Choosing local flowers can have as big an environmental impact as the food we buy!
With Mother’s Day coming up – which accounts for about 25% of all cut flower sales in the U.S. annually, I thought it was time to dig deeper into the dirty side of floriculture and look into the growing trend of local flowers…
Did you know that cut flowers are one of the biggest offenders when it comes to being sprayed with synthetic pesticides and herbicides. And with a nearly $60 billion industry in the U.S., Americans bring a lot of those sprayed blooms home and then seat themselves around them for meals…
The cut flower industry needs to drastically reduce their negative impact on the planet. The largest number of flowers sold in the U.S. are flown into North America from South America (specifically Colombia and Ecuador). The carbon footprint from refrigerated air travel is mind blowing!
Most refrigerated containment systems emit hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are greenhouse gases estimated to be 9,000 times more potent than CO2 at warming the atmosphere.
–Green America
Chemical Heavy Industry
Flowers also require lots of water to grow, and are usually grown in large-scale greenhouse environments, which then need pesticides and herbicides to deal with because of planting in monocultures. Areas around large-scale flower farms also experience negative run off effects and lowering of regional water tables.
The workers are showing signs of poisoning from the intense use of chemicals as well, after working 16-hour days for unfair wages. The chemical they may be having the biggest reaction to is methyl bromide, which is a fumigant sprayed onto flowers before shipping to make sure all bugs and fungi die in transit. This is illegal in food, but since flowers are not food, the industry gets away with it- even though it has been shown to cause neurological damage – to us humans along with the pollinators!
But then there are the greenhouses that aren’t in South America that require heating to grow the flowers we want for that special celebration… which can have much higher carbon footprints even with shorter travel times.
Here’s How You Can Help
- Buy Local Flowers when in season, dubbed “Slow Flowers” from your flower farmer.
- Ask your florist where their flowers came from and if they were treated.
- Reduce packaging by bringing your own vase, or asking if there are compostable options.
- Buy a potted plant instead of cut flowers. Many plants are grown in similar circumstances as cut flowers, but at least it will have a longer life and give you back some oxygen.
- Grow Your Own! I love growing flowers along with veggies. Some of my favorite flowers to grow are covered in this article.
I truly love the local flowers available at our farmers markets, but for when you can’t get there, or as a gift- I love that there are now bouquet subscriptions available from local flower farmers! Local Bouquet CSA
Meet a Local Flower Farmer Raising Flower Power!
I had the great joy of visiting Sarah’s home gardens, landscape company and flower farm collectively known as Sarah’s Cottage Creations. This woman walks the walk of sustainable farming and truly is so passionate about flowers; including the people who help her grow them and the people who bring them home!
When you think of starting a flower farm you might think of someone coming from a farming or horticultural background, right? But this story starts with an “Oprah’s Best Life” aha moment when owner and now flower farmer, Sarah Buerkley, realized she wanted to do something with her hands outside in nature.
She started Sarah’s Cottage Creations in Stillwater, Minnesota in 2000 by installing seasonal pots and window boxes in her area. And two decades later… she’s grown into multi-faceted landscape and gardening business where she still gets to plant out seasonal blooms in pots and window boxes, but has expanded to landscape design and installation, plus her newest venture – the flower farm! All told, she employs over a dozen plant crazy people year-round and doubles that during the summer months.
She focuses on Dahlias, Peonies and early season Fancy Tulips on the flower farm, but also grows a lot of variety (ranunculus, zinnias, strawflowers etc.) for bridal bouquet orders- and oh my goodness, swoon, the colors all season long on her farm are breathtaking!
Flower Purchase Power
We often overlook the ecological impact of flowers. They’re often a fun, last-minute splurge so we don’t sit down to think about how our flowers were grown, or where they came from like we do with our food.
But that is changing. Sarah has seen a shift in the last few years with people wanting to know if their flowers were grown locally, and if they had chemicals sprayed on them. Sarah is so happy to support this healthier option for people and the planet. It is also why she grows her flowers without harmful chemicals.
“I really love being able to ship my flowers with zero chemicals added like so many huge grow houses that ship across the US do,” says Sarah. “We also wrap our blooms in paper not plastic because we can with our blooms travelling a shorter time and distance”. All these things really do add up to a larger than expected environmental impact.
So what does it take to run a flower farm?
Patience and lots of hard work! But many flower farmers start on small parcels of land and slowly grow.
Like so many gardeners, Sarah is mostly self-taught. But she was immensely grateful for the “Floret Farm” flower farmer workshop that she took years ago.
Sarah currently works with about 3,000 dahlia tubers and added over an acre of peonies! She holds a tuber sale every January (tubers ship out in late April or early May here in Minnesota) I am eagerly awaiting my shipment of new Dahlia Tubers as I write this!
She also sells many different “Bouquet Subscriptions” for weekly delivery starting in April with fancy tulips and going on through the season. What a wonderful gift idea! In order to house all those cut beauties, even for a day, they have a single cold storage area (that is usually pretty dark as you can tell from the photo).
You can follow along with Sarah’s swoon worthy growing season on her Instagram Account, or sign up for her monthly emails to be the first to access her sales (some dahlias go very fast).
So next time to decide to gift someone a bouquet, take the time to look into where those flowers came from and how they were grown. You’ll end up giving a more meaningful, and more healthful gift on so many levels!
Are you ready to Dig In to Local Flowers for a healthier planet? I truly hope I’ve inspired you to think before you buy your next bouquet!
~Michelle
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