Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful
(eBook)

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Published
Algonquin Books, 2008.
Format
eBook
Status
Available Online

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Language
English
ISBN
9781565126459

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APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Amy Stewart., & Amy Stewart|AUTHOR. (2008). Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful . Algonquin Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Amy Stewart and Amy Stewart|AUTHOR. 2008. Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful. Algonquin Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Amy Stewart and Amy Stewart|AUTHOR. Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful Algonquin Books, 2008.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Amy Stewart, and Amy Stewart|AUTHOR. Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful Algonquin Books, 2008.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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Grouped Work ID1102a1de-867d-e034-5ea6-444ac38b9835-eng
Full titleflower confidential the good the bad and the beautiful
Authorstewart amy
Grouping Categorybook
Last Update2023-08-15 21:00:35PM
Last Indexed2024-03-27 02:14:52AM

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Image Sourcehoopla
First LoadedFeb 15, 2023
Last UsedMar 12, 2024

Hoopla Extract Information

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    [synopsis] => A globe-trotting, behind-the-scenes look at the dazzling world of flowers and the fascinating industry it has created.



 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 horticultural 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. 
	Amy Stewart is the award-winning author of six books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world. She is the cofounder of the popular blog Garden Rant and is a contributing editor at Fine Gardening magazine. She and her husband live in Eureka, California, where they own an antiquarian bookstore called Eureka Books.  What's the first thing a person does when you hand them flowers?" Bob Otsuka, general manager of the San Francisco Flower Mart, asked me. To answer his own question, he pantomimed the gesture people make, bringing his hands to his face and breathing deeply. "

 They smell them," he said. 

 I sniffed the air, trying to catch the fragrance of rose or lily. Nothing. Sixty vendors sell cut flowers and plants out of this warehouse off Market Street, and as Bob and I walked the concrete floor a little after 5 a.m. neither one of us could find a blossom with a scent. "

 These flowers have all been bred for the industry," Bob said. "They're selecting for color and size, and most of all for durability. You make some trade-offs when you do that. One of the things these flowers lose is scent." 

"But you know what?" he said as we continued down the hall past carts loaded with buckets of hydrangeas and sunflowers. "People still want to believe that flowers smell good. I've seen somebody put their face right into a bunch of 'Leonidas' and say, 'Oh, they smell wonderful.' But I know that rose. It's got gold petals with coppery edges -- you know the one I mean? It was bred for fall weddings. And it doesn't have any fragrance at all." 

 He shook his head, laughing, and I followed him down to the end of the hall, where he thought we might find some lilies that still had scent. 

 The first thing you notice about a flower market is how out of place it seems in a big city. Even in San Francisco, a sunny, breezy, metropolis where people are not shy about wearing flowers in their hair or anyplace else, the idea of a flower market is not in keeping with the grime and grit of urban life. Unlike the fishing industry, which has found a way to operate within the theme park environment of Fisherman's Wharf, the flower trade is tucked away from the public eye in a warehouse district along the freeway. The market itself is nothing but a big boxy warehouse surrounded by trucks jockeying for position at the loading bays. 

 Arriving before dawn, with no prospect of coffee in the near future, makes the place seem even more rough and grim. Once you manage to swerve around the trucks and nose into the parking garage, you might find yourself sitting in the car, as I did, savoring a couple more seconds of warmth from the heater, wondering what it was that possessed you to get up at such an unholy hour and drive in the dark to this industrial neighborhood. 

 But then you make it across the parking garage, you walk down the stairs, and you push open a heavy metal door and stand blinking in the sudden light. Inside is Disneyland. Oz. Santa's toy shop. This, your sleep-and-caffeine-deprived mind tells you, is where flowers come from.


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