Acknowledgments  vii

Introduction  1

1. Tastes, Traditions, and Trade, 1870-1970  15

2. Favored Flowers: Growers and Traders, 1870-1970  33

3. Fresh Flows: Global Flower Growing, 1970-2005  55

4. State and Structure: Floriculture in a Global System  74

5. Cultivating the Global Garden: Local Growers in a Global System  97

6. Specialty and Abundance: Middlemen in a Changing System  130

7. Risk and Relationships: Middlemen Strategies  163

8. Self and Signs: Flower Consumers  192

Conclusion  227

Notes  235

Bibliography  277

Index   291

“[A]s Ziegler persuasively argues . . . the decline of the traditional florist, who enjoyed a monopoly in his field for over a hundred years, is a reflection of the broader effects of globalization that have transformed retailing. . . . [C]ompelling reading for anyone interested in learning what makes globalization tick.”—Vicki Howard, Business History Review

“Undergraduates in social sciences will appreciate Ziegler’s clear and engaging demonstration, among the most interesting titles I have read in years. This excellent research is one of these fundamental books which allow people to understand why and how social scientists work.”—Yves Laberge, The Latin Americanist

“I loved this book. Catherine Ziegler really brings the global economy alive by tracing a single small but diverse good through production, transportation and delivery. . . . I promise you, you will never look at a flower the same way again.”—Janine Peterson Wonnacott, Feminist Review

“Ziegler offers a marvelous investigation of the worldwide production and distribution of fresh-cut flowers. . . . [T]his book provides a very interesting read. . . . Eight chapters and additional features offer information that is invaluable to the industry and anyone contemplating employment or considering an entrepreneurial venture in the industry. Highly recommended.”—L. C. Ewart, Choice

“A rose is a rose is a rose—but to whom, how, when, where and why? These are among the questions explored in this beautifully conceived and finely crafted analysis, which deserves to become a classic. To call it a ‘commodity chain study’ risks over-simplifying this marvellously rich work, in a field that has long suffered from a degree of over-simplification and parochialism. . . . To all of us who work with commodities, Favored Flowers is a true benchmark. If any recent study deserves bouquets, this is it.”—Kaori O’Connor, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“Favored Flowers is a wonderful book, intermingling political economy, class analysis, gender, and culture in a fragrant bouquet. It would cheerfully adorn many a bookshelf or reading list.”—W. L. Goldfrank, Contemporary Sociology

“For readers interested in Latin America, Favored Flowers provides a valuable global context for the flower boom that has taken place there since the mid-1960s. . . . It presents a fluid and contingent view of global commodity chains that is strikingly different from more structuralist accounts of commodity exports from Latin America.”—Stuart McCook, Latin American Research Review

“[A]s Ziegler persuasively argues . . . the decline of the traditional florist, who enjoyed a monopoly in his field for over a hundred years, is a reflection of the broader effects of globalization that have transformed retailing. . . . [C]ompelling reading for anyone interested in learning what makes globalization tick.”—Vicki Howard, Business History Review

“Undergraduates in social sciences will appreciate Ziegler’s clear and engaging demonstration, among the most interesting titles I have read in years. This excellent research is one of these fundamental books which allow people to understand why and how social scientists work.”—Yves Laberge, The Latin Americanist

“I loved this book. Catherine Ziegler really brings the global economy alive by tracing a single small but diverse good through production, transportation and delivery. . . . I promise you, you will never look at a flower the same way again.”—Janine Peterson Wonnacott, Feminist Review

“Ziegler offers a marvelous investigation of the worldwide production and distribution of fresh-cut flowers. . . . [T]his book provides a very interesting read. . . . Eight chapters and additional features offer information that is invaluable to the industry and anyone contemplating employment or considering an entrepreneurial venture in the industry. Highly recommended.”—L. C. Ewart, Choice

“A rose is a rose is a rose—but to whom, how, when, where and why? These are among the questions explored in this beautifully conceived and finely crafted analysis, which deserves to become a classic. To call it a ‘commodity chain study’ risks over-simplifying this marvellously rich work, in a field that has long suffered from a degree of over-simplification and parochialism. . . . To all of us who work with commodities, Favored Flowers is a true benchmark. If any recent study deserves bouquets, this is it.”—Kaori O’Connor, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

“Favored Flowers is a wonderful book, intermingling political economy, class analysis, gender, and culture in a fragrant bouquet. It would cheerfully adorn many a bookshelf or reading list.”—W. L. Goldfrank, Contemporary Sociology

“For readers interested in Latin America, Favored Flowers provides a valuable global context for the flower boom that has taken place there since the mid-1960s. . . . It presents a fluid and contingent view of global commodity chains that is strikingly different from more structuralist accounts of commodity exports from Latin America.”—Stuart McCook, Latin American Research Review

“Favored Flowers is an excellent book, an extremely impressive and important piece of original research. A case study of the contemporary commodity chain has been the ‘next big thing’ in anthropology, geography, and sociology for some time now, but this is one of the first studies that I have read that really lives up to the promise, including all the neglected middle sections of the chain. Here the wholesalers, the buyers, the packing, developing, storing, transporting, selecting, and distributing finally get the respect they deserve.”—Daniel Miller, editor of Materiality

“What might it mean to offer a biography of an everyday commodity, at once attentive to its conditions of production and distribution and yet never losing sight, as Marx asserted, of its magic, mystery, and fetishistic qualities under capitalism? Catherine Ziegler’s marvelous book Favored Flowers tackles the extraordinary world of the global flower industry, tracing the complex sinews linking growers in the Netherlands and Ecuador to retailers and consumers in New York. She takes the reader for an exhilarating ride along the cut-flower commodity chain, dirtying her hands in the greenhouses, interviewing middlemen and retail florists, and charting the floral contours of love and pleasure among the Upper East Side bourgeoisie. This is political and cultural economy of the highest order.”—Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley

“Catherine Ziegler has made an important contribution to our understanding of the intricate networks that make the global flower industry tick. Her history of the role that flowers have played in our culture is fascinating, and her analysis of supply chains, communication networks, and worldwide trends makes Favored Flowers an invaluable read for people inside the flower industry and for anyone who has ever picked up a bouquet and wondered about the story it had to tell.”—Amy Stewart, author of Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers

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