ความลับของดอกไม้

by Amy Stewart, พลอยแสง เอกญาติ

"ความลับของดอกไม้ : Flower Confidential : The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful" เล่มนี้ จะพาผู้อ่านไปสัมผัสกับความลับของ...ดอกไม้ ติดตามชีวิตของดอกไม้สมัยใหม่ ตั้งแต่การผสมพันธุ์ในห้องทดลอง การเพาะเลี้ยงในหลอดแก้ว การปลูกในโรงงาน การเก็บเกี่ยวโดยเครื่องจักร การจัดบรรจุภัณฑ์ลงกล่อง การประมูลขายและการขนส่งไปทั่วโลกจนถึงมือผู้บริโภค ครบวงจรการผลิตดอกไม้สมัยใหม่

นอกจากนี้ยังแทรกเรื่องราวของคนในแวดวงดอกไม้ที่น่าสนใจ เป็นการเล่าเรื่องผ่านชีวิตซึ่งทำให้สารที่ผู้เขียนต้องการสื่อเปี่ยมชีวิตชีวายิ่งขึ้นไปอีก คุณจะได้เห็นทั้งด้านดี ด้านมืด และด้านที่น่าตื่นเต้นของดอกไม้แบบที่ไม่เคยนึกฝันมาก่อน แต่ทุกด้านล้วนน่าสนใจ และเปิดตาเปิดใจให้มองดอกไม้ในแง่มุมใหม่

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Science, Nature, Business, Plants, History

328 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 2007

About the author

Amy Stewart is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen books, including Girl Waits with Gun, Lady Cop Makes Trouble, The Drunken Botanist, and Wicked Plants.

She lives in Portland with her husband Scott Brown, a rare book dealer.

Stay connected with Amy via her newsletter , where she offers cocktail recipes, creative inspiration, book recommendations, and more!

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book 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. This section would have benefited from editing.

It is years later, 2023. My boyfriend gave me a dozen red roses one week before Valentine's Day and within 5 days they were dead. For Valentine's Day he gave me a large planted bowl of paleonopsis orchids. It's March 23rd now and they are nearly dead. I am wondering if the growers in South America only planned to have the blooms at peak for a short time, or if the climate in Miami doesn't suit them or I should interpret this more metaphysically!

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.

Updated 23 March 2023.

[Richard Derus · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review has been updated and can now be seen at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having just read a book which ripped the reddish-green face off the tomato industry, I was anticipating the same treatment for flowers, after which I could go in search of an exploration of the human suffering that goes into every bottle of spray starch, or perhaps a brutal exposé on the machinations of Big Carrot. But Amy Stewart isn't going there, even if she observes and documents a normal amount of, uh, garden-variety exploitation while documenting a flower's path to the marketplace. She is generally not shocked by the process of getting the product to the market, but she does seem a little flabbergasted, or perhaps bemused.

I am neither flabbergasted or bemused. It all makes perfect sense to me. Although I don't (even after reading the book) understand flowers, I have perhaps a better instinctive grasp of money than this book's author. So, for example, when the author says she is confused why flower breeders are squandering so much time and treasure in a (to this day unsuccessful) search for a naturally-occurring (not spray-painted) blue rose when she can find no one who will admit to wanting one, I have to remark that no one thought that they needed an Ipad, or the “Ode to Joy” for that matter, before they came to the market. Yet when they appeared, people seemed to believe that they somehow filled a void that they didn't even know that they had. The result was an avalanche of money for a few lucky people, and also a general improvement in the world. Blue roses might or might not be a monster smash on their first day on the market. If they aren't, a political movement lacking a symbol might adopt them, or perhaps they will feature prominently in some lucrative romantic movie, and before you know it they'll be flying off the shelves steadily for months at a stretch. You don't need a rich imagination to envision this happening; you just need to be walking around with your eyes open.

My black-and-white Kindle of course could not present an adequate picture of the so-called “Blue Rose” produced by the Japanese whiskey-making conglomerate Suntory in 2009 and described on page 47. However, you can see a picture of it here, among other places. I agree with Stewart: that sucker is purple. Not Blue. Purple. They can call it blue, but it's not blue, because, the twin best efforts of modernity and capitalism to the contrary, words still mean things. (Why is a whiskey-making conglomerate breeding flowers? There's a pretty good explanation in the book.)

