The Toadstool Bookshops of Keene, Milford, and Peterborough, NH

A globe-trotting, behind-the-scenes look at the dazzling world of flowers and the fascinating industry it's created.
It might be unromantic to call a flower a commodity or a manufactured product, but flowers are both. They've become big business-created in laboratories, bred in test tubes, grown in factories, harvested by machines, packed into boxes, sold at auctions, and then flown across oceans and continents to your supermarket or local florist. Amy Stewart tracks down the hybridizers, geneticists, growers, and vendors working to invent, manufacture, and sell flowers that are bigger, brighter, and sturdier than anything nature can provide. From big agribusiness to local farming, from Europe to Latin America, "Flower Confidential" explores the intersection of nature and technology, of sentiment and commerce.