We are so pleased to bring you the stories and anecdotes of the
American Florists Exchange / Los Angeles Flower Market, so rich and
plentiful that our 288-page book is hardly large enough to contain them.
They weave a colorful tapestry of life in
California and the flower business since the 1850s, take a brief foray into the history of the region, introduce
the reader to the early flower farmers and showcase the events that
formed today's Flower Market beginning with its incorporation in January
1921.
"It is not often that a
historical story such as this has the opportunity to be told . . . .
. We hope you will thoroughly enjoy the history, pictures and
memories of the Los Angeles Flower Market and pass along the message
of the book to other members of our flower family." AFE board of
directors, 2008
For More Information
To inquire . . . about ordering a
book, conducting a media interview, reviewing or writing about our
history book project:
Send us email
or call
Peggi Ridgway, c/o Wordpix, 800 200-1101
Jim Mellano, 888 635-5266
Creative Team:
Authors - Peggi Ridgway, Jan Works
Artists - Theresa Padilla Fajardo, Michael Wheary
Photographers - Julie Diebolt Price, Peggi Ridgway and the many friends
in the flower industry who loaned their prized historic photos
Friends of the Project - pictures (and a slide
show) of a few of the many people we interviewed and worked with -
Click here
Financial Partners- Those who were instrumental
in making this book a reality -
Mellano & Company, California State Floral Association, California
Association of Flower Growers & Shippers, The Bert N. Johnson Family,
Hollandia Produce, Mario and Doris Ann Del Fante, Ghigo Greens/Inez
Ayala in Honor of Doris Ghigo, Paul Ecke III, Ecke Ranch, John and
Eleanore Noonan, Lizbeth Ecke, Ray Winter, Albin Hagstrom & Son, Inc.,
Groen Rose Company / Sylvia Foltz, Barbara Winter, Duane and Maria
Rodriguez-Winter.
Click here for
more details about our partners.
Printing: Sending
Flowers to America was printed by Four Colour Imports,
Louisville, Kentucky, and Everbest Printing, China, on
archival, acid-free paper, certified as from a renewable
resource by the Forestry Stewardship Council.
Pictured above are a few of the many friends of the Sending
Flowers to America book project - people interviewed and
a few who assisted along the research trail. Upon refreshing
or first entering this page, the pictures appear in this order:
Peggi Ridgway, project manager of Sending Flowers to America, in the
archives of Southern Florist & Nurseryman
magazine in Fort Worth, TX -- The very helpful ladies of the
Alhambra Historical Society
(from left Rose Marie Markus, Viola Rippon and Teresa Rosewall) --
Edgar Engert and Marilou Just -- Pat
Cunningham of the South Bay Dahlia Society -- Board
members of California State Floral
Association -- Archie Defterios
of Delta Floral Distributors -- Phil
Rulloda of Southern California School of Floral Design --
Sylvia Foltz (Groen Rose
Company) and Jan Works, project writer -- Writer
Jan Works at the 2007 American
Florists' Exchange shareholders' meeting --
Linda Aust and Tike Karavas of Redondo Beach Historical Society
and Museum -- Long-time florist Victor Levy
-- Peggi and photo archivist Carolyn Cole of
Los Angeles Public Library -- Long-time florist and
designer Bob Berry and wife Stella
-- Harvey Prechtl and son Jon Prechtl
-- Torrance florist Demetrio Pacleb
at the Dan Stamis counter in the
American Florists Exchange -- Diane Mellano
with writer Jan Works -- Johnny Mellano
-- Photographer Julie Diebolt-Price,
JDP Photography, at work at the Market --
Mike Mellano Sr, Fred Elmendorf and writer Jan Works --
Fred Elmendorf and Jan Works -- Peggi, Jan and
Naomi Hirahara, author of A Scent of Flowers -- Peggi
and Paul Ecke III -- Peggi at
the Flower Fields in Carlsbad -- Agostina
Lugaro of the Lugaro wholesale flower growing family --
Harvey Prechtl, whose father
grew lilies and served as president of the AFE board --
Redondo Beach Historical Museum
-- San Diego farm country -- Jan
Works with Batti Castellano in
his orchid barn -- Maria Mellano,
her daughter Rosemarie Castellano and
Rosemarie's husband Batti with Jan Works --
Evelyn Weidner of Weidner Gardens
in Encinitas -- Maria Mellano
and writer Jan Works.