I might be showing some sort of deep-seated moral/spiritual/aesthetic deficit by admitting my relative immunity to the charms of flora, but Stewart's repeated reaction in the book to nearly everything botanic -- specifically, that she wants to pick it up, stroke it, own it, hug it, caress it, take it home -- also struck me as rather odd. (I wanted to say: “You know, flowers don't actually care if you love them.”) However, she doesn't let this distract her too much from documenting the flower industry. Her enthusiasm for flowers sometimes translates into a resentment of those who profit from them, but she acknowledges it and mostly keeps it under control.

There's a lot of personification of flowers in this book. Commenting on the commercialization of flowers on page 184 of the Kindle edition, Stewart writes: “If it seems like flowers have lost their soul in this process, well, they have.” My first reaction was to wheel out a massive siege engine of invective and prepare a missile asking if turnips, weeds, and ugly flowers have souls too, or if souls just reside in pretty flowers that Stewart want to take home and snuggle. After a nice lie down and some medication, I decided that Stewart didn't mean “soul” in the sense of the ghostly presence that is alleged to reside in human beings. Instead, I think that she meant the sense that we use sometimes when we speak of music or other arts, that is, a sense of a personal transmission of the emotional experience of the producer, which cannot be summed up by the inadequate words “happy” or “sad”, to the receiver, an attempt to bridge the gulf between humans. Anyway, I hope that's what she meant, because if you believe that flowers have actual souls, it's hard to defend supporting an industry that murders them at the height of their beauty, and then prolongs their death agonies so we can momentarily beautify our homes, or please a woman.

In summary, a good book which told me interesting things concerning a subject which I previously knew nothing.

Recommended in, of all places, Foreign Policy magazine, July/Aug 07

[Nomad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me state that I do not garden, will never garden and plants go into fear seizures if I come too close. However, I'm surrounded by women who garden, so I end up absorbing things though osmosis I guess and have come to enjoy a few garden writers out there. Amy Stewart is the best of the lot. She's funny, and she never forgets that about half the people reading her are not, and never will be, botonists. Anyone can pick up her books, read them, learn stuff and also be utterly entertained.

I never thought I would give a hooping funt about the cut flower industry nor would I ever enjoy reading a book about it. I was wrong. This book was both fascinating and entertaining. It made we want to go out and buy flowers... and so I have. There is now a vase of flowers constantly on my kitchen table. Always refreshed when they die and mostly because of this book.

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Невероятно интересная книга, тут и рассказ о цветочном бизнесе, и о селекции, и о хорошем вкусе.
Я не могла оторваться, хотя не могла даже предположить, что non-fiction может увлечь сильнее многих детективов.

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could almost imagine the individual fates of these flowers. Here were millions of stems representing festivity and well wishes, the possibilities of romance, even apologies and regrets. What would these flowers be called upon to do when they finally went home with somebody? What mistakes would they have to fix? Who would they have to cheer up or seduce?

Though there's some good and important information here regarding the human and environmental costs of getting a flower from seed to florist or grocery store, I found it slow going. I guess I'm just not as interested in the flower biz as I thought I'd be, though I will say . . . my husband loved this one.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I suffer from allergies to everything that grows, I'm not the sort of person to keep vases of flowers around. But this book is fascinating, even if one isn't particularly flowery.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a geneticist’s lab in one of several countries to the breeders in the Netherlands to the growers in Ecuador, back to the Netherlands for auction or directly to a wholesaler in Miami, to a florist near you, the arrangement in your living room is well traveled, to say the least. In Flower Confidential, Amy Stewart takes us on an insightful, behind-the-scenes journey through the floral industry, following the chain from beginning to end, around the world.



Along the way, we learn that flowers and the people who grow them are affected not only by our aesthetic preferences and consumer choices, but also by our political decisions ethical standards. Few people would be familiar with the 1970 amendment to the Plant Patent Act of 1930, as few would know the tragedy behind the iconic ‘Star Gazer’ lily, but virtually everyone would recognize the flower. Colorful clusters of mums have been a common sight in nurseries and florist shops for more than half a century, but few people living today remember that they suddenly disappeared during the forced internment of their propagators, Japanese Americans. When we send roses to Mom, it’s likely they’ve been nurtured and picked by another mom in Columbia or Ecuador; her story is worth reading, too.

