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About The Flower Market History Project

Book Details  |  Creative Team  |  Partners  |  Sample Pages  |  Guide to Slides

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.

AFE Directors photo

"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


Book Specifications:

Title: Sending Flowers to America

Sub-title: Stories of the Los Angeles Flower Market
and the People Who Built an American Floral Industry

Publisher: American Florists’ Exchange, Ltd.

Authors: Peggi Ridgway and Jan Works

Publication Date: November 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-9798285-0-8

Retail price: $64.95 NOW $50 including tax

Binding: Hardbound with dust jacket

Size: 9x12 inches

Pages: 288

Weight: Approx. 3.5 lbs.

Color: Full color throughout

Indexes: Main index; photo index; index to profiles

Other Resources: Booklist / bibliography

Creative Team:

Project Manager: Wordpix Solutions

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

Learn more about our team here

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.

Retail florists await the 6:30 a.m. opening bell at the American Florists Exchange, 1950s.


View Sample Pages

Chapter 1, opening page 3 - download PDF

Chapter 2, timeline page 18 - download PDF

Chapter 3, text and picture page 37 - download PDF

Chapter 4, opening (floral) page 49 - download PDF

Chapter 4, text and picture page 56 - download PDF

Chapter 4, text and picture page 63 - download PDF

Profiles - people/families whose stories are included in this book - View here

View the Table of Contents

View SUMMARIES of all the chapters and the PROFILES list


Use our email form to send your comments
to book author and website manager

Order your copy today:

Order your copy today for $64.95!
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If you're a registered Amazon.com user,
we would appreciate your posting a review of the book! 
 

Meet more friends and people involved
with the book project


 


   


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.

Visit more of the friends we made along the way here.

"A gorgeous cultural history..."

"Engaging"

"Highly recommended..."

"massive contribution to the floral industry"

"This book belongs in every California library."

"We are enjoying it with our daughters."

Contact our author and agent by Email or call 714 228-1101

 

 


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