Washington Gardener Magazine Book Club - Winter 2014 Selection

For our first 2014 selection of the Washington Gardener Magazine Book Club, we will be reading: Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers by Amy Stewart.

I have reserving a meeting room at the Takoma Park* DC Neighborhood Library in the downstairs meeting room on Thursday, February 13 from 6:00-7:30pm. 

The room allows food and drink and you may bring your dinner and/or snacks to share.

The book club meetings are FREE and open to anyone who would like to attend.

Please RSVP to "WG Book Club" at WashingtonGardener@rcn.com. I will be limiting attendance to 20. If you need to cancel, let me know ASAP so we can give your spot to someone else, should we have a wait-list. 

From AmyStewart.com, here is a bit about the book selection:

Does it matter that a bouquet of roses travels halfway around the world before it arrives at your supermarket or florist? Or that growers force tulips to bloom in December? Are we being tricked when a scientist engineers a lily that doesn't shed pollen?

For over a century, hybridizers, geneticists, farmers, and florists around the world have worked to invent, manufacture, and sell flowers that are bigger, brighter, and sturdier than anything nature could provide. Almost any flower, in any color, is for sale at any time of the year.

Amy Stewart travels the globe to take us inside this dazzling world. She tracks down scientists intent on developing the first genetically modified blue rose; an eccentric horticultural legend who created the world's most popular lily (the 'Star Gazer'); a breeder of gerberas of every color imaginable; and an Ecuadorian farmer growing exquisite, high-end organic roses that are the floral equivalent of a Tiffany diamond. She sees firsthand how flowers are grown and harvested on farms in Latin America, California, and Holland. (It isn't always pretty.)

What has been gained-and what has been lost-in tinkering with Mother Nature? Should we care that roses have lost their scent? Or that most flowers are sprayed with pesticides? In a global marketplace, is there such a thing as a socially responsible flower? At every turn, Stewart discovers a fascinating intersection of nature and technology, of sentiment and commerce.

You'll never look at a cut flower the same way again.

In case you like to read ahead, the other book club selections for 2014 are:

~ American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn by Ted Steinberg

~ Into the Garden with Charles by Clyde PhillipWachsberger
~ The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

I will announce the date for the next book club meetings after each previous meeting. We will meet roughly once each quarter.

*Note that there is also a Takoma Park, MD town library. This meeting will take place at the library in Takoma, DC at 416 Cedar Street, NW, WDC. It is just a couple blocks from the Takoma metro station and is near several bus lines. Street parking is available.

UPDATE:
Anyone considering joining us to discuss "Flower Confidential" this Thursday evening at the Takoma DC library - there is a storm watch for Thursday, we MAY have to reschedule our Garden Book Club to a new meeting date and/or location. Check this post on Thursday around Noon for an update.