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book and a very quick read. I learned a lot about the flower industry-- things I had NEVER even thought to wonder about. It's interesting that this industry, which sells a beautiful product that is supposed to cheer people up, make them feel happy and loved, really hides a lot of yuck behind it-- polluting our water and soil with pesticides, exploiting workers and exposing them to toxic chemicals, blocking bees, birds, butterflies, etc., from accessing their food sources, adding to global warming by growing flowers in one locale and shipping them all over the world, etc., etc. The main thing I didn't like about this book was that the author's love for cut flowers seemed to cause her to overlook the very problems she wrote about.

With all that said, I do enjoy flowers (when they're growing out of the ground in my neighborhood) and I'd have loved to see beautiful photos of them, but the ones in this book were not in color and all the brilliance and beauty was washed out and the photos were useless.

[Laura Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating view of the flower industry. For example, I had NO idea one shouldn't put freshly cut flowers near fruit...the apples off gas....something that aids in their deterioration. Also, don't put cut flowers on the TV or in direct sunlight. Wonder why flowers don't SMELL anymore? Read this book and find out that and ALL other sorts of interesting things.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

For all their beauty, flowers have become a commodity and a world wide business. Your bouquet that you just picked up at the florist or the grocery store may have more travel miles that to personally have. Author Stewart travels across the world to tour and investigate the hybridizers, the growers, the shippers and in the end, the consumers of this billion-dollar business.

Of course, over the decades, special breeding and hybridization has modified the flowers we buy. They can last in the vase longer. They stand straighter - or like the Stargazer lily, they don't face downward which gave them a vulnerable place where breakage from the stem occurred often. The stems are longer - there are roses that have stems feet long so that they can be part of huge arrangements. Colors have been tweeked and the brighter, the unusual, the exotic might be the favorite of the year or next. And the costs - usually the beguiling scents.

One of the biggest growers and exporters of roses is Ecuador where milk and corn is imported from the United States in exchange for flowers being grown instead of food. At the time of publication, the Dole Food Company, owned over 1400 acres of flower farms, producing over 8700 different varieties and with annual sales of $168 Billion (with a B).

Transport of the the millions of stems each day is by plane - and many of those planes are the regular passenger flights between continents with Miami being one of the major hubs where flowers from South America (Ecuador and Columbia among others) enter the U.S. Interesting enough, part of the reason why there are restrictions and/or additional charges on passenger luggage is due to the sellable belly cargo space. Airlines make more money on cargo than the overweight or oversized luggage of passengers.

There are certification programs in various countries that have created standards for worker protection, higher pay and benefits (including paid overtime when holiday like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day demand flowers); organic certification or at least fewer chemicals, especially pesticides (some of which are not allowed usage in the U.S. but other countries work to prevent customs from stopping their product from entering the U.S. due to 'bugs') Then there is the conservation of water, resources and waste management - yes, many discarded flowers are composed.

Unfortunately, due to the all-embracing purchasing power of the internet, buyers can not determine if the bouquet or arrangement ordered for a loved one miles away are from a member of the certified program. It's Veriflora in the United States and it is not easy to find a local florist that has achieved that certification although there are a few - but mostly growers.

It provides a wonderful insight in the dazzling world of the floral industry. The reader will definitely not look at a cut flower in the same way.

2021-235

[Athena · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mother has never liked flowers -- at least not the cut kind. They were deemed impractical, a waste of money, money best spent elsewhere, and I think I carried that same sentiment starting this book. The book begins with the story of the Star Gazer Lilly, the very flower my mother regrettably spent too much money on for her wedding day. It is this way that flowers have such an interesting cultural importance: someone who doesn't even like cut flowers still needed them at her wedding day. And it's true-- funerals would be too bleak without them as Amy Stewart points out.

Amy Stewart draws attention to some interesting aspects of the industry and is a great writer, but I think this book does lack some critical analysis of the industry. Her perspective throughout is obvious; she loves flowers and finds them to be beautiful, charming, wonderful things. And by the end of the book I was convinced of the same, and I find myself wanting my very own bouquet to admire. At the same time, the issues with the industry, particularly with worker exploitation and exposure to hazardous chemicals is mentioned and glossed over. That content is instead replaced with the promises of organic farms that don't have such devastating potential. While these are promising and hopeful (maybe even more so over a decade later?), it's still hard to shake the feeling of exploitation that isn't quantifiable or even apparent on the petals of a rose. The exploitation doesn't cloud its beauty or warp its meaning when gifted, but it's there.

