- Home
- Homes & Gardens
- The 50 Mile Bouquet, Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers Reviewed By Allan Becker of Bookpleasures.com
The 50 Mile Bouquet, Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers Reviewed By Allan Becker of Bookpleasures.com
- By Allan Becker
- Published July 7, 2012
- Homes & Gardens
Allan Becker
Reviewer Allan Becker: Allan has been designing and planting flower gardens, since he was a teenager in the 1960's. Now retired from the soft goods industry, where he held several positions in design, product development, and marketing, he has turned his passion for gardening into a second career, as a garden designer for private clients in Montreal, Canada.
In spring and summer, he provides his assistants, most college students, who transform his designs into flower gardens. In winter, he reviews books on garden-related topics for Bookpleasures.com and writes a Gardening Blog.
Allan earned a B.A. from McGill University, followed by two years of studies in design at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia). He lives in the Montreal suburb of Cote St. Luc, Quebec with his wife and travels regularly to Toronto and Boston to visit his children and grandchildren.
Follow Here To Purchase The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers
Authors: Debra Prinzing,
David E. Perry
Publishers: St. Lynn’s Press
ISBN: 978-0-9832726-4-9
For the same reasons that we try to buy locally grown organic food, Debra Prinzing suggests that, when buying cut flowers, we look for those that are organically grown no more than 50 miles away.
Most of us pay little attention to the fact that, over the years, cut flowers bought from florists and supermarkets have become less fragrant, and that their colors appear increasingly artificial. There are technical reasons for this. Most commercial flowers are grown overseas, at a great distance from markets and the harvest must be vigorous enough to sustain both long distances and the time necessary for their distribution.
By breeding to produce this level of vigor, odorless flowers with a lifeless appearance is the usual result. To insure the viability of these crops, the large commercial growers around the globe resort to using pesticides and manufactured fertilizers. Furthermore, with the breeding of these preferred strains has come the ability to change the appearance of the flowers so that they are more attractive at retail. However, upon close inspection, they look unreal.
Those of us who prefer our plants to be pesticide and chemical free, who care how much energy is consumed in bring the blooms to market, and who expect a fragrant flower that touches our soul, are urged to patronize flower growers closer to home. Nothing can compare to a fragrant, old fashioned, freshly harvested bloom.
Throughout the USA, but mostly on the West Coast and sprinkled around the country, dedicated flower merchants are delivering locally grown, fragrant, cut flowers, nourished with sustainable practices. The results have been very moving.
The focus of this book is to identify the growers and distributors of newfound but old style, cut flowers; to encourage readers to buy them when they are local and organically produced, to grow their own, and to suggest that the florist industry strive for organic practices.
Readers will discover farmers who are producing and harvesting organic flowers all season long. They will meet representatives of the new breed of florists who source and create with environmentally respected techniques while using uncommon, fresh, and sustainably grown plants. The inspired among us will learn how to use these preferred cut flowers to create foraged bouquets and elaborate centerpieces, by sourcing from farmers markets, back yard cutting gardens, and semi-wild locations.
The theme of the publication rounds out with a list of US flower growers, floral design tips, seasonal ingredients, a floral glossary, sustainability terms, as well as a directory of farmers, designers, and other experts introduced by the writer.
After reading this book, I
find it difficult to revert to buying odorless, artificial-looking
cut flowers. Happily, some retailers now post a sign when their
floral inventory is locally grown. Thanks to the dedicated people we
meet in Debra Prinzing and David E. Perry’s inspiring work, we are
making progress.
Follow Here To Purchase The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers