A review by alannabarras
Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers by Amy Stewart

4.0

It’s hard to find a good balance when trying to answer questions that range from ‘why hasn’t anyone created a blue rose’ to ‘how can we eliminate worker exploitation in a billion dollar business?’ Amy Stewart does her best, presenting the information with an empathetic and non-judgemental eye. It would be easy to fall into an almost salacious approach juxtaposing the beauty of cut flowers with the industry’s seedy underbelly but Stewart steers clear. She starts with the history of the Star-Gazer Lily, a flower that kicked off the modern era of designer flowers. It acts as a convenient entry point to a topic most of us are only vaguely aware of. Did you know that cut flowers have lost their scent over time as they’ve been bred to last longer in the vase? Or that the increased trend of out-patient surgeries has put a noticeable dent in local florists' profit as fewer people send bouquets to hospital rooms? Stewart does her absolute best to hit each aspect of the floral industry as she goes through the book, so it’s understandable that some topics feel too surface-level.
I read this for a book club, which is why I picked it up despite a lack of prior interest in cut flowers. I won’t read it again but I did enjoy the journey. It was consistently engaging and sparked a new interest in flowers - I hope to find a few deeper dives in future. Perhaps most surprisingly, I now buy myself bouquets to have at home!
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