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Thanks for sharing that. I do freelance floral design and all of my flowers are shipped from outside of the country. I was pretty sure that they got "fumigated" at customs. Is the book interesting? Very interesting. I'm probably all poisoned up by now!
It's a fascinating read, and makes me think about the issues we're now discussing on food safety. Nearly all the roses used in the florist industry come from Equador and other South American countries, and they don't have the regulations the U.S. and Canada have for pesticide use. A lot of the pesticides are cumulative on the surface of the flowers, and a certain amount probably is absorbed systemically, too. As if that weren't enough, those roses do get fumigated (random boxes of flowers are opened and inspected, and if any have so much as a speck, the entire hangar of imported flowers gets fumigated!) and while it's supposed to dissipate before it gets to the consumer (or floral arranger), there already is such a buildup of pesticides that you definitely do NOT want to scatter rose petals in your wedding punch or take a whiff of a bouquet!
I did a little floral design training, and one of the first things my instructor told the class, each semester, is "Don't stick your nose into the flowers to smell them, and DON'T use them for cooking!!!" Fortunately (sort of), most commercial strains of roses and other florals have been so specially bred for size and color, and longetivity, etc. that a lot have inadvertantly had their genes for scent bred out in the process.
