This Week's Podcast: Field To Vase
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We all know about the trend for buying locally grown food. Flowers may not be far behind. Our guest Debra Prinzing, one of the most popular and prolific garden writers, presents a new book on what she hopes will become a movement for growing cut flowers locally. In The 50-Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers, 
Debra discloses the workings of the floral industry and zeros in on individual commercial cut flower farmers and sellers who are producing “unique, beautiful, vigorous and poison-free crops” – and selling these flowers to nearby customers.
Few people realize or even think about where cut flowers come from. Some 80% are imported. But that is changing. In 2010, over 7,000 farmers were growing flowers – up by 17% from the year before (USDA). The four states leading in flower production are (not surprisingly) California, Washington, (somewhat surprisingly) New Jersey and Oregon.Perhaps Debra will get to write more about the Garden State’s long history of flower 
growers and other producers around the country. (Are there still daffodil fields in Virginia?)
The book is illustrated with David E. Perry’s luxurious photographs that are at once documentary and softly impressionistic, and which contribute to making this small square book as welcome as a summer bouquet.
For more information, visit Debra’s 50-Mile Bouquet blog.
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