Why does local matter?
Why does local matter? Join me as I highlight reasons for choosing local when buying flowers.
80% of the flowers you find in most stores are being shipped from South America, Europe, and Africa. That seems crazy to me! Many flowers are shipped from very faraway countries. As we go along with these highlights, I’ll go into the waste, plastics, chemicals, and fuel that go into shipping the majority of flowers.
Local flowers are fresh, longer lasting, have lush blooms, and are more fragrant! The flowers have traveled much shorter distances. A lot of the time shipped flowers come dry or with very little water in boxes and have to be re-hydrated. At our farm, we harvest a day or two before sending our flowers out. They get harvested in the morning into clean buckets and then hang out in our walk-in cooler to hydrate. (The local flower farms in our area that I know take similar steps too!) This allows the blooms to be lush, longer lasting, and fragrant.
Local flowers are grown using responsible farming methods. I could nerd out with all of you about soil health and sustainable farming. It’s a huge part of our farming operation. Simply put, we disturb the soil as little as possible (no-till methods) and the flowers are grown with ecological integrity. We look at what we’re doing through the lens of benefiting the environment. If you have questions or want to learn more about our farming practices, we are happy to answer your questions. Another great resource is the podcast, No-Till Flowers.
You are supporting your local economy and family farms! When you support local you are supporting families and small businesses that benefit your community and provide employment in your area. Shopping local not only helps the farms, but all the other small businesses involved!
Local flowers make you happy, can reduce anxiety and depression, improve relationships, & help you live a longer life! Yes, it’s proven with scientific studies that all flowers can do this, but I think local flowers do all these things better.
Flowers that have been shipped are often sprayed with and/or dunked in harsh chemicals, fungicides, & pesticides. There is a whole process with customs and there are different chemicals allowed in other countries. Simply put, it’s a lot of harmful chemicals. However, there are flower farms in the US that ship without using these methods, which is great news!
Shipping flowers require a lot of packaging, plastics, and boxes! Locally delivered flowers arrive ready to use. Locally delivered flowers typically arrive ready to use. We deliver ours in reusable buckets and the flowers are just bunched with a rubber band.
We are looking forward to providing you with an abundance of blooms this season! Thank you for doing your part in supporting local!
