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 itβs no surprise that there is a $40 billion global industry devoted to making flowers flawless.
Amy Stewart takes us inside the flower tradeβfrom 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 Valentineβs and Motherβs Day. Thereβs the breeder intent on developing the first blue rose; an eccentric horticultural legend who created the worldβs most popular lily; a grower of gerberas of every color imaginable; and the equivalent of a Tiffany diamond: the β Forever Youngβ rose.
Stewart explores the relevance of flowers in our lives and in our history, and in the process she reveals all that has been gainedβand lostβby tinkering with nature.
Media Buzz
All Things Considered - July 12, 2007 Marketplace - PRI - April 16, 2007 CBS Sunday Morning - February 11, 2007 Diane Rehm Show - NPR - February 8, 2007 All Things Considered - February 7, 2007
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