This question has come up a lot since the publication of Flower Confidential was announced, and it was just posed to me again this week in an e-mail. Someone who’d read one of my earlier books wrote to me and said, "Your new book isn’t going to make me have to stop buying flowers, is it?" In other words, am I going to have to boycott flowers in order to be a responsible consumer?
Absolutely not. In fact, I think the opposite is true. The flower industry is in a real transition right now, and I certainly advocate for better labor and environmental practices, but I would never suggest that you stop buying flowers. I think there’s a perception among some in the floral industry that by talking about these issues, or by promoting organic or sustainable flowers, the general public would get an idea that there’s something wrong with flowers and would stop buying them. That point of view overlooks the fact that there’s a major shift to organics underway right now, and an ever-growing pool of consumers ready to buy organic when it’s available.
After everything I learned about the inner workings of this industry, I buy more flowers now than I ever did. Don’t take my word for it, though–a fellow author who just read an advance copy of Flower Confidential wrote to me and said:
"The whole time I was reading the book, I was just dying to go down to my local florist and buy a bunch of flowers, which I intend to do as soon as I get home. I’ll probably also be asking them whether they’ve looking into organic or certified flowers while I’m there. But it’s definitely stimulated my appetite for flowers."