Flowers from Afar

I recently read Amy Stewart's 2008 book Flower Confidential, about how things work in the commercial cut flower business. I can see why it was a bestseller at the time: Even for people who aren't interested in horticulture, it's full of historical and cultural details that come from many directions, and it's also a business book since flowers are a big business.

One thing I already knew, but which I learned a lot more about, is that most of the cut flowers we have access to through florists in the U.S. come from South America — where Stewart details some of the working conditions — and are flown here on planes daily. I didn't know that most of the harvest comes through Miami.

I'm not surprised that the roses (think of all those Valentine's Day blossoms) are dunked in fungicides right before shipping. So romantic!

A few of the more askew facts I learned from the book:

• Italian immigrants in the U.S. didn't have access to working capital, so they started their own bank, the Bank of Italy. We know it today as Bank of America. (Relevant in the book because Italians were flower-growers, along with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean immigrants.)
• The reason we're told to recut the stems of cut flowers is because the stems constantly attempt to pull water, and if there isn't water, even for a brief time, they pull air... and once they've pulled in air bubbles, the pathway for any future water is blocked. So a fresh cut opens up a new pathway for water to go up the stem.
• Tea roses got that name because they came from China in the same ships that carried tea leaves.  
• There's a humongous wholesale flower market outside Amsterdam, which has to be seen to be believed. Tourists trek through to watch it in operation.
  

And then there's the story of the Star Gazer lily. But I won't steal Amy's thunder on that one.