut flower trade was recommended to me by Scott Kunst, owner of Old House Gardens, to help get me through the long, cold, gray flower-less days of a typical Michigan winter. After reading the book I will never look at a vase of cut flowers the same way again.

This book was fascinating and Amy Stewart did an excellent job of documenting her travels to trace cut flowers from laboratories where they were developed, to the breeders, and to the growers, and then throught the harvesting, shipping, and distribution to the local florists and retail outlets. It was a dizzying journey and I learned a lot along the way. And I also gained a new appreciation for the vase of flowers currently sitting on my dining room table.

Some of the amazing things I learned was that it may take a typical flower one week from the time it is picked to the time it finally ends up in your home. During some of this time it isn't even in water, so I'm amazed that they arrive looking as fresh as they do. And that's what we want - perfect, fresh flowers. So, to provide us with that "perfection" there is a huge industry that I was never aware of until I read this book.

To provide perfect blooms that can handle up to a week of mass transit and rough handling, genetecists work in labs in order to develop sturdy flowers with large blooms and vibrant colors. They are also engineering roses without thorns to prevent the harvesters from cutting their hands. Sadly, the one thing that most of us love about flowers - their wonderful aroma - is lost in this genetic process. These flowers aren't meant to ever breed, so the aroma that attracts pollinators is sacrificed in the effort to produce larger, sturdier blooms. That lovely aroma you smell when you buy flowers from the local florist is often a perfume that is sprayed on after the fact. So that wonderful fragrance is just an illusion.

Flowers are such a large commodity that they are not grown in fields under the warm sunshine. Instead they are grown in mechanized factorires where they are artificially supplied with the appropriate light, temperature, water, and fertilizer to produce blooms at the time they are needed (roses don't typically bloom in time for Valentine's Day, for instance). These flowers are usually grown hydroponically, meaning they never even see any soil, and irrigation systems ensure they get just the right amount of nutrients for the particular stage of their growth. It seems sad to me that these flowers are denied sunshine and it makes me appreciate the flowers in my own garden all the more.

As with many other commodities, flower production has also been outsourced. Approximately 80% of the cut flowers for sale in the United States are imports from Latin America. There is only a 10% chance that one of the roses in the bouquet you send for Valentine's Day was actually grown in the United States. The vast majority of these imports come through Miami and are inspected at the airport to ensure they are not bringing in any insects or diseases that could spread. In order to ensure they will pass inspection, the growers use huge amounts of pesticides on their plants and dip their roses into barrels of fungicides to eliminate any insects or diseases. The thought of sniffing a rose that has been dipped in fungicides and sprayed with a fake scent really turns me off at the moment. Needless to say, this pesticide and fungicide usage is having an impact on the Latin American environments and the health of the local workers. There are efforts to certify some growers as "organic" to reduce the pesticide usage, but so far it hasn't made enough of an impact.

Amy Stewart also travelled to a Dutch Auction in Holland where the majority of the European flowers are distributed. It was a virtual "Wall Street" for flowers, with lots of flowers being auctioned off in a frenzy to distributors. She also gave me a better appreciation for the independent florists who are competing against grocery stores and the big box stores, who are selling lower quality flowers at a bargain price.

This book was a fascinating read and kept my attention throughout the entire journey. It is full of a lot of historic and other information about the flower trade as well. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves flowers. Now I'm going to go outside and appreciate my garden-grown flowers that still produce a wonderful scent and are able to feel the sun's rays, soft breezes, and the morning dew.