I think mentioning that exploitation would end the book on a better message for readers -- to be insistent on organic flowers, or to think about the source of their expressions of love. Overall, this book was very informative and well-written.

[Rene Sears · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engrossing look at flower growers and breeders. I used to work in a flower shop, and this look at what happens to the flowers to get them from the farm to the shop is wonderful. Very interesting to see how farms differ worldwide. Stewart writes with a clear love of, and interest in, the subject matter, with clear, evocative language.

[Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting, but I was disappointed she didn't mention Little Shop of Horrors at all lol

[Pumsish · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*
หนังสือเกี่ยวกับอุตสาหกรรมดอกไม้
ชอบบทเพาะพันธุ์ดอกไม้แปลก ๆ และเทคนิคน่าทึ่งในการปลูก
แต่บทการค้าเบื่อทรมาน

[lilli mai · Rating 4 out of 5]

i would never hav picked this book up on my own but i rly did learn so much & i enjoyed it a lot ! i love flowers , my fav part was to learn ab the heritage of many popular breeds <3 very cute but i had to read it 4 class so i can’t rate it too high

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about the flower industry and the history of flower cultivation. I can't keep flowers in my house (because kittens), and I know less than nothing about them, so I wonder what kind of a read this would be for someone who is more knowledgeable. I'll never look at a flower in a grocery store the same way. This book was pubbed in '07; I wonder what a 2021 version would look like.

[Trish Remley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published 17 years ago. A hand me down from a firend. Lots of interesting information about the world wide cut flower industry. Have never bought many cut flowers from florists. Now I know why.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a floral designer at a high end events and floral company in a major city in the US, so I was extremely excited to read this book in the hopes of learning a little bit more about the industry. I did not go to school to be in the floral industry (I'm using that history degree... Ha), so all the knowledge I have has been picked up while at work. A lot of the concerns and stories related by those in my area of the industry ring true, and are those I've experienced myself (or at least someone at the shop has).

This is the first book specifically about the industry I've read, so I can't personally attest to the accuracy of other information provided when it comes to the growing and buying sides. I also am not well read enough about the debate over organic flowers to have an opinion. However, I do think this book is a good first step to learning even more about it all.

Interesting side note (to me), my dad grew up in Arcata, and has a cousin who has worked for a large flower farm in the area for multiple decades. He thinks it's might be Sun Valley Floral Farms! (Too bad I don't actually like the Stargazer Lily...).

Anyway, I am handing this book off to another designer, and others are interested as well. I'm curious to see what their opinions of Veriflora (i checked, and not a single florist in the state is certified) and similar topics are, and I look forward to reading more about it all.

[Dinara Bekmagambetova · Rating 4 out of 5]

Когда я начинала эту книгу, то больше всего предвкушала часть про продажи и работу флористов. Но, к моему удивлению, читать про разные пестики и тычинки было не менее интересно. Еще бы - рассказ о создании знаменитого сорта лилий Stargazer автор превратила в настоящий блокбастер с эксцентричным гением, сказочными богатствами и несколькими версиями одних и тех же событий.

Оказывается, цены на цветы мало изменились за последние сто лет (сезонные и праздничные скачки не в счет). При этом те, кто разводит цветы, вкладывают в них все больше - постоянно приходится создавать новые сорта и предугадывать, что потребители предпочтут в будущем. Одних только гербер каждый год на аукцион выставляют до 140 (!!) новых сортов.

На цветы тоже есть мода, есть тренды и трендсеттеры. Главная мечта цветоводов - чтобы их цветы появились на обложке какого-нибудь популярного журнала по дизайну интерьеров, тогда все начнут закупаться только у них. Или - еще лучше - у Марты Стюарт!

Кстати, знаете, почему цветы на День святого Валентина такие дорогие? А вот почему. Если в обычный день из Колумбии в США прилетают 10-12 самолетов с розами, то 14 февраля их число доходит до 40. Если в день прилетает столько самолетов, они вынуждены возвращаться пустыми. А топливо стоит огромных денег.

В общем, книжка очень увлекательная. Интересно будет и интересующимся ботаникой и закулисьем профессионального цветоводства, и тем, кто подумывает о цветочном бизнесе, ну и просто любопытным (как я, например).

