Sustainable Flowers and Wedding Resources
Support your local flower farmer!
Do you know why flowers are so inexpensive at the grocery store? It’s because grocery stores sell flowers at a loss. They do this because flowers draw people into the store. Unfortunately, this results in consumer expectations that flowers should be cheap. But, as with the local food movement, local flower growers are using sustainable growing practices which require more time and money. So, think about your flowers the way you do your food and support your local flower farmer. When you buy flowers ask where they come from!
Photo credit: David Perry @davidperryphoto (follow him on Instagram, he’s a wonderful photographer!)
Where do the flowers in your Hummingbird Bouquet come from?
All of the flowers used by Hummingbird Bouquets are locally sourced. In the summer, they come from Slippery Slope Flower Farm on Vashon Island, Washington. Please read the Slippery Slope Flower Farm Blog to learn more about the farm and its lovely farmers.
The other source of our flowers is the Seattle Wholesale Growers Market. Their mission: To create a sustainable living for our Pacific Northwest member farms by promoting their vibrant and diverse products to the floral industry. When you shop at the market, you are supporting local flower farmers. SWGM is a wonderful place and they do have times when the public can shop there, so definitely check it out. They are so helpful with special orders like weddings and special occasions. Their suggestions for seasonal flowers have truly made my arrangements better - I love them and am so grateful to them!
Where do 80% of the flowers in the US come from?
Eighty percent of flowers sold in the US are imported from countries like Colombia, Kenya, and the Netherlands. The carbon impact of all their transport is huge. Leading up to Valentine’s Day, 60 cargo planes fly from Colombia and Ecuador to Miami per day for three weeks. To make matters worse, the environmental regulations of other countries allow for pesticide use that is not permitted in the U.S.
The American flower market was gutted during the federal “war on drugs” when the U.S. began subsidizing the South American flower markets in order to reduce the growth of coca and other plants that are made into illegal drugs.
There is good news, Hummingbird Bouquets is one of many flower businesses committed to local, seasonal flowers. It will take time for consumers to get used to different flowers at Valentine’s Day because red roses are not easily grown anywhere in the U.S. in February but many other lovely colors and flowers are.
One of our Valentine’s Day bouquets - all local flowers courtesy of Seattle Wholesale Growers Market.
Foam free floral wedding arches
Sustainable Wedding Resources
About our weddings and sustainability: We love weddings and wedding flowers! We do consultations for full service weddings and we also offer a la carte options for smaller events that can be selected from our website and do not require a consultation.
We do wedding arches and large installations with reusable, compostable natural foam and try to have the minimum possible waste from our wedding products. While we are generally able to avoid purchasing flowers wrapped in plastic, if we have to we are fortunate to have an option to recycle that type of plastic in Seattle. We send as many flowers home with the wedding party as possible (and wanted) and repurpose or compost any remaining or unusable flowers left over from the event. Minimizing waste is very important to us.
Hummingbird Bouquets is committed to seasonal, locally sourced flowers. We grow many of our own flowers and our main source of flowers is from Slippery Slope Flower Farm on Vashon Island, Washington. If we have enough notice about your wedding, we will try to grow specific flowers for your event. But nature is finicky so we are fortunate to have an amazing resource for flowers at Seattle Wholesale Grower’s Market which is a cooperative made up of Pacific Northwest flower farmers. They also source flowers from California, particularly during the winter months.
changing other damaging practices: floral foam and Plastic
It’s hard to describe just how terrible floral foam is. It never biodegrades; it’s bad for the florist designing with it and it’s made with damaging chemicals. We never use it and we found an alternative: Natural Floral Foam (Agra Wool). Not nearly as easy to use as floral foam and much more expensive but so much better for the environment and can be reused. These wedding arches were made with only Natural Floral Foam and chicken wire.
We also use compostable Eco Wraps to keep our bouquets hydrated which we wrap with biodegradable plastic bags; we use recycled paper wrapping and wax paper.
And finally, we collect old vases from people that we reuse and we also pick up any of our vases that clients do not want to keep; this works particularly well with our subscribers and does allow us to purchase some of the super cool modern vases that are out there.
Our partners in Sustainable Wedding Practices
We are a featured florist with Something Green Eco Friendly Wedding Resources and Inspiration.
They even interviewed Cheryl for their blog! Check out their beautiful website and great resources!
And through Something Green, we discovered Grace Kelly Bridal in Olympia that sells only pre-owned dresses. Another great way to have an eco-friendly wedding.