Since the pandemic there are hundreds if not thousands of people who have declared that they are now flower farmers. You don’t have to be an Instagram camper to have your feed saturated with a multitude of daily posts of people’s farmstand flowers or bouquets or to whatever degree they’re growing flowers in their backyard, side lot, rented lot or have embarked on a larger scale commercial production.
I believe the entry of so many more people into the cut flower market it is a good development. I say this because I think any effort to show more consumers what local flowers —and supporting local flowers — looks like is good. More cheerleaders, enthusiasts and storytellers are needed.
An image from the 2023 Slow Flowers Summit at the Bellevue Botanical Garden (Bellevue, Washington), featuring all locally-grown flowers from Slow Flowers member growers in the PNW (c) Missy Palocol Photography.
There is a piece of the pie for everyone. With that being said, all of us need to take up the mantle as ambassadors for our passion with a greater sense of urgency, and with more technology and marketing on board to reach our audience and consumers.
There is a tendency to get comfortable in our own bubbles. I get used to the relaxed comfort of those in my own circle who also are hyper-conscious of the messages and importance of local flowers. Lulled into further complacency, the social media algorithms serve us up more of what our fellow flower peers are putting out, but not so much content from the people we really need to speak to.
There is a vast divide between content creators and passive users. That divide, though shrinking, still needs closing. Besides the work we do to grow beautiful blooms, we need to learn better skills to extend our reach and get our ethos and product into the hands of the true decision makers.
The Slow Flowers Summit brings together flower farmers, farmer-florists, and designers to learn from speakers and from one another (c) Missy Palocol Photography.
There is a pioneer in our field who 12 years ago brought the conversation to the forefront in a really meaningful way with the release of her book The 50 Mile Bouquet: Seasonal, Local and Sustainable Flowers. Debra Prinzing, though probably well know to most of you, is the original architect of articulating the problems of the American Floral Industry, along with the solutions and why they’re not only important but attainable via the Slow Flowers Movement.
Slow Flowers commits to the following practices:
- To recognize and respect the seasons by celebrating and designing with flowers when they naturally bloom
- To reduce the transportation footprint of the flowers and foliage consumed in the marketplace by sourcing as locally as possible
- To support flower farmers small and large by crediting them when possible through proper labeling at the wholesale and consumer level
- To encourage sustainable and organic farming practices that respect people and the environment
- To proactively pursue equity, inclusion and representation in the floral marketplace, intentionally valuing Black floral professionals (farmers, floral designers and vendors) in our business practice with as much support as we give to environmental sustainability.
- To eliminate waste and the use of chemical products in the floral industry
- The Slow Flowers Movement puts a priority on sourcing domestic and local flowers. In a way, this also means that we redefine beauty. As a Slow Food chef cooks with what is seasonally available, a Slow Flowers florist designs with what is seasonally available.
Since then, through other books, the Slow Flowers Society, a weekly podcast and frequent speaking engagements, Debra continues to enlist more recruits to carry the message. At the same time she is helping growers with resources, connections and promotion to support their floral growing endeavors. She is a wealth of information. And support.
More importantly, she is an innovator and a leader who still prides herself on being very accessible, and that has made all the difference to me in particular. Debra is always taking the temperature of the industry versus awareness. In a recent conversation with me to discuss the focus of this article, she shared the most recent numbers to help all understand the ground we have gained and the challenges we still face in our messaging efforts.
If you haven’t seen the recent numbers, I felt like this is an excellent opportunity to understand the current momentum:
These recent statistics (below) are encouraging in terms of shrinking the awareness gap, but there is still much to do. The polling sample speaks largely to consumer perceptions as they change with direct access to farmers in their communities as well as at Farmers Markets and perhaps roadside stands and pop-up shops. I think we’re making good headway on that front, but the biggest changes and conversions need to be with florists and designers who are the industry gatekeepers.
Reasons people gave for buying locally grown flowers, courtesy Slow Flowers Society and National Garden Survey 2024.
For commercial florists, broadly speaking, there is still too much reticence to adopt new ways of working with and sourcing floral, instead of what they’ve done for years if not decades. If you’ve depended on the same product being in a wholesale cooler week in and week out for decades, that is easy and predictable and so it’s also easy to see why it’s a hard habit to break.
