Buy Local and Seasonal for Valentine´s Day

It´s time for my annual reminder.  If you´re planing to order flowers for someone for Valentine´s Day, or any other flowery holiday, please ask if they source from local producers.  Even if they don´t, every year more florists do buy locally and it raises awareness that consumers care about where their product comes from and the environmental and economic impact their purchases have. As a favor to your florist, reserve early.


Local flower farms tend to be small acreage, family run, and many follow organic principals, even if they aren´t certified.  They benefit local economies, and provide vital resources for local wildlife and insect populations which are in critical conditions in many areas.

Since the 1990´s, cheap imported flowers from South America and Africa have had an enormous impact on domestic production, both in the US and Europe.  Items imported from abroad are not required to meet the same labor and environmental standards as those grown domestically. The flowers in your typical supermarket bouquet, in other words, were likely tended by underpaid laborers exposed to harmful pesticides, preserved with chemicals, and cut days or even weeks earlier.

Needless to say, this is hardly beneficial to local economies or the environment.  And, much like the local food movement, Debra Prenzing and the Slow Flower movement have been working to raise awareness in the States of the impact of domestically produced flowers.  Their manifesto:

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 eliminate waste and the use of chemical products in the floral industry

So, should you be of a mind to send someone some lovely flowers for Valentine´s, please consider asking for locally grown, be they American, British or Spanish grown flowers.  Grown not flown.

Some links:

Flowers from the Farm - UK

American Gown Flowers - CAG United States

Floret Flower Directory - US/Canada/Worldwide

Floradeira - Florist/Flower Farm, La Coruña

Indigobygm - Florist, Pontevedra

FlowrswelcomeHome - Florist/Farm, Madrid area

Floritismo - Florist/Farm, Barcelona area