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know about the cut flower industry! She's an excellent writer. She starts out with the story of the man who developed the star gazer lily - how he did it and how he marketed it (or actually failed to market it,) and what happened to him later in life. She goes to visit Guatemala where there are many flower farms from which flowers are imported to this country, and ends up in Holland where the international flower markets take place. Kind of like Wall street, but for flowers.
If you buy flowers casually at the grocery store, you might want to think twice about the labor conditions of the folks in the field. Plus the fact that every bunch of flowers that enters this country is dipped into fungicide as it comes in through Miami. There are organic and fair trade alternatives, and I encourage folks to seek them out!
A movie that touches on this peripherally is called Maria Full of Grace. It's about a woman in Colombia who becomes a "mule" which means she smuggles drugs into this country. She does it because she works at a rose farm and her options are severely limited and she wants to broaden her horizons.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few years ago, while writing an article for Chicagoland Gardening magazine about how annuals make their way from vast commercial greenhouses to our local garden centers, I reluctantly learned to view flowers as commodities. Amy Stewart's book offers much the same perspective, though obviously in greater depth, for the cut flower industry. Her descriptions of walking through greenhouses and shipping facilities and auction houses sounded eerily similar to what I had seen and heard about plants grown for garden use, though it was fascinating to witness her following flowers through the entire growing and selling chain, from Ecuador to Miami to Holland to her local florist. I don't think I'll ever look at those bouquets in the grocery store the same way again (especially if they're too close to the ethylene-producing fruit section!), but I have to confess the book inspired me to go out and buy myself some flowers. I think Stewart came away from her journey feeling exactly the same way.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got this book from a coworker to give to my mom. Had nothing else to read so I learned about the business end of cut flowers. Actually pretty interesting. I also learned that I like "how things really work" kind of books based on this one and "The Omnivore's Dilemna". I might want to explore this realization in my next book selection. But I digress. Overall the book does a good job of going from the ground to the story in the travels of the flower. It's part garden book, part economics. If you plan on going to Quito Ecuador any time soon, you'll be traveling to one of the major rose producers in the world. Although you won't see many flowers in the town, according to the book.

[Jane Sunshine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history of flower development, changes in flowers, the growing, distribution and sale of flowers, and her visits to the sites of these issues is most interesting. I felt she had a relationship to Michael Pollan in his coverage of changes in plants to suit the changing popularion.

[Valeska · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Amy Stewart's style of writing. First, this was a great subject matter - all about flowers and the florist industry. Plus, she blends interesting facts about the flowers with the stories of the people she interviews in the industry. An entertaining, engaging read.

[Irina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Название книги - самое исчерпывающее ревью о ней же 😊 книжка очень хорошая, хотя параграф о России не выдерживает никакой критики в силу своей исключительной клюквенности, тут был просто мощнейший фейспалм...

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book if you are interested in flowers and how thy get to market. I think it should have color pictures so everone can picture the flowers.

[LearningMum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything you never thought you'd want to know about the floral industry! Well-written, fascinating, detailed.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amy Stewart is an amazing writer always enjoy her books and as someone who loves flowers this is a fascinating look at the industry.

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. There are several reasons, but there is a larger reason that I shouldn’t have liked it. I didn’t have any interest in cut flowers – never considered them, never bought cut flowers to take home, and only rarely bought cut flower bouquets for others. In fact, I often tried to buy potted plants to avoid the waste of giving someone cut flowers. Also, I don’t care much for tulips, which occupy a large part of this book, and I have only slightly more interest in roses.
So Flower Confidential tells about many things I had never heard of before. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a reverse auction. I didn’t know that Ecuador is one of the world’s main rose producers. And I had no idea how roses or tulips got from where they are grown to where they are sold. I enjoyed the history of how varieties were developed and the evolution of cut flower growing companies.
Reading this made me look at cut flowers for the first time. There is a section on Costco’s handling of cut flowers. I thought the Costco in our town didn’t carry cut flowers, but I looked, and they do. They had been there all along, and I had never noticed them. I bought some and brought them home and took very good care of them for the next week and a half. When I had been given flowers in the past, I never took very good care of them.
What I really missed in this book was photographs. There were flowers I didn’t know or wasn’t sure of and I had to look them up on my own. A couple of time Amy Stewart mentioned not being able to take photographs, once when the owner of a nursery asked her not to and once when it was too humid to use her camera. But there must have been times when she could have taken photographs or used stock photos. There were some specialty flowers described that I would have loved to see. I’ve been looking, but I don’t think roses from Ecuador are sold where I live. A book about flowers seems sadly lacking without any photographs or illustrations.