How to book a Sustainable Florist for your wedding.
Sustainability is an important concept, and for good reason. Generally, the goal of sustainability ensures business practices work in harmony with nature and people so both prosper now and in the future.
The flower industry, like many others, is a complex global enterprise that doesn’t always consider how the business affects the wider world. But, there’s a new movement pushing for changes in the industry.
Here are a few questions to ask a florist about sustainability practices.
1. Do you support local flower farms?
Dutch tulips are shipped worldwide! Japan has beautiful ranunculus. Portland ships roses all over the United States. But the further the flowers ship, the more they cost - financially and environmentally. Fortunately, Portland is a flower growing powerhouse! We use local farms as much as possible and pass that value on to each couple. Here are a couple of our favorites:
Peterkort Roses - Our favorite rose farm that gives credence to Portland’s nickname the City of Roses.
Wonderkin (Small Yard Flowers + Indigo Gardens) - Our floral farm neighbor located in St. Johns teamed up with an east Portland urban farm.
Zush Flower Farm - A small farm focused on rare varieties and specializing in wedding flowers located in Portland, OR
Charles Little - A beautiful farm located near Mt. Pisgah in Eugene, OR
Tangled Roots - An urban farm with flowers grown on vacant land located in Portland, OR
Bramble Floral Design - Yes. We have a small garden ourselves to grow some particular favorites each year. It just doesn’t get more local than that!
2. What flowers are in season for my wedding?
Different flowers grow in different seasons! Big fluffy peonies grow in late spring and roses peak in summer. In season flowers require less inputs to grow - irrigation, chemicals, heating/cooling to grow. The fewer inputs mean lower environmental impact. We have over 10 years of experience which means we know exactly when flowers are available and how to create your look in any season.
3. Do you use floral foam?
Floral foam is a plastic-based industry standard product that does not biodegrade. It’s use is to provide a water source and support for flower arrangements (You can see all the details here). It is an unsustainable and an unfriendly product for the environment. The reality is there are many alternatives to this product - such as chicken wire, reusable water sources, moss, and better flower choices.
4. What happens after the wedding?
This gets to the basics of sustainability practices - reuse & recycle.
Reuse - Here are the top 3 ways
Believe it or not we do reuse flowers! We often breakdown installs to save flowers. We dry them and then used dried flowers in arrangements in the future.
Since we don’t use floral foam, the intricacies of construction of arrangements and various installs, we save the structures for future clients.
Rentals, rentals, rentals - we have a curated collection of vases for any type of event. Plus, we source some of these from antique stores.
Recycle - We compost everything! All the flowers from the wedding are collected and disposed using natural biodegradable methods. This means we can use the compost the following year for more flowers.
If this was helpful for you, but you still have some questions, I’d love to chat - Just shoot me an email!