A few years ago, congress passed a resolution declaring July "American Grown Flowers Month." During July, when all 50 states are in their growing season, we recognize the economic and cultural impact of America's cut flower and greens farmers.
The floral industry can be rough on the environment. Between the pesticides and fertilizers used on many large farms, to the carbon foot print of packaging and shipping most of our flowers from South America, there’s no doubt commercial flower farming impacts the health of our earth.
At Lark Floral, we try to reduce our impact by sourcing our flowers locally or American grown whenever possible. Just like a tomato fresh from the farmers market tastes far superior, a dahlia grown and harvested a few miles away, will look wayyyy prettier and last longer than one that has been harvested much earlier and flown half way around the world before it finally arrives at your wedding.
My wonderful wholesaler, DV FLORA, makes sourcing information available on their products so, in many cases, we know exactly which farm grew the flowers we are using. Last July, DV sent me a couple of surprise boxes full of exclusively American grown flowers. I used the flowers they sent to create the designs pictured here. 100% American grown!
If you are interesting in this topic, click HERE to read a fascinating article about the economic and cultural impact of imported flowers. It will make you think twice before grabbing those red roses from Walmart next Valentine’s Day!
If this is an issue that is important for you, mention it in our consultation and we can make sure your flowers are locally sourced. This often means you’ll need to be more flexible about flower varieties and color palette as we would be dependent on what flowers are in season and thriving at our local farms. Some of my favorite flowers to source locally are peonies, dahlias, celosia, strawflower, lisianthus, tulips, hydrangea, sunflower, sweet peas, and snapdragons. So many beautiful choices!