Coupled perhaps with the unfamiliarity of working with fresh, seasonal flowers, imports offer familiarity, but that familiarity cost is ever increasing. Older generations of floral professionals have less of an investment in making good environmental and economic choices as the younger generations are well aware that they are inheriting a planet on fire.
The floral industry needs new blood and new perspectives, and I think it will come over time from younger floral business owners and designers who are inherently more invested in making decisions that are to the benefit of the planet.
Years ago, I began as a wedding planner and floral designer for events we host while using our farm as a wedding venue. Originally, I like many others, sourced my flowers from the easily available local walk-in wholesaler. Once you set up an account, prepping for a wedding is as easy as placing an order and setting a pickup date.
For the more fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants crowd, you can take your chances and just walk in and buy what happens to be still in stock. It is easy, but over time, the flowers cease to seem like real living things. They are emotionless, mostly without fragrance and a product specifically created for uniformity, predictability and durability. All of the things that nature is not.
After discovering the Slow Flowers Movement, the joy of flowers returned to my life. Here was a celebration of everything flowers should be: beautiful, fragrant, imperfect and realistically perishable. With new eyes, it was easy to wean myself off outside floral dependency. By small increments, I began growing my own supply for weddings and events.
The quality of the product and my satisfaction with it increased dramatically, but my joy returned as well. My passion was infectious to my floral clients, and that became a driving reason to work with me. Simply talking about what I was growing, why I was growing and explaining the seasonality of flowers was something that when articulated, made all the difference in the world to the clients and brides.
I think one of the greatest challenges we face as flower growers is getting in front of those people who are making the decisions. Usually the middleman is the florist or the floral designer. So much of our outreach is to the professionals in the industry to begin incorporating more local flowers into their designs, but for many, they want to do what’s cheapest and easiest in terms of profit margins.
For us, that’s not the point at all, but we cannot win an argument of ethics over profits. To make the environmental and ethical reasons a deciding factor in supporting local floral, we need to speak directly to the end consumer. When we do that, 100 percent of the time, our passion, commitment and the beauty of fresh flowers comes across.
Speakers at the 2023 Slow Flowers Summit. Photo by Rebecca Bodicky. Standing, from left: Sarah Reyes, Gina Lett-Shrewsberry, Valerie Crisostomo, Julio Freitas, Debra Prinzing, Tracy Yang, Dee Hall, Lennie Larkin; Seated, front row: Amy Balsters and Becky Feasby.
We need to create more of those opportunities. When the groundswell of demand comes from the other side of the equation, and brides and clients are requesting local flowers sourced for their designs, then truly I think the tides will sizably shift.
As growers, here are the benefits of local flowers that we should be talking about to everyone everywhere all the time:
1. Highlight environmental impact
- Local is lower carbon: Emphasize that local flowers have a significantly lower carbon footprint due to reduced transportation distances.
- Support pollinators: Explain how local flower farms provide essential habitat and food sources for pollinators, which are crucial for our ecosystem.
- Preserve natural resources: Discuss how local farmers often prioritize sustainable practices that minimize their environmental impact.
2. Emphasize economic benefits
- Boosting the local economy: Explain how buying local flowers keeps money circulating within the community, supporting local businesses and jobs.
- Strengthening local agriculture: Highlight the importance of supporting local agriculture to ensure a sustainable food supply for future generations.
3. Highlight quality + freshness
- Peak freshness: Emphasize that locally grown flowers are often harvested at their peak freshness, ensuring a longer vase life and a more vibrant appearance.
- Less product shrinkage: by selling fresh flowers by bundle, there is less shrinkage than boxed and shipped flowers, and as such, they have a higher value
- Unique varieties: Discuss the diverse range of local flower varieties that may not be available in the global market.
- Customization: Highlight the ability of local florists to offer personalized arrangements tailored to specific preferences and occasions.
4. Connect on an emotional level
- Tell your own unique story: Share personal anecdotes or stories about your flowers and your growing experiences. Let them see you emotionally. Let people see you as you really are. Let them see your hard work and especially let them see your joy.
- Create a sense of community: Emphasize the importance of supporting local businesses and building stronger communities. There are so many ways to incorporate our communities into our strength, and being a source of local pride.
