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Amy Stewart’s book inspired me to team up with Seattle photographer David Perry and interview flower farmers and eco-designers about all the positive ways we can have seasonal and locally grown flowers in our lives.”
A Floral Designer’s Bookshelf
Written by LINDSEY M. ROBERTS
MEET Debra Prinzing, FLOWERVORE. She is a Seattle-based garden writer who asks where her flowers come from before she buys them—the same way some of us might ask where our salmon comes from before ordering it at a restaurant. In her new book, The 50 MARY GRACE LONG
Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers (St. Lynn’s Press, April 2012), photographed by Seattleite David Perry, Prinzing explains why we ought to take the local-food, slow-food movements to the floral industry. She also offers inspiration and resources for DIY garden-grown bouquets and flower arrangements. As a professional journalist, Prinzing reads a lot about each subject she reports, so we asked her what’s on her potting-shed shelves this season. Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers by AMY STEWART (Algonquin, 2007)
Amy was the first person to take a look inside the global floral trade and reveal how incredibly dependent U.S. consumers are on imported flowers.
Grow Your Own Cut Flowers by SARAH RAVEN (BBC Worldwide, 2002)
Written by a gardener, not a florist, this charming book is about the joys of growing annuals, perennials, bulbs, flowering shrubs, vines, herbs and ornamental grasses—so that you are certain to have endless ingredients for your bouquets.
The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers by LYNN BYCZYNSKI (Chelsea Green, 2008)
This is an essential guide for anyone considering entering the market-farmer business. Home gardeners interested in floral design will also benefit from Lynn’s useful tips about growing and harvesting cut flowers.
Bringing Nature Home by NGOC MINH NGO (Rizzoli, 2012)
This is a beautifully photographed book intended as a visual poem to nature in all four seasons. No imported blooms in this book!
GRAY ISSUE No. four
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