American Florists' Exchange, Ltd.
Sending flowers to America; stories of the Los Angeles flower market and the people who built an American floral industry.
This celebration of the floral industry in Southern California is beautifully put together, with hundreds of photos of both people and flowers. Authors Ridgway and Works both live near the Los Angeles Flower Market and have researched its history in local archives and through personal interviews. The history of commercial flower growing is told with many anecdotes and quotations from memoirs and documents. Included are the origin of the Pasadena Rose Parade and the interment of many Japanese-American florists during World War II. Another section contains interviews and mini-biographies of a cross-section of growers and florists. While clearly an uncritical look at the industry, this book preserves a time and micro-culture that would have otherwise been forgotten. Oversize 9 x 12 inches (Annotation ©2009 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