5. Leverage social media
- Share beautiful floral content: don’t just post single bloom photos, armfuls of flowers photos to Instagram and Facebook. Make it relatable to the end user. Make it relevant to what they’re looking for: arrangements, bouquets, personal floral and innovative designs. ‘Flood the Zone’ by uploading your own content linked back to your website on Pinterest. This is a great way to become the floral change we wish to see in the world, replacing visual floral inspiration that has long been staged photo shoots of imported blooms, with gorgeous seasonal blooms incorporated into designs that brides will pin as wedding or event floral inspiration that they then give to their florist. Work the channel backwards.
- Use relevant hashtags: Use popular hashtags related to local flowers, sustainability, and community support.
- Engage with your audience: Respond to comments and questions and encourage your followers and clients to share their experiences. Share those on social media.
7. Create educational materials
- Develop infographics: Create visually appealing infographics that highlight the benefits of local flowers and share them in your collateral and in your social media feeds.
- Write blog posts or articles: Make local flower farming and the importance of buying local approachable with extended content and insights.
- Offer workshops or classes: Educate consumers about the beauty and benefits of local flowers through workshops or classes offered at your farm or location.
If you’re a farmer florist like me, let me say that words from Kim Delgado of Mary Stuart Flowers, truly reshaped the narrative for me. From Kim relating the ease with which she gently educates and steers potential clients, I made her examples of exchanges authentically my own.
One of the best things I can do when talking to clients and perhaps reviewing their photo inspiration or Pinterest boards, is to validate their desire for something beautiful. Look at the images and recognize their color story. But from the point where you’re looking at a photo of a coral peony for a September wedding, this is the chance to say something like:
“I love that this image has a large focal bloom and you’re wanting sunset hues for the arrangement, but if I could make a suggestion, since importing out of season peonies from the other side of the world may not be so kind on your floral budget, I’d love to show you the beautiful hues and styles of dahlias that will be in season for your wedding. Furthermore, if we’re using flowers that have been held at 35 °F to 37 °F, the humid Midwest is really a difficult adjustment for that flower to make. But, a local flower grown in the climate of your event is going to have the resilience and staying power we really need for your designs. They’ll be easier on your budget and the variety of fresh local flowers is a substantially wider toolbox to give you floral design that can’t be duplicated by the limited offerings of overseas floral. We can go in whatever direction you want. What would you like?”
And, 100 percent of the time, that shifts perceptions and direction in favor of local sustainable flowers. There is a version of this conversation that will be authentic for you, but I promise that the understanding and trust it builds in terms of your knowledge and design will be the best foundation for moving forward with not only this client, but all future clients. There is a version of this conversation, that should be had everywhere all the time, when talking about flowers. As clients become customers, contracts turn into content. Local floral content. The changing of perceptions of floral beauty.
We grow things knowing that this isn’t the way to wealth and fame. We do what we do because it feeds our souls, enriches people’s lives, makes better decisions and outcomes for our planet and contributes to sustaining and anchoring our communities. Remembering the ‘why’ should come across every time we’re given the chance to have a conversation about our work. Our pride and passion for what fills our days, and why it’s important is infectious and should be spread freely.
Figuring out the way that is most authentic to you will be a wealth of its own. Whether you sell wholesale, retail, roadside, at markets or design with your flowers, my hope for all of us is that the conversations we create, the conversions we make, and the content we create, slowly reshape the narrative. Not only the narrative, but that our images and content become the new floral inspiration, replacing the standard alabaster roses of Pinterest and perfectly spherical topiary-like bouquets.
Real flowers are wild, romantic, diverse and imperfect, just like us. That is what it means to be real. Show that as much as you can, everywhere you can, as often as you can. We’ll know we’re there when the photos you’re presented with for a beginning floral meeting, are not only locally sourced, but possibly your own. That’s the goal. That’s the world I want for us. In the meantime, we need to keep on educating, keep on inspiring, keep on sharing our stories and images, and show people that flowers, like people, aren’t meant to be identical. They’re supposed to be as unique and beautiful as we are. Gorgeous.
Elizabeth Fichter is expanding propagation boundaries with nerdy floral science at Queen Bee Blooms Flower Farm in Saint Louis, Missouri. You can find her online at queenbeeblooms.com and on Instagram @queenbeeblooms and on Facebook.